The movement for liberal reform (including constitutional,…

The movement for liberal reform (including constitutional, parliamentary government, economic freedom, and civil liberties) initiated during the Napoleonic era survives during the so-called Vormdrz (1815-48), a period of struggle between absolutism and rising liberalism.

The July 1830 French revolution had incited the German liberal intelligentsia—lower government officials, men of letters, professors, and lawyers—to organize local clubs and assume leadership of the reform effort.

The liberal intelligentsia, however, do not succeed in overthrowing absolutism in the "revolution of the intellectuals," which takes place in March 1848 following the February revolution in France of the same year.

Averse to revolutionary violence, the people do not oppose the Prussian troops that march into Berlin to establish order.