What if, for whatever reason, the coalitionaries decide to punish France a bit more, making Alsace-Lorraine an independent state?
The reasons for the frontiers proposed are similar to OTL: the German speaking Alsace plus Metz as a fortress, maybe also Belfort. Probably there would be quite a number of confederation troops stationed in the various fortresses there.
I assume it would be given a prince from a German house, and I also assume it would be a member of the German confederation. Now would it become a Luxemburg, establishing a line of neutral states between Germany and France with France probably being more irredentist?
Or would it someday voluntarily join German unification? What about the Zollverein?