AHC: Germany with Austria, without Prussia

Your challenge, with a PoD between 1648 and 1871, is to create a united German state that includes Austria but not Prussia, in the same way that OTL Germany includes Prussia but not Austria (not in the sense of physical borders but in the sense of the political entity having been incorporated into it).
 
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In 1648, Prussia was still the electorate of Brandenburg-Prussia. Brandenburg being the region around today's Berlin, historic Prussia being a stretch of land just west of today's Gdansk. Although German, Brabdenburg-Prussia was no part of the Holy Roman empire and in fact, never would be. Although it would by 1815 have inherited some smaller counties in the western part of Germany, about 70% of its territory lay east of Berlin.

Scenario 1): Historic Prussia -the stretch of land between Stettin and Gdansk- and not Berlin takes the lead in Prussia-Brandenburg and the state is focused on Poland, Lithonia and Russia then on 'Germany'. After the Napoleonic wars, they show no interest in uniting the German states, leaving the job to the Austrians. Eventually they will be either swallowed up by Poland, pressed into joining the new great-German commonwealth or split between the two.

2) Unification starts as a kind of European Economic Union of the states of the Holy Roman Empire. Eventually -like the EU- they morph from a strictly economical union to a political federacy. As Prussia was never part of the HRE, and mostly way out east for most of the smaller German states, it is never invited in. Not being part of the HRE, most states view it as not part of the German world, much like they would view the Swiss.
 
In 1648, Prussia was still the electorate of Brandenburg-Prussia. Brandenburg being the region around today's Berlin, historic Prussia being a stretch of land just west of today's Gdansk. Although German, Brabdenburg-Prussia was no part of the Holy Roman empire and in fact, never would be. Although it would by 1815 have inherited some smaller counties in the western part of Germany, about 70% of its territory lay east of Berlin.

Scenario 1): Historic Prussia -the stretch of land between Stettin and Gdansk- and not Berlin takes the lead in Prussia-Brandenburg and the state is focused on Poland, Lithonia and Russia then on 'Germany'. After the Napoleonic wars, they show no interest in uniting the German states, leaving the job to the Austrians. Eventually they will be either swallowed up by Poland, pressed into joining the new great-German commonwealth or split between the two.

2) Unification starts as a kind of European Economic Union of the states of the Holy Roman Empire. Eventually -like the EU- they morph from a strictly economical union to a political federacy. As Prussia was never part of the HRE, and mostly way out east for most of the smaller German states, it is never invited in. Not being part of the HRE, most states view it as not part of the German world, much like they would view the Swiss.

Maybe to keep Prussia out of Germany it gets involved in Poland and with such a large portion of their population being Polish they are seen as more Slavic.
 
Eventually they will be either swallowed up by Poland, pressed into joining the new great-German commonwealth or split between the two.

In an interesting bit of ahistorical irony.

But I think they would eventually join the commonwealth. Would there be a WW1? There would be too much butterflies to account for.

On the other, fact is that united Germany, however that came about, is against the interest of France. They may prop up Prussia as they did IOTL. Russia is definitely not going to be interested in alliance with Austria. Balkan frictions would see to it. Britain may remain on the Austrian side, though. It would be interesting indeed...
 
In an interesting bit of ahistorical irony.

But I think they would eventually join the commonwealth. Would there be a WW1? There would be too much butterflies to account for.

On the other, fact is that united Germany, however that came about, is against the interest of France. They may prop up Prussia as they did IOTL. Russia is definitely not going to be interested in alliance with Austria. Balkan frictions would see to it. Britain may remain on the Austrian side, though. It would be interesting indeed...

Russia would have to decide between going against Prussia - Poland or Germany (who inherits Austria's position in the Balkans and so a rival to Russia).

If France, Russia and Prussia go up against Germany and Britain then Germany would probaly lose. However Prussia might go allied with Germany like Austria and Germany OTL.
 
In my opinion Prussia was propped up because France had lost the Polish Succession War. Otherwise, France would've helped Poland take over Brandenbourg.
 
...against the interest of France.

If a stronger Austria looked east towards the Balkans and Constantinople rather than towards Italy and France then I think France would not worry so much.

What if we saw the creation of the AHE earlier with Austria pushing the Muslims back out of eastern Europe in a series of battles in the 17th and 18th centuries?
 
Second Partition of Poland: Catherine decides she prefers Poland as a separate buffer state; Austria decides to go for Bavaria; Austria and Russia gang up on Prussia, splitting Prussia itself from Brandenburg.
 
In my opinion Prussia was propped up because France had lost the Polish Succession War. Otherwise, France would've helped Poland take over Brandenbourg.
What? France didn't lose the Polish Succession war. Or maybe you call gaining Lorraine and France's ally Spain gaining Naples and Sicily a loss.:eek:
Who cares really which bottom sits on the Polish throne. :D
 
Lorraine was already occupied by France.
As it had been on multiple occasions in the past. It's only after the war of the Polish succession that a treaty implementing future French rule was put in place. I call Lorraine a pretty nice prize, which it was really, until WW1 at least. :)
 
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