the German Question

>>1689443
There are many variable that would need for this to happen. Depending on how its formed would be a huge deal. A war would unite them, but that would put them at the risk of the same animosities resulting from the wars of 1883 and 1871. A slow integration is not really possible (as seen in the EU, and this has nations with much less nationalism in it than the nations in the German lands)

Yet I somewhat doubt, that it would not have lead to an ease in European politics. Imagine Großdeutschland with Prussia and Austria in one country:
1. It would be a constant, balanced fight between catholic and protestant
2. Basically all other nations would start to worry as a united Großdeutschland would be the most powerful country on the continent (only talking countries not alliances). Russia would see their panslavic plans in danger, Britain its equilibrium of power and France would be worried about a mighty nation at its side, which is linked to historical animosity.
3. The slavic nations in the KuK would be in fear as Germans would hold a massiv majority, making Germanization in those lands even more aggressive.
=> The KuK was weak as is, it would have to downsize great to cope with both its empire and the German lands

Possible upsides would be:
1. The Großdeutsches Reich would no longer really be interested in colonies abroad as they have their own "colonies" on the European continent (Croatia, Czechs, Hungarians, Romanians etc.) easing tensions with Britain.
2. if no war occurs, the stereotype of the "militarian" German would not really hold value as Vienna had quite a non aggressive stance at least on France and Britain (Russia yes)

What also could occure would be:
Due to their historical rivalry, Vienna would systematically downsize Prussia leading to more power to Austria, the effects would be unkown.

>>1689463
Most definitly, I kinda thought that it would be a powerful German Entity but it would possibly be very decentralized, since centralization was a must in the Prussian leadership to the point that they denied the crown from the Frankfurt parliament and instead opted for military action, Austria would possibly be more diplomatic as they have historically always been.

>>1689463
>(as seen in the EU, and this has nations with much less nationalism in it than the nations in the German lands)
Are you retarded? Not only the EU is actually enduring and not failing in spite of unbelievable mismanagement, it's also full of people with actual national identities, rather than just regional loyalties. Are you telling me that a frenchman and a german feel closer to each other than a hessian and an austrian?

>>1689479
>EU is actually enduring and not failing in spite of unbelievable mismanagement
That's not my point. A slow integration as seen in the EU has taken up to 50-60 years and in the last few years has seen massive backlash. I'm not saying that the EU is doomed to fail, but a union like it would not work in those times, as it takes much time to form an entity that is actually comparable to a nation (especially with powerful antagonists of the time like France, Russia and Britain which would go against this or try to keep it as inefficient as possible) The Deutsche Bund tried it, the HRE tried it, and none of them ended in a united Germany. People would not unite quickly enough into an entity and would be reminded of the brutally destroyed HRE, not really willing to participate, thus not really ending in a Großdeutsche Lösung but rather a "HRE II".

>>1689501
Oh I had not taken you post that way. Yeah that's a better argument, but I think that given op's parameters (Austria unifies Germany = Prussia submitted) there wouldn't be any need to form a national identity other than the already budding german one. The German Confederation only failed to hold Austria because they refused to bow to Prussia, if Prussia is not a factor then you just have a more or less unified German Confederation where basically everyone wants a modern german nation state, and there's really no sort of doubt about who's the boss. It would create a stronger and more diplomatic Germany.

>>1689443
A greater Germany that would have included the transleithanian Habsburg domains was imo never an option. The Hungarians would have never allowed such a thing to happen.

Maybe the greater German solution could have been done by splitting off the transleithanian domains into a separate "Greater Hungary" with large autonomy but still in a personal union with the Habsburg emperor.

Not gonna lie, Großgermaniums would have been France-tier levels of

A E S T H E T I C

>>1689628
Or just federalize the Hungarian part, making it into a subsidiary state part of the German Empire.
Then eventually submission through cultural assimilation by massive colonization, which never happened.