Felix zu Schwarzenberg and Ludwig von der Pfordten: two views on the Greater German way of the unification of Germany in 1848-1849
The article provides a comparative analysis of the formation and interconnection of the political courses of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Bavaria – Prince Felix Schwarzenberg and Baron Ludwig von der Pfordten in the era of the revolution of 1848-1849. Choosing the figures of these two politicians as the most influential opponents of the Lesser German constitutional drafts of the Frankfurt National Assembly and the Kingdom of Prussia, the author examines the formation and development of their political views in order to identify, using this example, the most characteristic contradictions of various directions of the Greater German program, which prevented the supporters of this path from developing final project of the unification of Germany until 1866. It is noted that with a significant similarity of opinions of Schwarzenberg and Pfordten in the principles for the organization of the future Germany, the beginning of their cooperation exacerbated differences in their positions in the German question, based on different life experiences, personal convictions and different foreign policy contexts for Austria and Bavaria in the German issue. Analyzing these factors, the author comes to the conclusion that both politicians, despite their close cooperation and similar understanding of the German question, represented essentially different political directions, which became an unsolvable problem when trying to bring the development of the Greater German project to a practical result.
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The article was prepared in the State Academic University for the Humanities within the framework of the state assignment of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation (No. FZNF-2020-0001 "Historical and cultural traditions and values in the context of global history")