Many members of Germany's aristocratic ruling class…

Many members of Germany's aristocratic ruling class are opposed to national unity because they fear it will mean the disappearance of their small states into a large Germany.

Metternich opposes a united Germany because the Habsburg Empire does not embrace a single people speaking one language, but many peoples speaking different languages.

The empire will not easily fit into a united Germany.

He desires instead the continued existence of the loosely organized German Confederation with its forty-odd members, none equal to Austria in strength.

Prussia's kings and its conservative elite sometimes object to Austria's primacy in the confederation, but they have little desire for German unification, which they regard as a potential threat to Prussia's existence.