ABSTRACT
The Schleswig-Holstein question came to be of absolutely crucial importance for Otto von Bismarck, for the liberal national movement and for the configuration and evolution of the whole international situation. One of the key points of its programme from the outset was the solution of the Schleswig-Holstein question in German terms. The Federal Diet thereupon approved an order against Holstein on 1 October 1863 and charged not only the two German great powers but also Saxony and Hanover with the task of enforcing it. Bismarck’s chance to show the king how indispensable he was in the context of the domestic situation came in the debate about a government request for a loan in connection with the Schleswig-Holstein crisis on 21 and 22 January 1864. The complaints about the burdens of official business and the constraints of his existence began to increase in frequency again around this time, indicating very clearly that Bismarck found himself at a crossroads.
