Dreikönigsbündnis
Because of the rising power of the Zollverein, Frederick William IV (1795-1861), king of Prussia from the death of his father in 1840 until 1861, began to entertain visions of a new political union of German states which would grow out of the Zollverein. The Austrian-controlled German Confederation had been disbanded during the Revolution of 1848. Frederick William IV's chief minister from April 25, 1849 until November 1850, was General Joseph von Radowitz. Radowitz now sought to establish a new Prussian-dominated union to replace the old German Confederation. In October 1850, an agreement was made to have an assembly of all German states meet in the city of Erfurt, Germany to form this "Prussian Union." At the time of the Erfurt Union, Bismarck did not have any use for the proposed union of German states under Prussian leadership. Just why Bismarck of all people would refuse to support a unification in Germany under Prussian leadership in 1850 and just ten years later become the chief spokesman for just such a Prussian-led union of German states is curious, but as strong as the Zollverein was in 1850, the customs union, by 1860, had become much more influential over the economies of its members.