ABSTRACT
In discussing the 1848 revolutions it is not possible to talk of Germany in any coherent sense as a nation, as events followed different patterns in individual states. In Bavaria the agitation against Lola Montez pre-dated the news of the Paris revolution of February. There was a common theme, however, and that was the emergence of the new liberalism. This was as true of the southern German states, like Baden and Bavaria, as it was of the more traditional and reactionary Prussia. In fact it could be said that the acquisition of the Rhineland by Prussia in 1815 was instrumental in dragging Prussia into modern history, because when Frederick William IV capitulated to the revolution in Berlin, he appointed Ludolf Camphausen and David Hansemann, two Rhineland businessmen, to head a liberal administration.
