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Mitteleuropa zur See? Austria and the German Navy Question 1848–52
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 16 December 2008
Extract
The German navy of 1848–52 was born in the stormy sessions of the Frankfurt Parliament and died amid equally acrimonious debates in the diet of the restored German Confederation. Denmark's blockade of the North Sea and Baltic ports during the Schleswig-Holstein war inspired this first attempt to create a German battle fleet, and the temporary resolution of German-Danish differences, combined with the Confederation's unwillingness to assume responsibility for the warships, brought it to an early end. The scant scholarly literature on the first German navy tends to view it purely as a north German concern, but on this question, as in all other activities of the Frankfurt Parliament and German Confederation, Austria had a considerable voice in determining the outcome. During its four years of existence the fleet became a pawn in the greater Austro-Prussian struggle for hegemony over Germany.
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References
1. Bär, Max, Die Deutsche Flotte von 1848–1852 (Leipzig, 1898)Google Scholar, remains the most comprehensive account of the political debate over the fleet; since it is based primarily on Prussian and Hanoverian archival materials, its treatment of the Austrian role leaves much to be desired. Hubatsch, Walther, ed., Die Erste Deutsche Flotte, 1848–1853 (Herford, 1981)Google Scholar, contains essays ranging from the editor's scholarly treatment of the fleet's relationship with the German Confederation to a detailed account of the type of sidearms used by its sailors. Here, too, the Austrian interest in the navy question is ignored.
2. In a number of articles and papers, Roy A. Austensen has made a strong case for the view that a great degree of continuity existed between the policies and ideas of Metternich and those of later Austrian statesmen, all of whom had been his protégés prior to 1848. See Austensen's, “Felix Schwarzenberg: Realpolitiker or Metternichian? The Evidence of the Dresden Conference,” Mitteilungen des österreichischen Staatsarchivs 30 (1977): 97–118Google Scholar; “Austria and the ‘Struggle for Supremacy in Germany,’ 1848–1864,” Journal of Modern History 52 (1980): 195–225Google Scholar; and “The Making of Austria's Prussian Policy, 1848–1852,” The Historical Journal 27 (1984): 861–76CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Among other things, Austensen rejects the traditional association of Schwarzenberg with the Mitteleuropa concept of Bruck, whose background in business and international trade left him outside of the circle of statesmen schooled under Metternich (which included Schwarzenberg, Prokesch, and Count Friedrich Thun, among those playing a role in the German navy question). But these same credentials also made Bruck the most influential member of Schwarzenberg's cabinet when it came to maritime matters, an area in which Metternich had few opinions of his own to pass along to his protégés. As a result, the questions raised by Austensen are not as crucial to the present topic as they are to other aspects of Schwarzenberg's policies.
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41. Thun to Buol, Frankfurt, 24 Apr. 1852, HHSA, PA, II, Carton 88, 1852/824–28; Francis Joseph (decree), Vienna, 12 May 1852, ibid.
42. Buol to Baumgartner, Vienna, 23 Aug. 1852, HHSA, PA, II, Carton 89, 1852/998–99; Baumgartner to Buol, Vienna, 28 Aug. 1852, ibid., 1852/1000–1; Francis Joseph, Vienna, 1 Oct. 1852 (in margin of Buol Vortrag of 19 Sept.), ibid., 1852/1020–43. Fischer, Otto, “Dr. Laurenz Hannibal Fischer und die Auflösung der deutschen Flotte 1852–53,” Historische Zeitschrift 85 (1900): 261–74CrossRefGoogle Scholar contends that Fischer tried to keep the German navy together despite the order to sell the ships.
44. Schwarzenberg to Thun, Vienna, 27 Sept. 1851, HHSA, PA, II, Carton 87, 1851/603–6 refers to the Navy Law of 1850 within the context of German fleet plan. Among the leaders of the Austrian navy, Dahlerup, too, was not around to witness the end of the German navy question; he resigned in 1851, after Francis Joseph's brother, Archduke Ferdinand Max, entered the Habsburg navy. The archduke commanded the fleet from 1854 until 1864, when he became Emperor Maximilian of Mexico.
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