AH Challenge: German-Austrian War

What circumstances would come up that would cause Germany and Austria to go to war, preferably around 1881?

I had the idea for that alternate history pet project, where Germany and Austria somehow go to war. Germany annexes Austria and the Sudentenland, while new countries, Hungary, Slovenia, and Bosnia, come up. This somehow leads to that Yugoslav Union thing.

Any idea about how by any means short of intervention by the Alien Space Bats, could Germany and Austria-Hungary go to war?
 
Because the Germans wouldn't want a French-friendly leader on Austria's throne, that's why. They'd do their best to stop this, and that would probably include war.

Tank ju!

Now I have a POD. There was an assasination attempt in 1853, maybe there's another in 1881.
 
To make things easier, make the revanchist and semi-authoritarian Boulanger rise to power in France. That would scare the shit out of the Germans and encourage them to declare war at the first opportunity. If Rudolf takes the crown in Austria at that time (let's say after a horrible assassination of Franz Joseph... Rudolf is not involved but the Germans suspect of him) and begins to be courted by Boulanger, Berlin would decide to strike first against Austria and then against France. Problem is that Russia would most likely intervene on the side of Germany, and this will probably degenerate in a general European war. If you are interested in an Austro-German War only, then forget about this.
 
To make things easier, make the revanchist and semi-authoritarian Boulanger rise to power in France. That would scare the shit out of the Germans and encourage them to declare war at the first opportunity. If Rudolf takes the crown in Austria at that time (let's say after a horrible assassination of Franz Joseph... Rudolf is not involved but the Germans suspect of him) and begins to be courted by Boulanger, Berlin would decide to strike first against Austria and then against France. Problem is that Russia would most likely intervene on the side of Germany, and this will probably degenerate in a general European war. If you are interested in an Austro-German War only, then forget about this.

Well I noticed the AI of Russia always sides with Germany. In regular playtests where I let the AI just kill eachother, France will make some minore advances into Alsace-Lorraine, but then later in the war it seemed like Germany started pumping all it's troops into France.

After Germany takes Vienna, Austria-Hungary basically collapses and gets gobbled up by Bohemia, Serbia, the Yugoslav Union, etc. They should prolly only have a couple provinces remaining after they get gobbled up by their sucessor states.
 
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