1853

Prokesch, specialist in Eastern affairs, replaced Thun in Frankfurt. EF: Bismarck came to despise and distrust Prokesch even more than he had Thun. Before he arrived, he said: 'I think of him the way Old Fritz thought about the first Cossacks he saw: “That's the kind of —— we're up against here.' Prokesch hated him too: '... an arrogant, mean disposition full of swollen-headed self- conceit, with no awareness of law, lazy, lacking in sound knowledge ... a skilful sophist and word- twister full of petty and underhand resources; full of envy and hatred against Austria, hence also his continuous campaign against the presidential powers; a non-believer but one who carries his Protestantism like a banner.'

Bismarck wrote to Gerlach advocating a more hostile attitude to Austria. Conservatives in Berlin were too contemptuous of Napoleon, there was counterproductive sneering about his marriage in the Kreuzzeitung. 'I am convinced that it could be a great misfortune for Prussia if her government should enter an alliance with France, but even if we make no use of it, we ought never to remove from the consideration of our allies the possibility that under certain conditions we might choose this evil as the lesser of two.' By removing the impression of implacable hostility, Prussia could regain the 'freedom of position that our illustrious ruling house has in the past used successfully for the expansion of its power.' OP: some historians argue he changed his mind about the Austrian alliance after Crimea but this is wrong, he changed his view over winter 1852-3 and later used the Crimean War 'to justify a policy actually arrived at on other grounds' (OP p87). He wanted Prussia to float freely without commitments to either Austria or France, play them off against each other to see what could be gained. Some time later in the 1850s (OP does not give date): 'In the final analysis, the influence of a power in peace depends upon the strength that it can develop in war and on the alliances with which it can enter into the conflict... The conquest of influence in Germany depends entirely upon the belief among the confederate states in the possibility, probability, or certainty that Prussia could count on foreign alliances in the event of war.'

Austro-Prussian Treaty: The Zollverein was renewed for 12 years, Prussia agreed 'to reconsider after 1860 Austria's bid for an economic union' (Pflanze). Prussia, with the skilled Delbruck handling negotiations, had defeated the Bruck-Schwarzenberg plan for a customs union by insisting on tariffs too low for Austria to accept (without intolerable pressure on her infant industries) then threatening to withdraw unless the lesser states accepted Prussia's terms (OP p27). In 1852, Prussia had secured a trade deal with Hanover and then threatened to abandon the Zollverein unless others renewed on Prussian terms. EF & Gall: the Hanover deal was September 1851. Carr: under pressure from other members Prussia negotiated a commercial treaty with Austria that was relatively generous in some ways: zero import duties on Austrian raw materials and some semi-manufactured goods and preferential treatment for some other manufactured goods, plus MFN status in respect of new tariff concessions given to other states. Over the next few years Austria liberalised and modernised in various ways but not as fast as Prussia. In 1859 access to trades and professions was freed of restrictions.

Showalter: Zollverein exports to Austria doubled in 8 years to over 1/3 of the Empire's international trade. Austria exported much less in return. The MFN clause gave Prussia leverage — it could cut tariffs and make Austria's industries vulnerable to British and French competition. Austria was held back by its bureaucracy and large debt that attracted capital away from industry.

Gall: The negotiations were either direct or via the Zoll institutions; the Diet and Bismarck had little to do.

Russia claimed the right to protect Orthodox Christians in the Ottoman Empire.

'Turkish resistance to Russia's demand for a protectorate over the Christian population in the Ottoman Empire led to Russian occupation of the Danubian principalities' (OP). Russia crossed Pruth river on 31/5 then occupied Moldavia and Wallachia (JS).

To Ludwig Gerlach: the Bund would never be 'anything other than an insurance (and a poor one) against war and revolution'. Cf. to Gerlach, 12/51.

Heydt initiated a statute prohibiting child labour under 12 and limiting the hours of children 12-14, prohibiting night work, requiring 3 hours of schooling for under 15s. At the time child labour in England and France was prohibited under 8. (Cf. February 1849.)

Palmerston told Malmesbury that he favoured 'decided measures against Russia' but Aberdeen opposed.

