The Frankfurt Parliament has decided to exclude Austria’s German-speaking provinces from the German Empire.

The assembly offers an Imperial crown of a constitutional Germany to King Frederick William IV of Prussia, whose refusal to wear it effectively destroys the brief moment of German unity.

Frederick William, now dissolves the constituent assembly in Prussia and imposes his own constitution, favoring the moneyed classes but bestowing upon Prussia a limited parliamentary government.

Austria now pressures the King to agree that the German Confederation, and not the powerful Zollverein, will be the only legitimate pan-German organization.