A new confederation of states is created at the Congress of Vienna
In 1806, Emperor Franz II reacted to the foundation of the “Confederation of the Rhine” – a military alliance of medium-sized German states under the leadership of France – by abdicating his crown, thus sealing the end of the Holy Roman Empire. The new confederation did not survive the defeat of Napoleon, and the Congress of Vienna (1815) replaced it with a larger grouping called the German Confederation. Covering essentially the same area as the Holy Roman Empire, it was established by the signature of the German Confederation Act by representatives of 34 princely states and the four free cities of Hamburg, Bremen, Lübeck and Frankfurt am Main on 8 June 1815.
Established as a loose association of independent states, the main purpose of the German Confederation was to guarantee the internal and external security of its members. With no head of state or a joint executive, the Confederation consisted of a permanent congress of envoys to an assembly called the Bundestag, which was chaired by Austria and met in Frankfurt (Main). As appointees of their government, the envoys were not elected by the people and usually only took decisions that had the joint agreement of the rival great powers Austria and Prussia. Resolutions passed in the Bundestag took precedence over state laws.
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An immersive and innovative experience museum about 2000 years of German history
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