Reichsflagge

Deutsches Reich


Wilhelm I.

His Imperial and Royal Majesty Wilhelm the First, by the Grace of God, German Emperor and King of Prussia,
Margrave of Brandenburg, Burgrave of Nuremberg, Count of Hohenzollern, Duke of Silesia and of the County of Glatz, Grand Duke of the Lower Rhine and of Posen, Duke in Saxony, of Angria, of Westphalia, of Pomerania and of Lunenburg,Duke of Schleswig, of Holstein and of Krossen, Duke of Magdeburg, of Brene, of Guelderland and of Jülich, Cleves and Berg, Duke of the Wends and the Kassubes, of Lauenburg and of Mecklenburg, Landgrave of Hesse and in Thuringia, Margrave of Upper and Lower Lusatia, Prince of Orange, of Rugen, of East Friesland, of Paderborn and of Pyrmont, Prince of Halberstadt, of Münster, of Minden, of Osnabrück, of Hildesheim, of Verden, of Kammin, of Fulda, of Nassau and of Moess, Princely Count of Henneberg, Count of the Mark, of Ravensburg, of Hohenstein, of Tecklenburg and of Lingen, Earl of Foxdale, Count of Mansfield, of Sigmaringen and of Veringen, Lord of Frankfurt, etc.

National Overview


The Proclamation of the German Empire.

Blood and Iron

Under the guise of idealism giving way to realism, German nationalism rapidly shifted from its liberal and democratic character in 1848 to Prussian prime minister Otto von Bismarck's authoritarian Realpolitik. Bismarck wanted to unify the rival German states to achieve his aim of a conservative, Prussian-dominated Germany. Three wars led to military successes and helped to convince German people to do this: the Second war of Schleswig against Denmark in 1864, the Austro-Prussian War against Austria in 1866, and the Franco-Prussian War against the Second French Empire in 1870–71. During the Siege of Paris in 1871, the North German Confederation, supported by its allies from southern Germany, formed the German Empire with the proclamation of the Prussian king Wilhelm I as German Emperor in the Hall of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles, to the humiliation of the French, who ceased to resist only days later.

National Statistics

Capital: Berlin
Language(s): German (Official)
Unofficial Minority Languages:
Danish, French, Frisian, Polish, Sorbian
Religion: Lutheranism
Government: Constitutional Monarchy
Emperor: Wilhelm I
Chancellor: Otto von Bismarck
Area: 540,857.54 km² (208,826 sq mi)
Population: 41,058,792 (1871 est)
Currency: Goldmark

National Government


Otto von Bismarck.

Reichskanzler: Otto Eduard Leopold von Bismarck, Count of Bismarck-Schönhausen, Duke of Lauenburg, Prince of Bismarck, Chancellor
Außenstaatssekretäre: Bernhard Ernst von Bülow, State Secretary for Foreign Affairs
Kriegsministerium: Arnold Karl Georg von Kameke, Minister of War
Kaiserliche Admiralität: Albrecht von Stosch, Secretary for the Navy