Demographic transition The population of the German Confederation (excluding Austria) grew 60% from 1815 to 1865, from 21,000,000 to 34,000,000. The era saw the
demographic transition in Germany from high birth and death rates to low birth and death rates as the country developed from a pre-industrial to a modernized agriculture and supported a fast-growing industrialized urban economic system. In previous centuries, the shortage of land meant that not everyone could marry, and marriages took place after age 25. The high birthrate was offset by a very high rate of
infant mortality, plus periodic epidemics and harvest failures. After 1815, increased agricultural productivity meant a larger food supply and a decline in famines, epidemics, and malnutrition. This allowed couples to marry earlier and have more children. Arranged marriages became uncommon as young people were now allowed to choose their partners, subject to a veto by the parents. The upper and middle classes began to practice
birth control, and a little later so did the peasants. The population in 1800 was heavily rural, with only 8% of the people living in communities of 5,000 to 100,000 and another 2% living in cities of more than 100,000.
Nobility In a heavily agrarian society, land ownership played a central role. Germany's nobles, especially those in the East called '''', dominated not only the localities, but also the
Prussian court, and especially the
Prussian army. Increasingly after 1815, a centralized Prussian government based in Berlin took over the powers of the nobles, which in terms of control over the peasantry had been almost absolute. They retained control of the judicial system on their estates until 1848, as well as control of hunting and game laws. They paid no land tax until 1861 and kept their police authority until 1872, and controlled church affairs into the early 20th century. To help the nobility avoid indebtedness, Berlin set up a credit institution to provide capital loans in 1809, and extended the loan network to peasants in 1849. When the German Empire was established in 1871, the nobility controlled the army and the Navy, the bureaucracy, and the royal court; they generally set governmental policies.
Peasantry Peasants continued to center their lives in the village, where they were members of a corporate body and helped manage community resources and monitor community life. In the East, they were serfs who were bound prominently to parcels of land. In most of Germany, farming was handled by tenant farmers who paid rents and obligatory services to the landlord, who was typically a nobleman. Peasant leaders supervised the fields and ditches and grazing rights, maintained public order and morals, and supported a village court which handled minor offenses. Inside the family, the patriarch made all the decisions and tried to arrange advantageous marriages for his children. Much of the villages' communal life centered around church services and holy days. In Prussia, the peasants drew lots to choose conscripts required by the army. The noblemen handled external relationships and politics for the villages under their control, and were not typically involved in daily activities or decisions.
Rapidly growing cities After 1815, the urban population grew rapidly, due primarily to the influx of young people from the rural areas.
Berlin grew from 172,000 people in 1800 to 826,000 in 1870;
Hamburg grew from 130,000 to 290,000;
Munich from 40,000 to 269,000; (now ) from 60,000 to 208,000;
Dresden from 60,000 to 177,000; (now
Kaliningrad) from 55,000 to 112,000. Offsetting this growth, there was extensive emigration, especially to the
United States. Emigration totaled 480,000 in the 1840s, 1,200,000 in the 1850s, and 780,000 in the 1860s.
Ethnic minorities Despite its name and intention, the German Confederation was not entirely populated by Germans; many people of other ethnic groups lived within its borders: •
French-speaking Walloons lived in
western Luxembourg prior to its division in 1839; • the
Duchy of Limburg (a member between 1839 and 1866) had an entirely
Dutch population; •
Italians and
Slovenians lived in south and southeast Austria; • Bohemia and Moravia, of the
Lands of the Bohemian Crown, were inhabited by a majority of
Czechs; •
Silesia had also a
Polish and Czech inhabitants, while
Sorbs were present in the parts of
Saxony and the Prussian
province of Brandenburg known as
Lusatia • Prussian part of the
partitions of Poland was inhabited by a majority of Poles. == : economic integration ==