Dreikönigsbündnis
With the dissolution of the National Assembly, those politicians who supported Gagern's "Erbkaiserlich" policy of a hereditary monarchy led by King Frederick William supported Prussia's "Unionspolitik" in the Gotha Post-Parliament and the Erfurt Union Parliament. This policy was based on Prussia's insistence that both the National Assembly and the German Confederation were defunct. However, Austria's policy was that the German Confederation had never ceased to exist; rather, only the Confederate Diet had dissolved itself on 12 July 1848. Therefore, the Austrian Emperor's position as President of the German Confederation was still in force.