In 1863, at the Furstenlag in Frankfort, the emperor made an attempt by his personal influence to solve the German question.
The German question was settled definitively by the battle of KoniggrItz in.
The rapid victory of the Prussians and the wise moderation of Bismarck paved the way for a complete revolution in Bavaria's relation to Prussia and the German question.
The indignation which his appointment caused was intense; he was known only by the reputation which in his early years he had won as a violent ultra-Conservative, and the apprehensions were increased by his first speech, in which he said that the German question could not be settled by speeches and parliamentary decrees, but only by blood and iron.
Prussia, he declared, must in the German question return to the basis of the treaties of 1815 and renew her entente with Austria; this was the only way of preserving the old friendship of Prussia and Russia.
