Question German unification

I am not that familiar with this time in history. So I was hoping someone could shed light as to why when Germany unified, that they did not go for the other option of including Austria?

And as a second question, what if they had made that decision?
 
First, this should be in the Pre-1900 forum.

Second, Prussia wanted to exclude Austria from the reunified Germany. To have the Prussians accepting to be second after the Austrians, you need a POD.
 
You'd probably need to kibosh them in say the 18th century for them to play second fiddle to Osterreich, or somehow have Austria pull a win over them in the Austro-Prussian War.

As for why they didn't try Anschluss earlier, it's because the other sick man of Europe, Austria-Hungary, was still quasi viable and not in the mood to be broken apart. They could possibly have done so if it collapsed, but there would be a bit of a hullabaloo over inviting more Catholics into Germany, which could've tilted politics in Zentrum's favor to at least some degree, them being a party for Catholics at this point in time.
 
Second, Prussia wanted to exclude Austria from the reunified Germany. To have the Prussians accepting to be second after the Austrians, you need a POD.

Don't want to be nitpicky, but not Reunification. Thats happened in 1990 and definitly did not include Austria, nor Prussians.
 
First, this should be in the Pre-1900 forum.

Second, Prussia wanted to exclude Austria from the reunified Germany. To have the Prussians accepting to be second after the Austrians, you need a POD.

You are right. My mistake, I am going to move this to that. Wait, how do I move and or delete this thread?
 
From what I remember Prussia would be damned before it would accept Austria, its rival to be part of Germany, if it had Austria would probably be a major player in Imperial Germany, much like the Prussians OTL. Obviously an idea Prussia wouldn't be happy with.
 
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