Explanation: Germany, in the 19th century AD, was not a single country, but a massive collection of independent states which, over the course of the century, became increasingly closer as modern nationalism propelled the idea of a 'German nation'. One of the key actors in bringing this disparate group of polities under a single umbrella was the Prussian Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, whose power, de facto if not de jure, often exceeded that of the Prussian monarch.

He also orchestrated a little silliness with France in the Franco-Prussian War, both to gain Alsace-Lorraine and to give the German states a common enemy to get that good, wholesome nationalist feeling really going! The Germans won that war, so obviously it would have no repercussions down the line.