Many of Germany's liberal intelligentsia—lower government officials,…

Many of Germany's liberal intelligentsia—lower government officials, men of letters, professors, and lawyers—who push for representative government and greater political freedom are also interested in some form of German unity.

They argue that liberal political reforms can only be enacted in a larger political entity.

Germany's small, traditional states offer little scope for political reform.

Among those groups desiring reform, there is, ironically, little unity.

Many businessmen are interested only in reforms that will facilitate commerce, and they give little thought to politics.

Political liberals are split into a number of camps.

Some wish for a greater degree of political representation, but, given a widespread fear of what the masses might do if they had access to power, these liberals are content to have aristocrats as leaders.

Others desire a democratic constitution, but with a hereditary king as ruler.

A minority of liberals are ardent democrats who desire to establish a republic with parliamentary democracy and universal suffrage.

The ideal of a united Germany had been awakened within liberal groups by the writings of scholars and literary figures such as Johann Gottfried Herder (1744-1803) and by the achievements of French nationalism after the revolution.

France's easy victories over Germany's small states make the union of a people with a common language and historical memory desirable for practical reasons alone.

Others are impressed by the political and commercial accomplishments of Britain, which make those of the small German states seem insignificant.

Some writers warm to romantic evocations of Germany's glory during the Middle Ages.