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A-LevelHistoryLiberalism and nationalism in Germany, 1815-71Oct/Nov 2025Paper 1 Q140 Marks

Answer one question from one section only. Section A: European option Liberalism and nationalism in Germany, 1815-71 Read the sources and then answer both parts of the question. Source A From various platforms, moving speeches were made representing the sad condition of Germany and its insignificance in the council of European nations. The depression in trade and commerce is caused by the division into thirty-eight states, with different laws, different currencies and customs borders surrounding every state. All this is owing to the lack of national union. Speakers complained of the pressure which Austria and Prussia exercised over the German Diet at Frankfurt. Even liberal-minded princes are forced to adopt unconstitutional and illegal measures. Bruggemann, whose speech was one of the most eloquent, addressed the meeting as the representative of German youth which, in spite of criminal persecution, has kept the idea of the liberty and unity of the Fatherland alive. An account of the Hambach Festival in 1832. It was by a radical lawyer who had been a member of a student nationalist society and was involved in the events depicted in Source C. Source B No newspaper containing political content, written in German, and published in a state not belonging to the German Confederation, may be distributed in a member state without prior approval of the government. Proceedings will be taken against the distributors of prohibited published writings. Popular assemblies and festivals, whose time and place were previously neither customary nor permitted, may not take place, no matter under what name and to what purpose, without prior approval of the competent authority. Even at permitted popular assemblies, public speeches with political content will not be tolerated. Police surveillance will be carried out on all local residents who have made known at any time, through public speeches, writings, or actions, their revolutionary activities. The resolutions of September 1819 concerning disciplinary measures towards student political societies in the universities, will be unfailingly applied. From the Ten Articles, issued by Austrian Chancellor Metternich, July 1832, to be enforced throughout the German Confederation. Source C [Figure C] A print by a radical French artist showing the storming of Frankfurt's main police station by armed students who were attempting to free political prisoners, April 1833. The words on the flag read 'liberty for Germany'. Source D In Germany, there is a lack of any trust toward the German Diet, from which no development of liberal institutions is expected. There is not even any protection of the constitutional rights of the individual states. Prussia, after Austria the largest of the Confederation states, is temporarily in possession of a constitution of which this much is clear: that its leading principle should be the unrestrained power of the monarch. Protestants in many states have had their religious beliefs violated. A significant portion of the working class engaged in manual labour in the Rhine Province is against the government. All the German states lack a secure, unified bond, or any kind of institution in which the German nation might be represented, and from which it might expect leadership toward the assertion of independence. From a letter written by a German businessman to the Prussian Interior Ministry in March 1848. Answer both parts of the question with reference to the sources.

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About This A-Level History Question

This structured question appeared in the Cambridge A-Level History (9489) Oct/Nov 2025 examination, Paper 1 Variant 2. It tests the topic of Liberalism and nationalism in Germany, 1815-71 and is worth 40 marks.

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