486 Chapter 25Czech patriots led by the historian Frantiˇsek Palack ́y
won a separate Parliament for Bohemia. Similar claims
quickly arose in Moravia (another Czech province), in
Galicia (a predominantly Polish province in the north),
in Dalmatia (a mixed Slavic province on the Adriatic
coast), in Croatia (a southern province), and in Transyl-
vania (a predominantly Rumanian province in the east).
In the eastern half of the empire, these nationalist ex-
pectations were complicated by the claim of the Hun-
garians to exercise the full sovereignty previously held
by the Austrians.
A liberal revolution also occurred in Vienna in
March 1848. After one day of fighting between the
army and demonstrators, Metternich fled to exile (see
illustration 25.3), leaving the Austrian government in
the hands of a feeble-minded emperor, Ferdinand I, and
an intimidated group of advisers. After two more days
of demonstrations, Ferdinand promised press freedom,
a constitution, and an Austrian Parliament; he and the
royal court then abandoned Vienna to the liberals. The
liberal revolutionaries achieved two lasting successes in
Austria—the abolition of serfdom and the granting of
civil rights to Jews, who were allowed for the first time
to live in the cities, enter the professions, and to marry
freely.
The liberal victories in Prussia and Austria encour-
aged German nationalists to dream of a parallel triumph
to unify the German states. They faced many problems,however, starting with disagreements among them-
selves. Many nationalists favored a comprehensive Ger-
man nation-state—their “Germany” stretched “Wher’er
is heard the German tongue!” This grossdeutsch(large
German) nationalism was important to Austrians, who
thought that Germany included the Habsburg Empire.
Grossdeutschnationalism, however, threatened the non-
German peoples of that empire, who feared their treat-
ment as minorities in an even larger and stronger
German state. Pragmatic nationalists favored a klein-
deutsch(little German) solution that excluded Habsburg
lands or included only the German portion of them.
Prussians, the rivals of Austrians for leadership of Ger-
many, generally favored kleindeutschnationalism, because
it meant the exclusion or dismemberment of Austria.
The home of German nationalism during the revo-
lutions of 1848 was the free city of Frankfurt, the seat
of the German Confederation. Revolutionaries in many
states called for a national Parliament to replace the
confederation’s Diet, and elections for the Frankfurt
Parliament took place across Germany in April 1848.
More than eight hundred members of this “parliament
of professors” (although bureaucrats and lawyers were
more numerous) met at the Paulskirche in Frankfurt.
Under the leadership of a liberal lawyer from Hesse,
Heinrich von Gagern, the Frankfurt Parliament pro-
duced fervent rhetoric, but not a treasury, an army, or
effective leadership of German nationalism. LiberalsIllustration 25.3
The Flight of Metternich.Nothing
better symbolized the initial victories of
the revolutions of 1848 than the flight of
Prince Metternich. In mid-March, 1848,
students and professors from the Univer-
sity of Vienna assembled outside the
provincial parliament to chant “Down
with Metternich.” When they were
joined by large numbers of workers, the
army fired on them, killing five people.
A riot followed and Metternich, who
found himself friendless within the gov-
ernment, fled the country. This contem-
porary Austrian cartoon ridicules the
flight of the frightened statesman.