The Decisive Battles of World History

Lecture 30: 1866 Königgrätz—Bismarck Molds Germany

The Campaign and Battle

x Bismarck and the Prussians knew that to supplant the Austrian

Empire in its dominant position over the German confederation,

they would have to provoke a war. The opportunity came when

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x On June 15, 1866, the Prussians demanded that the states of

Hannover, Hesse-Kassel, and Saxony abandon their alliances with

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Now, Moltke’s careful planning paid dividends, as Prussian armies

rapidly mobilized and swept forward, and the three states were

conquered with astonishing swiftness.

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for invading the Austrian Empire. Moltke had devised a four-

pronged attack, in which the separate armies would conquer initial

objectives, mostly the minor German states, then combine to take

on the main Austrian army.

x Critics of Moltke’s plan feared that dispersing the elements of the

Prussian army so widely would make them vulnerable to attack, but

the speed of their advance kept the Austrians off balance, and the

invasion accomplished all of its initial objectives.

x Meanwhile, Benedek situated the main Austrian army in an arc

with its back to the Elbe River northeast of Königgrätz in southern

Bohemia. This Austrian army was as large as all the Prussian ones

combined, numbering around 250,000 men.

x By dawn on the morning of July 3, the Prussian Elbe and First

Armies were closing in on the Austrian army from the east and

were ready to launch an attack. The Second Army, however, was

still marching down from the north. Without it, the Elbe and First

Armies were outnumbered almost two to one. Moltke had to decide

whether or not to launch the attack with the available forces and

hope that the Second Army would arrive to strike the Austrians’

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