Chapter 79: The Dirtiest Congress
The Frankfurt Preparatory Committee, with their faces looking very grim, faced a strong protest from the Austrian delegation, who argued that the Austrian Empire should be considered as a unified entity.
The representatives at the Frankfurt Congress were allocated seats based on population. In theory, one representative was elected for every fifty thousand people. If the non-German-speaking regions were not excluded, this conference would become an exclusive platform for Austria.
During this period, the states of Schleswig-Holstein and Holstein still belonged to Denmark, while Austria also controlled parts of Italy. In terms of population, Austria surpassed the combined population of the smaller German-speaking regions.
The protests could be shrugged off since, after all, regions like Hungary did not belong to the German-speaking area, and they were not afraid of engaging in debates.
However, it was unexpected that the Austrian delegation would cleverly leak the information to the journalists, openly revealing the conference’s hidden agenda.
Due to the influence of the Zollverein (German Customs Union), Prussia, the most industrially advanced among the German states, held significant influence among the capitalists. This conference indeed displayed a clear bias.
At this point, everyone understood that the Austrian delegation was deliberately causing disruptions. How can Austrians be excluded from participating in the conference?
Can this still be considered a preparatory parliament for Germany? I reckon the Austrian delegates would be delighted to leave. Originally, this parliament had very little legitimacy, and with a missing piece, it would become a laughingstock.
“Ladies and gentlemen, we must take action. The recent public opinion has been highly unfavorable to us. If it continues, the enemy's conspiracy will succeed!” said Merlin with seriousness.
The exposure of their dark history by the media did not raise their vigilance. After all, capitalists worldwide are cut from the same cloth. Who doesn’t have a dark history?
Now their biggest concern was the trouble caused by the Austrian delegation. As the largest state in the German region, Austria often plays the role of the leading figure.
Regardless of their willingness, Austria’s influence among the German states is enormous. A parliament without Austria's participation would never gain public acceptance.
“Then why don't we just change the name to ‘Lesser German Congress’ and kick the Austrians out!” proposed a representative from Prussia.
“Impossible! Winstor, you're trying to divide the Great German Empire. If it's just the Lesser German Congress, then we will withdraw too!” objected the representative from Bavaria.
The main purpose of this congress was to expand the political influence of the bourgeoisie. Unifying the German territories was actually secondary, and the Frankfurt Congress was not as historically significant as described in books.
Otherwise, even the Kingdom of Prussia wouldn’t recognize this conference. It has become excessively idealistic, expanding the rights of capitalists without any feasibility.
The interests of capitalists are not the same. Capitalists from different regions and industries often have diverging interests.
Establishing a smaller German Empire aligns with the interests of capitalists in northern Germany. As they can avoid competition from Austrian capitalists.
However, it’s different for many capitalists in southern Germany, especially in the Kingdom of Bavaria. The local economy has close ties with Austria, and severing those ties would be a disaster for them.
Due to the protests from the Austrian delegation, the conference hasn’t even started yet, so the option of resolving issues through voting doesn’t exist. If they lose the support of representatives from southern Germany, there would be no point in continuing this conference.
……
The bourgeoisie are naturally inclined to compromise. After a week of arguments, they finally reached a compromise. They agreed to let representatives from Bohemia and Hungary join the congress, but with some limits on their quotas.
They set a maximum limit for the number of representatives from each state. No state could have more than 200 representatives. Only Austria and Prussia had that many.
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Of course, there will be more squabbles to come. Austria and Prussia, being the biggest states in Germany, will definitely want equal status.
The Austrian delegation, led by Andersen, was determined to cause trouble. How could they possibly back down?
They insisted that Austria must have the most representative seats. After all, Austria had the largest population, and in those days there were no professional statistics to accurately determine how many German-speaking people were in the Austrian region.
The Prussian delegates, who wanted to attain equal status with Austria, naturally refused. It was known that this congress was orchestrated by an internal interest group in Prussia with the aim of excluding Austria.
Under Andersen's leadership, the Austrian delegation engaged in a tug-of-war that quickly escalated into a territorial conflict between North and South Germany, involving all the representatives.
The dispute continued until June, and the Austrian delegation gradually found themselves at a disadvantage. However, it didn't matter much, as by this time the scandal-ridden Frankfurt Congress had become a joke.
The Vienna Daily described it as a “feast of capitalists” and even featured an illustration of a group of overweight capitalists wielding knives and forks while slaughtering a cow.
The Neue Rheinische Zeitung (New Rhenish Newspaper) published an article by Engels strongly criticizing the Frankfurt Congress, mocking it as a “conference for the distribution of interests among capitalists.”
The Munich Post even conducted a series of reports on the Frankfurt Congress, providing detailed profiles of all the attending members. Undoubtedly, the focus was on exposing their dark histories.
In the end, this conference was described as the “dirtiest congress in history,” and there was no way to whitewash it. All the representatives who attended the conference were tainted. This included scholars, civil servants, and members of society, with no exceptions. Electoral fraud was the biggest stain on their history.
For example, a certain representative was elected with 30,000 votes, but there were fewer than a hundred participants in the voting. In another case, in a certain region, there was only one candidate in the election, who was automatically elected with all the votes...
In summary, it was electoral fraud. This election lasted less than a week from start to finish, and in many places, there was not even enough time to transmit information, let alone prevent manipulation.
Experts and scholars formed groups to criticize the election from a technical standpoint. For example, newspapers reported that the elections were held in a certain location, and the next day the voting began, leaving no time for proper preparation.
Countless surveys showed that 90% of Germans were unaware of the elections, and 99% of people did not participate in them.
At this point, Franz no longer needed to intervene. The representatives who participated in the conference were heavily criticized from head to toe, and many couldn't withstand the pressure of public opinion, voluntarily withdrawing from the conference.
The assembly persisted until July, but due to changes in the political situation and internal and external challenges, this spontaneously organized bourgeois conference collapsed.
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