ABSTRACT
In Prussia itself and in several other German states, the Prussian army brutally intervened after the spring of 1849 to restore 'order' and to suppress popular-democratic movements. Conservative opponents of the revolution quickly realized that 'revolutionary' innovations like elections, newspapers, pressure groups and parliamentary caucuses could be turned to their own advantage; and thus, ironically, the radical transformation of conservative politics must be regarded as one of the major outcomes of the revolutions of 1848-50 in Prussia. For the most part, Prussia's liberals, whether Rhenish businessmen or East Prussian aristocrats, were moderate modernizers. Indeed, the historian Gerd Heinrich has written of a generalized crisis in Prussia's 'primary leadership stratum' in the spring of 1848. Having disappointed the hopes of German nationalists, the King of Prussia turned his fury upon democrats and republicans who, in the spring and summer of 1849, became involved in a great grass-roots popular movement in support of the Frankfurt constitution.
