What if Germany had been united by the Hohenzollerns instead of the Hasburgs? In the wake of the Napoleonic Wars, Prussia had emerged as a Great Power, but was never able to wrestle leadership of Germany from Austria, and the rest is history.
Have Joseph II von Habsburg be born mentally disabled. Have Metternich die in his sleep. Have the Wittelsbachs be led by a bunch of opera-obsessed, ineffectual Kings. If not for the Austro-Bavarian partnership, Germany would never have consolidated like it did.
[i'm having the fucking time of my life over here]
Does converting to Catholicism and marrying one of the three times the Hapsburgs were narrowed to a female heir count? The Lorraines, Wessexes, and Hindenburgs married in, but the prestige of the Hapsburg was so great they accepted being adopted by their fathers and mothers in-laws. If this marriage happens with a bright administrator type Hohenzollern, they might be able to keep the name.
What if Germany had been united by the Hohenzollerns instead of the Hasburgs? In the wake of the Napoleonic Wars, Prussia had emerged as a Great Power, but was never able to wrestle leadership of Germany from Austria, and the rest is history.
Having Prussia not ally itself with Russia during the Crimean War would be a solid start. I mean, yes they'd likely need a Great Power ally if they hoped on beating the Hapsburg Empire in a war later on and consolidating political-military influence over the rest of the Germanies later on (And Russia would always be the ideal candidate in that reguard), but alienating the British and French and helping establish the British-sponsored Hapsburg-Ottoman Detente really did ruin their diplomatic reputation and made it impossible for Prime Minister Bismark to execute any international actions. Plus, the curbing of the Russian threat from those reparations and their exclusion from the Black Sea gave Vienna alot more breathing space to focus on the Germanies than she otherwise would have.