Though the assassination of a Minister-President would have been a difficult issue at the best of times, Bismark's death came at a particularly inopportune moment for the Prussian state. For the past four years, King Wilhelm and his closest advisers had come to depend on the man's political accumuine and practicality in reaching across the aisle in order to continue implementing a politically-authoritarian policy in the face of an increasingly-liberal and belligerent Landtag who, now that he was gone, was eager to reassert its lapsed authority. In addition to this internal pressure, they found themselves caught in the middle of a diplomatic crisis as well; Bismark having left his major dimplomatic gambit half-finished after declaring Prussia's exit from the German Confederation following their vote to mobilize against her attempts to occupy the Austrian-administered Duchy of Holstein. With the possibility of war on the horizon, a refusal to approve war appropriations by the legislature; a tactic they'd threatened to use multiple times in the past in order to push for expanded powers, could spell disaster for the King's international ambitions and the basis of the nobility's power base; the elite Prussian Army. If Whilhelm coulden't find a replacement capable of handling this monumental task, and fast, he faced the dire possability of having to concede to the unthinkable; granting more extensive authority to the reformers, accepting limitations to the military, maybe even being forced to reform the franchise; moves that would irrevocably undermine the authority of himself and his heirs.
Barely was the corpse cold that the King, in an emergency meeting of an improvised crown council, sought to gather hist most trusted political allies currently in Berlin in hopes of finding such a sucessor before the leaders of the Landtag could organize a coherent list of demands and united front to push for it. Consisting ofthe Crown Prince Fredrick (considered by many to be the closest thing the liberal German Progressive Party had to ally among the aristocratic inner circle), his War Minister Albrecht von Roon, Helmuth von Moltke, and his fellow Hohenzollern and former Minister Karl Anton, all these figures knew they would never be considered for the position. All of them were too close to the dynasty, considered too politically toxic by the opposition, to be accepted without triggering a power struggle the nation could at the moment ill afford; though von Roon did briefly suggest using the current shadow of war and Bismark's death as an opportunity to implement martial law and try to curtail the influence of the Progressives by silencing their press and purging key administrative supporters. This idea, however, was quickly struck down by Moltke and the Kaiser, who pointed out that calling in the army to quash internal dissent would necessitate withdrawing it from Holstein and would leave the state helpless against the combined forces of the Confederation; a move that would utterly discredit the regeime in the eyes of their Pan-German supporters. There were, however, other acceptable compromise candidates that the Prince had been given the task of assembling; having the greatest insight into what might be palitable to the Landtag.
At the top of this list was the former Minister-President Otto Manteuffel; currently serving in the House of Lords. Though conservative, he was a well-known supporter of the Constitution and defender of the status quo in terms of the powers of legislature, so he couldn't be interpreted as an attempt by the crown to undermine representative rule. He was also highly experienced and possessed a storied political career, particularly in international affairs, and so would have the skills nessicery to potentially defuse the current crisis to Prussia's advantage. Unfortunately, the most well-known story among these was the humiliating Punctation of Olmütz; a moment of deep embaressment in which Wilhelm had been forced to surrender the crown of of a united Germany when it was just within his grasp under the threat of Austro-Russian intervention against his short-lived Erfurt Union, leading to the King immediately announcing he'd never consider the man. The monarch himself favored calling the celebrated national hero, Friedrich von Wrangel, out of his retirement to serve the cause of German unity once again, as he had during the Wars of Liberation and his many notable commands since then. Beloved by the population and army both as "Papa Wrangel", it would have been politically suicidal for the Landtag to reject his appointment... however, at the age of 82 there were deep questions as to weather the man himself would accept the appointment. As nominal commander of the last war against Denmark, his mind had already shown signs of starting to slip, and there was a very real risk that the younger, sharper men of the court would out-manuver and manipulate him into support the reformist cause without actively opposing him.
Ultimately, it was Fredrick himself, with the strong support of Moltke, who's favored candidate was accepted. That man, Frederik August, was a clearly a dependable supporter of monarchy, being the prime claiment to the Duchies of Schleswig and Holstein over which the current crisis was about. Popular among German nationalists as the figurehead of the cause of "liberating their brothers abroad"and fairly young and charismatic if not overly bright, Wilhelm soon saw the masterstroke such an appointment could achieve. Not only would Fredrick be a supportive and pliable minister, but by having him swear an oath of service and fealty to the Prussian throne they would be placing his territorial claims under fealty to the King of Prussia... effectively legitimizing Bismark's action posthumoniously as merely securing the lands of a vassal from potential Danish aggression and creating an indisputable Prussian authority over the region, thereby putting Vienna on the diplomatic back foot. Within the day, a summons was dispatched from the palace to his estate at Kiel, signed with Whilhelm's seal offically declaring their recognition of his titles and offering him the illustrious office in compensation for the "inconvenience" they'd caused him alongside a significant "gift" of gold; paving the way for what many historians credit as the pivotal moment in the history of German unification...