ABSTRACT
During Metternich's hegemony, Europe was spared Thor's "giant hammer". The German Confederation, founded and guided by Metternich, gave Germany unity but a loose unity. The racially tolerant Metternich had not persecuted non-Germans for their different culture or language. For Metternich nationalism and Jacobinism were almost identical: twin aspects of the same anticonservative heresy, and equally fatal to the multinational Hapsburg union. Both Metternich and the liberals of 1848 were right or at least shared halftruths, for both sought a peaceful and ethical and cosmopolitan Europe. Metternich wanted peace and a world-state. In the Concert of Europe he made his ideal work. While most of Europe after 1815 shared Metternich's desire for peace, Father Jahn was thundering, "Germany needs a war of her own in order to feel her power; she needs a feud with Frenchdom to develop her national way of life in all its fullness. This occasion will not fail to come".