(David Brown) The Porte officially rejected Russia's demands.

Commodore Perry entered Edo Bay intending to force Japan to open trade as Britain had done in China.

Gerlach writes to Bismarck: Manteuffel says that Goltz will only enter ministry if he, Gerlach, is replaced. Goltz is supported by Bethmann-Hollweg's large fortune.

Russia entered the Ottoman Empire. Palmerston argued for naval intervention. Aberdeen wanted negotiation. Clarendon, Foreign Secretary, caught between Cabinet tensions.

(Gall) Bismarck suggested to Manteuffel a delay in commitment viz the Eastern situation - he couldn't see 'why without a cogent reason or strong inducement of any kind we should have to rush into taking sides', certainly not with Austria without a clear quid pro quo. 'The cases where in European politics Austria needs us or fears us ...[are] the only ones where we can make progress in German politics... If only I could hold this daily before His Majesty like a “My Lord, remember the Athenians”.' [What does this reference mean?!] Armed neutrality 'if possible in association with the other German states and Belgium ... would be a position in accordance with our interests and dignity and one that would lend fresh vigour to our influence in non-Austrian Germany'. He hoped Manteuffel's 'quiet cool-headedness' would not 'yield to the excitement of other advisers ... purely for the glory of having been involved' — but 'if we can get something out of it, that's different'.

The Vienna Note — output of a conference of Austrian, French and British diplomats, proposed a settlement, rejected by Turkey. (Details only became public in August, Derby worried that vacillation was encouraging Russia, cf. Hawkins p79.)

Autumn Cholera swept Britain. Palmerston pushed for public health measures in cities, sewers, drains. The expense of dealing with an epidemic far exceeded the expense of preventing it, he argued (cf. covid). Arguments in British Cabinet re how to deal with Russia. Aberdeen brought forward franchise reform partly to keep Russell on board (Brown).

Offered minister of state in Hanover. Replied that he could do it only if Hanover would go 'completely hand in hand with Prussia. I could not take off my “Prussianity” like a coat.'

Around then Manteuffel tried to resign after FW had blown up at him. FW said no: 'I am really a harmless creature but a very harassed one, and I've got nerves.' Barclay: 'Prematurely ageing, nervous, frequently depressed, and increasingly suspicious, he was keenly aware that many of his subjects — especially high-ranking ones — held him in scorn and contempt. A voracious reader of newspapers, after 1848 he became hypersensitive to what he regarded as personal affronts from journalists and other mediators of public opinion.' He knew it would be extremely hard to revive his pre-1848 plans. 'As the burdens of his office and his feelings of guilt weighed more heavily upon him, he craved more than ever the intimate company of old friends and a regular daily routine.' Given his dislike of Berlin post-1848 he stayed mostly at the three palaces of Potsdam, Sanssoucci, and Charlottenburg. He and the queen liked a routine. They had breakfast 7:30-8 with Leopold (what became known as 'the coffee report'). After 1848 the former first secretary of the cabinet ministry was now responsible to the Minister President and the veteran official who headed that section, August Costenoble, held the title of State Ministerial Counsellor. With the right to report directly to the King he served as liaison between the ministers and the King. After 1850, Manteuffel increasingly allowed Costenoble to handle routine ministerial reports on his own. FW spent much of his time in the 1850s on his architectural projects which were almost all unfinished, 'a kind of metaphor for the monarchy in the 1850s: imposing but fragmentary.' He also spent time reorganising the court, titles and uniforms again. He met roughly monthly with the cabinet in Crown Council, usually at Bellevue Palace, at which he talked too much. He constantly undermined and infuriated his officials and ministers by saying one thing then undoing it behind their backs, and with his frequent tantrums. He constantly manoeuvred between different factions. Court intrigue was intense throughout the 1850s. Lord Bloomfield remarked in 1854: 'There is perhaps no court in Europe at the present moment where such a maze of intrigue is being carried out as at Berlin... The King thinks that by not avowing his partiality for any particular party, by playing fast and loose with all, that he maintains his own independence and freedom of action, and though he pleases none he also quarrels with none.' Ludwig Gerlach wrote to Leopold 16 July 1852: 'All we can do is accept the anarchy, as the French say; we must accommodate ourselves to the fact that it exists and that we can't get rid of it. Anarchy isn't totally intolerable for us. We've more or less got used to it.'(Barclay p229ff)

FW letter to Franz Joseph: He complained he'd been forced to 'take an oath to a miserable, French-modern constitution!!!!' but 'it happened, and my word is sacred, and I will not break it. But with the help of the very laws to which I swore ... I will replace and kill the “French ideologies” with real German ständisch institutions... However, as long as we are afflicted by the French constitution, and especially as we free ourselves from it, we still need majorities!!'

