After the February Revolutions in France, similar revolutions broke out in central Europe, threatening the Habsburg Empire and the Prussian Monarchy. The German Confederation (see Deutscher Bund) of 1815, which had remained intact under the stringent control of Metternich, was discredited (see Frankfurter Nationalversammlung). The heads and governments of the smaller German states refrained from active resistance to popular demands and so avoided civil war. Bavaria, where King Ludwig I abdicated in favour of Maximilian II, also avoided internal strife.
(1) The Revolution in Austria-Hungary. The heterogeneous nature of the Austrian Empire explains the particularly serious course of the revolution there, which was not confined to popular demands for constitutional government but included demands for national independence. On 12 March Ferdinand I of Austria was confronted in Vienna with a protest march of university students and professors, and on the two following days clashes took place between the populace and the military; the latter proved unreliable, some soldiers joining the crowd. On 15 March the Emperor was sufficiently intimidated to issue edicts promising a liberal constitution, a parliament, and freedom of the press, which had been under severe censorship throughout the Metternich era. Risings in Budapest similarly succeeded by 17 March in inducing the Emperor, as King of Hungary, to give way to demands for a renewal of the old, more liberal, constitution. The concessions granted to the Austrians were extended to Hungary and Hungarian autonomy was recognized. Under their leader Kossuth the Hungarians provoked the Austrian government to an open declaration of war (October) with the aim of attaining complete independence. But the non-Hungarian subjects of Hungary, the Slavs, Serbs, and Croats, rightly feared the consequences of being a minority dependent upon Hungary. Under the leadership of Jellac̆ic̆ they declared war against Hungary, and at a later stage they joined forces with Austria. The sympathies of the Viennese revolutionaries, however, lay with Kossuth, who encouraged them by promising Hungarian support.
The position of the Emperor was already precarious after the concessions made in March. In May he lost still more ground by fresh demonstrations, and sought refuge in Innsbruck. In June his General Windischgraetz succeeded in subduing the Czechs in Prague, and in August General Radetzky defeated the Piedmontese and occupied Milan. Thereupon Ferdinand returned to Vienna, only to flee again in October on the approach of Hungarian troops and fresh risings in Vienna. He abdicated in December in favour of Franz Joseph, his young nephew. That Franz Joseph was able to succeed at all was due to the resolute military action of Windischgraetz, who, on his own initiative, bluntly insisted on the unconditional surrender of the rebellious army and populace, and in November appointed Prince Felix zu Schwarzenberg as Metternich's successor.
Despite the occupation of Budapest, the war against Hungary was by no means decided. The commander of the Hungarian army, A. von Görgey (1818-1916), defeated Windischgraetz (battle of Isaszet, April 1849), and would probably have won the war, had Görgey and Kossuth agreed on a common policy; but of greater importance was the humiliating, but effective, appeal by Franz Joseph to Tsar Nicholas I for military aid. Defeat, revenge, and atrocities ended the Hungarian bid for independence from the Habsburg crown. Italy fared no better. With Schwarzenberg's reactionary rule the Empire returned, for the time being, to its pre-revolutionary state. The most notable men of letters to witness the Viennese Revolution were Grillparzer, Bauernfeld, Nestroy, and Hebbel.
(2) The Revolution in Prussia. The Revolution in Prussia was the result of curious misunderstandings and confusions, for Friedrich Wilhelm IV was too irresolute to risk serious resistance to popular demands. On 18 March he issued a proclamation (Patent) promising to promote the cause of German unity, fulfil the promise of a constitution, and consent to the freedom of the press. Crowds gathered in the forecourt of the royal residence (Schloß) in a gesture of thanksgiving to their sovereign. But the army, which had been on the alert for some days, appears to have mistaken popular intentions and feared hostile demonstrations and violence. Clashes arose as the soldiers tried to clear the forecourt and shots were fired claiming civilian victims, who became martyrs in the eyes of an angry crowd. Believing themselves betrayed by the King, the masses expressed their resentment in street fighting, which threatened to let loose the civil war the King had sought to avoid. In the night of 18/19 March the deeply distressed Friedrich Wilhelm drafted his address to his ‘beloved Berliners’ (An meine lieben Berliner), in which he promised the prompt withdrawal of the troops if the people on their part would abandon the barricades. Friedrich Wilhelm was now defenceless in Berlin. He was obliged to pay his respects in public to the bodies of the civilians which had been carried into the forecourt of the Palace. The events of the March Revolution ended with a fresh royal proclamation (19 March) after the King had ridden through his capital wearing a black, red, and gold armlet (see Schwarzrotgold). But in his eyes this move and his address An mein Volk und an die deutsche Nation (21 March 1848) expressed a new turning-point in German history. His final assertion that Prussia would henceforth identify itself with the German nation (‘Preußen geht fortan in Deutschland auf’) was not meant as a concession of defeat, though it was so understood by his critics (headed by the conservative Royalists, who included Bismarck); Friedrich Wilhelm's intention was to indicate that Prussia was to guide the German nation towards unity. He had to approve the formation of a liberal government and the re-election of the United Diet (Vereinigter Landtag) on the basis of universal and equal manhood suffrage.
On 22 May the duly elected Diet opened its session to discuss the new Prussian constitution. But the opposition of the recently formed conservative Junkerparlament grew as the radical left asserted itself in the Diet. Always afraid of popular moves and at last gladly yielding to pressure by his strong-minded counsellors, the King foiled the liberal constitution, which was modelled on the democratic Belgian constitution of 1831, by appointing a new conservative ministry under Count Brandenburg (5 July 1848). He took care to do this at a safe distance from Berlin, having taken up temporary residence at Brandenburg. Its first action was to dissolve the liberal ministry—without, however, withdrawing all the King's concessions. The Prussian constitution was ratified on 31 January 1850. The United Diet consisted of two chambers (Herrenhaus and Abgeordnetenhaus) chosen by indirect election. The Lower Chamber was granted the right of taxation, but the King retained the executive power, the right to appoint his ministers; he was head of the civil service and the army.
The political orientation of literature which was noteworthy before 1848 (see Junges Deutschland) ceased after the failure of the revolutions. Realistic trends for the next decades become manifest in the writers of Poetic Realism (see Poetischer Realismus) whose aesthetic aim is a balanced, politically unprovocative presentation of society.
