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Speech to the Frankfurt Assembly, 1848
In these states German life has its positive and negative poles--in the former, all the interests which are national and reformative, in the latter, all that are dynastic and destructive. -
Proclamation of 1849
without the consent of the German governments, to bestow the crown which they tendered me, and moreover because they offered the crown upon condition that I would accept a constitution which could not be reconciled with the rights of the German states. -
Letter to Minister von Manteuffel, 1856
as long as an honorable arrangement concerning the influence of each in Germany cannot be concluded and carried out, we will both p lough the same disputed acre, and Austria will remain the only state to whom we can permanently lose or from whom we can permanently gain. -
Otto von Bismarck: 1866
German Austria with Prussia, and Vienna could not be governed from Berlin as a mere dependency .Austria's conflict and rivalry with us was no more culpable than ours with her; our task was the establishment or foundation of German national unity under the leadership of the King of Prussia. -
Field Marshal Helmuth von Moltke: 1866
was entered on not because the existence of Prussia was threatened nor was it caused by public opinion and the voice of the people it was a struggle long foreseen and calmly prepared for recognized as a necessity by the Cabinet, not for territorial aggrandizement, for an extension of our domain, or for material advantage but for an ideal end the establishment of power. -
The Imperial Proclamation, January 18, 1871
German loyalty, the rights of the Empire and of its members of keeping the peace and of protecting the independence of Germany, which depends in its turn upon the united strength of the people.