Events of February 1848 in France had brought about the abdication of the monarch and a republic based on universal male suffrage had been proclaimed.
People took advantage of the growing popular unrest to push their demands for the creation of a nation-state on parliamentary principles – a constitution, freedom of the press and freedom of association.
The Revolution of 1848 was a socialist revolution led by the labor class. These events led Germans to demand their own constitution leading to the Heidelberg Convention of German nationalists and liberals.
It became the background of the Second Frankfurt Parliament or German revolutionary parliament in 1848 which made two important proposals – formulation of union of German states under leadership of Prussia and formation of a constitution of German union.
A large number of political associations came together in the city of Frankfurt and decided to vote for an all-German National Assembly.
On 18 May 1848, 831 elected representatives marched in a festive procession to take their places in the Frankfurt parliament convened in the Church of St Paul.
They drafted a constitution for a German nation to be headed by a monarchy subject to a parliament.
While the opposition of the aristocracy and military became stronger, the social basis of parliament eroded.
The parliament was dominated by the middle classes who resisted the demands of workers and artisans and consequently lost their support.
In the end troops were called in and the assembly was forced to disband.
Repression soon followed and even the rights that people had won in the initial stages of the Revolution were taken away.
Thousands of German Revolutionaries had to flee the country and live in exile. The failed Revolution was the drawback national cause.
But the demand for unification revived in the late 1850s as a consequence of industrial and economic development.
Monarchs were beginning to realize that the cycles of revolution and repression could only be ended by granting concessions to the liberal-nationalist revolutionaries.