The Sultan declared war on Russia, encouraged by Britain and France. The Austrian Foreign Minister Buol was a) alarmed by Russian troops around the Danube, b) saw a chance to shut Russia permanently out of the Balkans and increase Austrian power there.

Conservative ministers opposed him, Franz Joseph was dubious. Britain had long argued that the European balance required the preservation of the Ottoman Empire. In 1841, Britain and France had barred Russian access to the Mediterranean in the London Straits Agreement (all warships were barred from the Straits except the Sultan's allies during wartime).

Gall (p122): hardcore conservatives in Vienna, like in Berlin, wanted an alliance with Russia and partition of Balkans into Russian/Austrian spheres of influence. The liberals around Buol, like the Wochenblatt network around Wilhelm, preferred alliance with the West and Austrian protectorate over the whole Balkans. A network of Schwarzenberg and Metternich fans preferred armed neutrality and watching for the chance to consolidate and extend the Bund.

Pourtales to Bethmann-Hollweg: 'Bismarck is continually using and abusing his party colleagues. To him they are ... post-horses on which to ride to the next stage. His knightly exterior hides nothing but a Judas and I will not go one step of the way with him.' Gall: the verdict of 'opportunist loner' was very much in the air and very damaging. Bismarck said of Pourtales that he was one of 'the thickest numbskulls I have ever come across ... with a faint touch of church, salon, scholarship and brothel about him'.

The Battle of Sinope: Russian navy destroyed Ottoman fleet. To Gerlach: 'We are in the same position with regard to the Gothaer [moderate/old liberals] as were Louis XIII and XIV to the German Protestants. At home we have no use for them, but in the small states they are the only elements that want anything to do with us.' OP: Richelieu had exploited Lutheran Protestants against the Habsburgs, Bismarck was suggesting a similar move.

Palmerston resigned as Home Secretary. This was ostensibly over differences re extending the franchise. There were also big foreign policy differences. Cabinet ministers and the public thought foreign policy was the real reason for the split. Palmerston wanted a tougher approach to Russia. He argued autumn 1853 that Turkey was not a 'dying power' and remained crucial to the balance of power.

(Barclay) Prussia joined Austria, France and Britain in a note to Russia calling for the maintenance of the integrity of the Ottoman Empire.

Bismarck-Gerlach: 'Our politics have no other exercise room than Germany, not least because of the way we have grown and intertwined with it and Austria hopes desperately to use this fact for itself. There is no room for us both as long as Austria makes its claims. In the long run we cannot coexist with each other. We breathe the air out of each others' mouths; one must yield or must be 'yielded' to the other. Until then we must be enemies. I regard that as an 'un-ignorable' fact (if you will pardon the word), however unwelcome it may be.'

(Gall) To Leopold Gerlach (but this may have been 5/57 see below): 'We cannot make an alliance with France without a certain degree of meanness, but in the Middle Ages very admirable people - even German princes - used a drain to make their escape, rather than be beaten and strangled' (AJPT). Gall quotes similarly ('thrashed or throttled') but says this sentence was in a letter to Leopold Gerlach 19-20/12/53. (In 1853 Ludwig Gerlach referred to the 1848 revolutions — conservatives had 'seized the artillery of the revolution and turned it against the revolution itself, via public speeches, the free press and political organisation'.)

To sister Malwine, he sneered of the Bund: 'That well-known song of Heine's, “oh Bund, du Hund, du bist nicht gesund”[oh Bund, you dog, you are not healthy], will soon be adopted by unanimous resolution as the national anthem of the German people.'