March 18, 1848 – Violence Begets German National Assembly

1848 became the Year of Revolution as nation after nation rose up, questioning their feudal leaders and calling for great populist reforms. The end of the first era of the Industrial Revolution had created a huge body in the Working Class. New ideas such as Nationalism and Socialism expanded, filling the population with demands from their traditional rulers. Revolution began in France, where it toppled King Louis Philippe, and spread throughout Europe as well as Latin America, but nowhere had as dramatic of a change as in Germany.

The German peoples had been largely disunited for as long as history recorded. Romans pitted tribes against one another to maintain vague control, but the people's strength was proven as Goths and Visigoths overran Rome. Otto I carved out the Holy Roman Empire, a confederation that included the German-speaking people as well as other groups. During his conquests of Europe, Napoleon dissolved the antiquated HRE and installed a new system with the Confederation of the Rhine that laid the groundwork for a true German nation. After Napoleon's defeat, the Congress of Vienna created a looser Federal Confederation, presided over by the Austrian emperor. It held a Federal Assembly in Frankfurt, which met weekly and was used to block attempts at liberalizing.

In 1848, Germans charged by nationalism cried for unity. Taxes and censorship spurred the people forward, and cities began to see demonstrations. Nobles, fearful that they might lose everything as Louis Philippe had, quickly bowed to liberal demands, such as freedom of the press, elections, and the right of arms for the people. Most anticipated the liberalism to be temporary and simply wished to ride out the storm.

One of the largest uprisings took place in Berlin, the capital of Prussia, Germany's most powerful nation. The army had initially been used in an attempt to scare the people from the streets. However, the people continued to return to protest, even facing oncoming fire from the army that killed hundreds. Rather than fleeing, the people became more aggressive, fighting back and establishing barricades. King Frederick Wilhelm IV was shocked that his people acted out and immediately agreed to all of their demands, calling for a new National Assembly to be elected through universal male suffrage.

Among those elected was Professor Jacob Grimm. He and his brother, Wilhelm, had become famous after compiling their collection of German folktales, Kinder- und Hausmärchen (“Children's and Household Tales”). The two became professors at the University of Göttingen in 1830 but were forced to leave when they refused to give loyalty oaths to King Ernest Augustus after he had eliminated Hanover's constitution in 1837. Their fame preceded them, however, and the brothers were invited by Frederick Wilhelm to professorships at the University of Berlin. They were also awarded scholarships from the Academy of Science to continue their studies, Wilhelm in mythology and Jacob in philology, together working to create the first German dictionary.

As Jacob left for the Assembly, Wilhelm sent along with him a special annotated edition of their fairy tales. Each story was given a description of its relation to the important work of unifying Germany. Jacob appreciated the gift, and its significance showed how cohesive and effective story is to the human spirit. As he came into the Assembly, Jacob made speeches referencing the stories, often reading them in entirety and showing their perspective on the situation. He made himself into a sort of “whip” for the Assembly, refusing to allow factional ideals to halt any progress.

Jacob's main point to force unification was the Schleswig War. On the southern end of Jutland, a great many Germans lived under the rule of the Danish king. In March of 1848, like the rest of Europe, the Germans began demonstrations to achieve a German government. The Danish king sent 7,000 troops to quell the uprising, and the Prussians reacted by sending troops of their own. Jacob did not rest at having Prussia take up so much responsibility alone and drafted a bill calling for soldiers from every corner of Germany. The Assembly had no clear legal authority to do so, but the positive response from the people forced the nobility to comply. A navy followed on June 14, which would end Danish blockades of German harbors. By the end of June, a massive German force fully garrisoned Schleswig. International pressure called for an end to the war, which was signed at the Treaty of Berlin with the National Assembly approving the annexation of Schleswig into a unified German state with Frederick Wilhelm as Kaiser.

The Assembly's next action was to appease the “Großdeutsche” (Greater German faction), which wished to include Austria. At times, they refused to cooperate with “Kleindeutsche” (Lesser Germany), but Jacob Grimm was able to convince them to be patient and work in steps, as in “The Tailor in Heaven,” who is cast out of paradise because he is not yet ready. In Austria, similar protests had caused the Emperor Ferdinand to abdicate, giving the throne to his nephew Franz Joseph, who immediately proclaimed Austria was indivisible. Jacob contributed to continuing the German revolution there until the rest of Europe became distracted by the Crimean War. In the Austro-German War, the Empire shattered into numerous ethnic states, destabilizing the Balkans but establishing Germany as the great new Central European power.

