Although it was designed to make the state a liberal parliamentary democracy in constitution, it was, however, not in the mainstream of German politics since it primarily represented the working class. ... Political authority is derived from the people. ... The middle classes were possibly the hardest hit because they were more likely to have savings wh...
Liberal parliamentarians had no problem with the idea of making the Prussian army bigger, however, as liberals, they hoped that the Prussian officer corps would eventually come to be dominated by the men of the Prussian middle class, rather than by the class of noble Junker land owners who traditionally made up the body of Prussian officers. King Wilhelm I and his minister of war rejected this liberal attempt to change the class composition of the Prussian officer corps, and the parliament threatened to veto the military budget. ... Wilhelm held out until 1862, at the moment when his minister...
