A Germany including Austria

[Cheezy the Wiz]

Bavaria had far more to lose during the 1870-71 War, which was a major reason for it deciding to side with Prussia. Also remember that Bavaria had a hand at Paulskirche during the German 1848 Uprising; Austria did not.

Also, if Austria did join a GrossDetuschland, it would probably not include Hungary or Croatia. Though there were many Germans who lived throughout Eastern Europe, their locations were spotty as you got into Rumania, Hungary, and Eastern Poland, which is why no attempt to include them in a Greater Germany was made, Hitler's "Reich" notwithstanding.

 

[Dachs]

A more interesting (and realistic) case would be if the union hadn't been prevented by the Allies in 1919-20. As I recall, there was strong support in both Austria and Germany for the union, but enthusiasm started to peter out and then finally the Allies killed the scheme entirely.

It's not really all that much more realistic, given the extremely staunch opposition in the Allied countries to letting Germany get anything out of the war. The Chamber of Deputies would have lynched Clemenceau if he'd agreed to such a condition.

 

[Sharwood]

It's not really all that much more realistic, given the extremely staunch opposition in the Allied countries to letting Germany get anything out of the war. The Chamber of Deputies would have lynched Clemenceau if he'd agreed to such a condition.

And I doubt it would have made any real difference in later events anyway, except maybe that Hitler wouldn't have to wait so long for German citizenship, and guys like Dolphuss (sp?) wouldn't have nearly as much power.

Possibly it might make the West a little more frightened of Germany, and make them take it more seriously as a threat. That's probably it. Oh, and as you said, Clemenceau would be lynched, so the Western Allies might be on worse terms between the wars.

 

[EquinoxOmega]

I think it would not be possible. The Austrian Empire had enough internal problems with the rising self-confidence of the Nations in its realm. A union with Germany would have made the German-speaking population even more dominant and accelerate the decay of the Austrian Empire. I think after one or two decades only nowadays Germany, Austria(minus Burgenland), South Tyrol, some parts of Krain, the Sudet-countries, 1/3 of Poland and Königsberg would have been left of it. The only possiblilty to create a stable Austrian-German-Empire(Großdeutsch-Lösung) would have been a kind of Federation of Countries/Nations (like this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_of_Greater_Austria + Germany). But I quite sure that Bismark would have never agreed on it, because he prefered a strong central power.

 

[Dachs]

Creation of a theoretically national German empire didn't accelerate the process of splitting Posen off from the original Second Reich, but in fact was a spur for the Reich to implement Germanification programs in those territories. I think that including Austria wouldn't have given a particularly large impetus to the Polish and Danish nationalists in the east and north.