Through the nineteenth century, Germany would join the new balance of power in Europe and participate in colonial wars in Africa and the Pacific. In the twentieth century, governments worked to suppress uprisings at home and overseas in the next great political movement: socialism.

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In reality, the German National Assembly failed to follow through on the revolution. Grimm, despite his fervent nationalism, did not make much of a show at the Assembly, which disintegrated into factional infighting. After the failure of the First Schleswig War and Frederick Wilhelm refusing the crown (later saying he did not want to receive it “from the gutter”), the movement had clearly fallen out of favor. Germany would not be unified until military successes in the Austro-Prussian War and Franco-Prussian War two decades later.

March 16, 1889 – German-American War Begins in Pacific

As imperialism spread through the Pacific in the nineteenth century, three Western powers settled on the Samoan Islands. Although it was first sighted by the Dutch, the British, Germans, and Americans competed among the local tribes for control of the strategic island chain. Germans established numerous plantations while Britain created a consulship and Americans began trading extensively from posts around Pago Pago harbor. All three nations claimed the entirety of the island group and sold weapons to the locals, sparking a civil war in 1886.

As the war continued among the tribes, the diplomats of Germany, Britain, and America met in attempt to sort out the issue in Washington in 1887. They were unable to come to any agreement, however, and left with no progress made. Instead, more warships sailed for Samoa. In 1889, German foreign minister Count Herbert von Bismarck called for a meeting in Berlin that April for a new try to calm international tensions.

In March, however, a literal storm was brewing. A tropical cyclone of massive proportions rolled toward Apia, and natives warned the fleets anchored in its harbor with tales of a storm that had struck three years before. The captains could clearly see the signs of storms and the telltale plummet in barometric pressure. Sailing out into open sea would give the ships a chance of bracing themselves through the storm. However, each nation looked at each other to move first, and a game of chicken began.

A sudden south-westerly wind came up, pushing the cyclone farther to the north and giving the ships a chance to escape. The large British HMS Calliope managed to push its way to safety, but the smaller Germans and Americans were slower to follow. As they came to the entrance to the harbor on the north side, their engines bolstered by the wind, the two fleets became tangled up. Tempers rose to match the fury of the storm, and ships were fired upon to sabotage engines. Disabled ships were pushed back by the storm tide and smashed against the reef to the south. Hundreds ended up dead on both sides, and each blamed the other. The scuffle became a full battle, and the Americans became overwhelmed by the Germans who were able to call up reinforcements from their plantations.

Americans became infuriated. While former President Grover Cleveland had been anti-imperialist, Benjamin Harrison's term had begun eleven days before, and he took this as his first great act. After leading Congress to declare war, Harrison called the American Navy to action, assembling a fleet in San Francisco to retake Samoa once and for all.

Meanwhile, across the Atlantic, thirty-year-old Kaiser Wilhelm II had been on the throne less than a year. He had already begun to chafe with his ministers, particularly Chancellor Otto von Bismarck. Bismarck suggested patience and to continue the planned meeting, but Wilhelm saw this war as a chance to prove German military prowess and strength in colonizing. He called for the resignation of both Bismarcks and assembled his own military advisers.

Both nations hurried to modernize their fleets, stalling the expansion of the war for months. Harrison's fleet succeeded in chasing off the Germans in Samoa, but the Kaiser was ready to dispatch a new wave of his own, and the Kaiserliche Marine was twice the size of the US Navy. Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson had moved to Samoa on an extended tour of the Pacific only months before and wrote a detailed account of the battles at sea as well as the chaos among native factions. Newspapers picked up the violent tales and contributed to the failing popularity of the war. Nearly one-third of American farmers had German backgrounds, and anti-German sentiment spread the violence to the United States as well. German immigration had halted, as had a good deal of business in trade. Harrison's “first great act” turned into a political nightmare from which he could not back down.

Finally, in 1892, Grover Cleveland was swept back into the White House, vowing to end the war. Britain hosted peace talks, saving face for both nations. While the war ended, German-American relations did not heal rapidly. Decades' worth of immigrants bent on coming to America were refused, instead heading to Germany's many colonies in Africa and the Pacific, where Samoa had been split into east-west spheres of influence. Wilhelm claimed victory in the war and successfully pursued his ideals of colonies and navy, which made a stunning show at the Fleet Review in his grandmother Victoria's Diamond Jubilee.

