Prussia Yields to Austria: German Unity Delayed

Prussia signed the Punctation of Olmutz on November 29, 1850, under Austrian pressure, abandoning its attempt to unify the German states under Prussian leadership and accepting Austrian dominance of the German Confederation. The crisis had begun when Prussia attempted to create the Erfurt Union, a federation of German states under Prussian leadership that would have excluded Austria and redefined the political geography of Central Europe. Austria, backed by Russia, demanded that Prussia abandon the initiative and recognize Austrian supremacy within the existing German Confederation. King Frederick William IV of Prussia, lacking Russian support and unwilling to risk a war he was not certain of winning, capitulated. Prussian diplomats signed the agreement in the Moravian city of Olomouc, and the result was viewed as a national humiliation in Berlin. The liberal and nationalist movements that had been energized by the revolutions of 1848 were disgusted by what they saw as Prussian cowardice, and the conservative establishment recognized that military reform and diplomatic patience would be needed before another attempt at unification could succeed. The diplomatic humiliation fueled Prussian resentment that Otto von Bismarck, who entered Prussian politics shortly after Olmutz, would eventually channel into the wars of unification. When Bismarck provoked the Austro-Prussian War in 1866, the memory of Olmutz was one of the grievances he exploited to justify the conflict. Austria's defeat at Koniggratz ended the question permanently, and Bismarck unified Germany under Prussian leadership in 1871. The Punctation of Olmutz is remembered as the low point of nineteenth-century Prussian diplomacy and the catalyst that made Bismarck's revolution necessary.