Mostly inspired by a EUIII game where, as Austria, I own or have as vassal most of Germany. Is an Austrian Germany possible, with Vienna as the capital? What would have to change in order for this to come about, beside nerfing Prussia?
Mostly inspired by a EUIII game where, as Austria, I own or have as vassal most of Germany. Is an Austrian Germany possible, with Vienna as the capital? What would have to change in order for this to come about, beside nerfing Prussia?
If the Habsburgs handled the Thirty Years War better, then Austria could easily have ended the war before the French or even Swedish invasions, and set up a centralized state. It was the failure of the Habsburgs to win the war that saw Germany remain divided while the other states in Europe centralized.
A big factor getting in the way of an Austrian-led Germany at the time is the fact that most of the northern-German states were protestant while the Holy-Roman Emperor of the time, Ferdinand II, not was stupid he was a catholic-bigot.
There was hage opportunity to archive this in 1848! All Austria had to do was to support the National Assembly and to accept the Imperial Crown.
I certainly don't think it's impossible, but the biggest problem (presuming that the PoD is early enough to butterfly Wilhelm I's kingship in Prussia, or else things are pretty hopeless for Austria in my opinion) is Hungary. The Habsburgs had other non-German domains too, but Hungary was the big one. As long as the Habsburgs want to keep their huge multi-ethnic empire they can't really get behind pan-Germanism, which precludes an Austrian-led Germany (I wouldn't call a German Confederation which is dominated by Austria but doesn't get remotely centralised "Germany" any more than I would call the HREGN "Germany").
I'd think, then, that the Habsburgs would have to lose Hungary for this to occur. The obvious candidate for that is the Hungarian rebellion in the Revolutions of 1848. Give Russia some reason or other to not help Austria, and perhaps also make the rebellions in Austria proper more severe, and that might put an end to Austrian control of Hungary. Though there would be pterodactyl-sized butterflies from such a weakening of the Habsburgs and an independent, presumably fairly liberal state emerging in Eastern Europe, it would give the opportunity for Austria to jump on the pan-Germanist bandwagon as long as (as you pointed out) Prussia, which is probably a superior candidate to Austria even after Hungary is lost because of its greater Germanocentrism, is suitably weakened and/or isolated from the other German states.