English Translation

49-2, after all, takes place after tougher steps than they generally tend to be at the negotiating table. They may know the word Bismarck from the then=maligen years, that German unity would not be accomplished by speeches and decisions, but that it had to be forged with blood and iron. This word was much disputed at the time, but it later hardened its historical justification. Indeed, the unity of the empire was forged in battles. A whole lot of peculiarities of the individual countries, of prejudices, straits, kirchturms=political ideas were overcome. They had to be overcome; otherwise the empire would not have been able to achieve its unity in order to join in the great competition of the powers in Europe. That we were able to reach a state-political agreement at all is due to the fact that at that time we have overcome these restrictive barriers. Of course, at that time the Bayer or the Sachse or the Wuerttemberg or the Badener or the Schaumburg=Lipper felt somehow overtaken; until then, under the dynamics of this new state, the prejudices become more and more