The United States, meanwhile, struggled in an economic depression. The nation yearned for hope, and they found it in McKinley's renewed imperialism. The Spanish-American War reaffirmed America's reputation and brought Puerto Rico, the Philippines, Guam, and Cuba into the fold. When the World War broke out in Europe, however, war-weariness from Americans already facing quagmire in Cuba and the Philippines refused to participate. It finally ended in 1919 as a general draw, and Wilhelm II seemed to have his fill of war, instead focusing on empire-building in Germany's many colonies.

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In reality, the Apia cyclone hit the island directly, and the German and American ships had no hope of escaping. Over 200 sailors perished as ships were tossed onto the shore, slammed against one another, and torn apart by wind and waves. The disaster eased the tension, which later returned and was finally solved in 1899 with the Tripartite Convention dividing the islands.

July 31, 1919 – Weimar Constitution Reexamined

After the fall of the German Emperor in the Great War, the revolution in Germany led to a greatly progressive document for its new constitution in the city of Weimar. It called for sweeping checks and proportional representative government, ideas evolved during the strong years of Germany before the war.

However, throughout the nation, there were a growing number of “political parties”, a democratic ideal that had not yet affected Germany. Historical reflection on parties from the first republic of neighboring France showed a time of strife that would follow as extremists fought for their own mad notions. They needed strong leadership initially to avoid this, or else they might end up with a bloody revolution, a Reign of Terror, or even fall to a Napoleonic tyrant of their own.

Just before final approval, the National Assembly voted to take a final review in committee of this problem of extremism. After much discussion, they decided to postpone truly proportional representative government until the finances of the country were balanced and the war reparations paid. Until then, Germany would have tiered elections aimed toward moderate, unified leadership. To hold back single-handed power from another kaiser, Article 48 (giving the president power to "take all necessary steps" in the case that "public order and security are seriously disturbed or endangered") was more carefully defined and limited to true moments of panic or war.

The new constitution was ratified and came into affect in August of 1919. When elections came around, it was seen that the radicals on both the left and the right were taking wild stands. Fortunately, the follow-up elections allowed for control over different angles and solid centrists to take command. Many former low-level leaders before the war were returned to office, and they set about to restore the strength of Germany despite the odds.

Initial problems broke out as violence challenged the strength of the new republic. The communist Red Guards and the right-wing Freikorps both instigated attacks on each other as well as civilians. Rather than simply arresting whomever they could to try to bottle up a torrent, the German government set about on a program of “Rationalization” where disagreeing parties were drawn together to discuss their differences. While that served as the cover, many times the plan was used to pit the extremists against each other, such as the Freikorps paramilitary being used to bring down an attempted communist coup in Bavaria. Whenever possible, the government would then arrest leaders and exile them, sending many to Soviet Russia or increasingly conservative Italy.

With balance vaguely achieved (though the process was continual... a young artist named Adolph Hitler was arrested in Bavaria a number of times and exiled to Austria in 1923, for example), the government focused on its economic policies. Hyperinflation was controlled by freezing prices and continually discussing reparation treaties with other countries, gradually talking down the amount rather than paying fully as international tempers cooled.

In the 1920s, elections would broaden as the Goldene Zwanziger was in swing. Few were interested in extremism while the country grew prosperous. As the markets crashed and the Great Depression set in, however, the political climate changed. Still, with even its short tradition of leadership, the dark age only strengthened the German peoples' faith in its government. A gradual system of social nets began to grow, mirroring the public works projects put up in the United States by their president FDR.

The world economy would gradually pick itself back into place in the 1940s, helped a good deal by the international demands for food, steel, and cloth in the Italian campaigns in Africa (to which many German right-wing expatriates would go, alleviating unemployment) and the Pacific War. Fought by the Japanese against the Americans, British, and French, the financial and material needs of their countries would give Germany a boost back into solvency. In fact, the war would even prove the shortcomings of the League of Nations, which would be strengthened by the Treaty of Kyoto in 1944.

When the Soviet Wars of the 1950s broke out, Germany found itself on the front lines after the conquest of Poland. The armies of Stalin and later Khrushchev, began marching west and south, conquering and even entering the Mediterranean. Joining with former enemies France, England, and the United States, Germans fought for their nationhood, holding out for long years against sieges and bombings by Soviet forces. With the defeat of Soviet Russia and the fall of communism in 1971, Germany and the Allies set to rebuilding the world.


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In reality, the Weimar Constitution was academically brilliant, but did not have the practicality for the real world. Hyperinflation would cripple Germany, which would be fought over by extremists each thinking they had the best idea. Through propaganda and chutzpa, the once tiny National Socialist party would gain power under Hitler, strengthening Germany but forever changing the history of the world.