"Greater German", "Smaller German" or "German National"?

The groups in the national camp followed the tradition of the German liberals. Like these, they drew their members from activist organisations and associations, and primarily espoused the causes of the higher middle-class, the civil service, the intelligentsia, university graduates and students.

The "German question", the hotly discussed issue after the 1848 Revolution of the future form of Germany and its relationship to the Habsburg Empire, met with varying answers amongst the German National groups in Austria.

The Greater German movement, whose objective was the Greater German solution, supported the continued existence of the Habsburg Monarchy with extremely close links to the German Reich. It struggled with the insoluble problem of how the inclusion of the German-speaking provinces of the Austrian Empire could be made compatible with the (continued) existence of the Habsburg Empire. The dramatist Friedrich Hebbel commented on the dilemma of the Greater Germans: "The beloved Austrians think about how they can be united with Germany without being united with Germany. It would be difficult to do, just as difficult as it for two people who are to kiss to turn their backs to each other."

Unlike the Greater German movement, the German Nationals hoped for the fall of the Habsburg Monarchy and the unification of the German-speaking provinces within a liberal Germany. Supported by the national fraternities, the German gymnastics and school associations and the liberal intelligentsia, it followed the tradition of the Viennese students of 1848 and their national, liberal and democratic principles, rejecting the dynasty and Catholicism. Their demands found fertile soil above all in the German-speaking border regions of Carinthia and Styria as well as in Lower Austria, whose inhabitants felt threatened by the Slav population.

The Smaller German movement around Georg Ritter von Schönerer was to be found on the extreme margin of the German National movement. It supported the unification of Germany under the leadership of Prussia, and, following the hoped-for break-up of the Habsburg Monarchy, the union of the German-speaking provinces with the German Reich created in 1871. Its principles were democratic, anti-conservative and anti-dynastic, but at the same time its supporters were enthralled by the 'Prussian conservatism' of Otto von Bismarck.

Translation: David Wright