History of germany

Revolutions and the Frankfurt assembly: 1848
The immediate effect of the revolutions which sweep through Europe in 1848 is concession on the part of terrified rulers. Riots in Munich cause the king of Bavaria, Louis I, to abdicate in favour of his son. Unrest in Vienna is rapidly followed by the resignation of the veteran chancellor Metternich. Two days of street fighting in Berlin prompt the king of Prussia, now Frederick William IV, to propose a national assembly which will consider a German constitution.As a result of this promise, elections are rapidly held in the various German states (in many of them by universal male suffrage). On 18 May 1848 some 600 delegates gather in Frankfurt. 
Each delegate hopes to find a way of achieving a united and constitutional Germany. But there are strongly differing views as to how this might be realized. 
Bavaria, as leader of the middling and smaller states, campaigns for some tripartite arrangement in which their group would hold the balance between Prussia and Austria. Protestants supporting Prussia argue for akleindeutsch('small German') solution which excludes Austria. Catholics prefer thegrossdeutschway, to include at least the German-speaking parts of the Austrian empire. 
Thegrossdeutschcause is severely damaged early in March 1849 when Austria introduces a new constitution treating her entire empire (including Hungary and north Italy) as a single unitary state.  Clearly this is incompatible with a united Germany. On March 28 the delegates at Frankfurt take the kleindeutschroute; they elect the Prussian king, Frederick William IV, as emperor of the Germans. A deputation sets off to Berlin to offer him the crown, but on April 3 he turns it down. The official reason is that only his fellow princes can do him this honour. The harsher truth is that he no longer needs to ally himself with these elected liberals. The tide of reaction has already turned. 
In both Berlin and Vienna authoritarian governments are back in position by the spring of 1849. The hard work of avoiding change can be resumed.
But the underlying contest between Prussia and Austria for leadership of the German states remains the most important issue confronting the region. It will eventually be resolved as the result of a crisis which also flares up for the first time in the late 1840s - the question of Schleswig-Holstein.