AHC: Austria Joins Germany

With a POD after 1850, and a Germany united under Prussia, your challenge, if you chose to accept it, have Austria, whether it being the region of Austria, or the entire Austrian Empire, joins or is forced to join the German Empire.

How would this work?
 
My first response would be: The Hungarian Revolution of 1848 succeeds, Austria loses its Hungarian territories, and then loses an Alt-Austro-Prussian war, and becomes forced to join Germany afterwards.

But, then I noticed the POD after 1850, and I realized that that wouldn't work. To be honest, it would be hard to get the other states to accept all of Austria-Hungary as part of Germany, although just the Austrian half (incl. Bohemia, etc.) could probably work, which is why I was thinking of a successful Hungarian revolution...
 
My first response would be: The Hungarian Revolution of 1848 succeeds, Austria loses its Hungarian territories, and then loses an Alt-Austro-Prussian war, and becomes forced to join Germany afterwards.

But, then I noticed the POD after 1850, and I realized that that wouldn't work. To be honest, it would be hard to get the other states to accept all of Austria-Hungary as part of Germany, although just the Austrian half (incl. Bohemia, etc.) could probably work, which is why I was thinking of a successful Hungarian revolution...

A Revolution is indeed the easiest solution, and 1848 came very close because the combination of the Italians and the Hungarians simultaneously fighting the Austrians was more than they could handle. It would be hard to inspire another uprising of that scale in the immediacy of the failure of 1848, as the retribution against the "48ers" was severe across Europe.

The simplest way after then, IMO, is to bring forward or push back an Austro-Prussian war to coincide with a general uprising of minority peoples in the Habsburg empire. Perhaps around the year 1860 or so....

If the Italians still go to war for the rest of Northern Italy, and the Hungarians are induced to revolt by the Prussians, then a decisive Prussian attack may push things beyond breaking point. At that point, the smartest (German) politicians in Vienna will start thinking about deals that result in submitting to Prussian hegemony in return for privileged positions in the new regime. A few well placed Prussian bribes amidst the chaos could see Austrian generals surrender their armies without a fight, and for statesmen to form a "capitulation faction" within the Habsburg Court, pressing for peace on Prussian terms. Ceasfire occurs when the Prussian troops reach Vienna

In this scenario, the Russians can be prevented from assisting the Austrians for numerous reasons, not least of which is Russian fury with Austrian betrayal during the Crimean War, still fresh in the tsar's mind (IMO, the Russians could even have been kept out in 1848, but thats another story).

An accommodation might be reached with France that prevents them from opposing it (cessions in Savoy, etc). But after more than 100,000 dead in the Crimea, France is still weakened at this point. Once France and Russia are neutralised, the British will be forced to accept whatever situation unfolds on the continent, thus avoiding a general war to contain the new Germany.

End result is the Conference of Vienna of 1861, where an 'Empire of Hungaria' with a Habsburg monarch, ruling over Hungary, Transylvania, Banat, Slovakia, Croat-Slovenia is created. Germany gets German Austria, Tirol and B-M, with Galicia-Lodomeria & Krakow awarded to Russia. All the powers sign off, and Wilhelm is crowned German Emperor with his investiture in the Hofburg or Schonbrunn, rather than Versailles.

A bit outlandish, but with the right kind of opportunists to take advantage of the situation, a wartime disintegration of Austria like that is possible in the 19C, leaving rump Austria to join Germany.
 
Yeah, doing that with an 1848-era POD is pretty trivial. People at the time seriously mooted the Großdeutsche Lösung.

1850 gets a lot harder. Austria-Hungary became stronger as a single unit, and Prussia became stronger among the other German states. The problem is that after 1848, liberal Austrians identified with the empire more, and it was the conservative nationalists who wanted it to break up and have the German-speaking parts unify into Germany... while in Germany it was the liberals who wanted Austria in and the conservatives who wanted it out.
 

Perkeo

Banned
Do remember that Austria was German until 1866, and even they were kicked out by force, not by their own wishes. So it's not exactly joining but rather not leaving when the loose German confederation becomes a united empire.

As for the challenge, there are three options:
1) German unification under Prussia: Austria is defeated by Prussia, e.g. in the Austro-Prussian War. I don't think Austria will voluntarily subordinate. Perhaps no Ausgleich and thus a Hungarian uprising as a third front will break the neck of the Habsburgs

2) German unification under Austria: Once more Austro-Prussian War, but a different outcome. Unlikely since Austria has no interest in supportig nationalism so long as they hold Hungaria and some Italian territories. What about three Habsburg brothers trying to make themselves kings of German-Austria, Hungaria and Italy?

3) German unification under a Prussian-Austrian alliance: We surely need an external enemy for this. France? Russia? An early Franco-Russian alliance?
 
Do remember that Austria was German until 1866, and even they were kicked out by force, not by their own wishes. So it's not exactly joining but rather not leaving when the loose German confederation becomes a united empire.


And all the states which didn't actually have Prussian guns at their heads [1] voted, and, as far as they were able fought, on the Austrian side in 1866. This of course was in the first instance the decision of the Princes, but reflected the views of their liberal, middle-class parliaments as well. Whatever the drawbacks of including the Austrian Empire in Germany, it was evidently seen as the lesser evil to her exclusion in favour of Prussia.


[1] And even some, like Saxe-Meiningen, that did.
 
Seems to me the 1930's are the easiest. Have everything go as historical until the Anschluss, then have Hitler die (I dunno, choke on something, or not survive some assasination attempt). The subsequent conflagaration ensures Germany is busy for a few years (if need be, kill some more top leaders) so by the time the next war comes around noone thinks that Austria is any less German than Bavaria or Brandenburg, and whoever wins, Austria stays German.
 
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