The Großdeutsche Lösung: The Austrian variation
1. The death of the stateman.
Klemens Wenzel, Prince von Metternich, the State Chancellor of Austria, had become the embodiement of power and, if Louis XIV had said that "I'm France", Austria was Metternich and Metternich was Austria. Thus, for that reason, nobody expected that, on that frosty Viennesse morning, he annouced that he was retiring from office. Nobody expected that (1). However, nobody was as surprised as Count Franz Anton von Kolowrat-Liebsteinsky, the suppossed "heir" of Metternich, when the still Chancellor gave the name of his replacement: Johann Andreas Fürst von Lichnowsky, an unremarkable member of a branch of a noble Prussian family that had settled in Austria, No one expected that movement because Prince von Lichnowsky had no experience on politics. But the emperor had agreed on his nomination, so...
Bewildered, Count von Kolowrat-Leibsteinsky left the cabinet in anger while the rest of the audience remained in silence, knowing that they were the witnesses of an unique moment in history. Metternich, patting gently the shoulder of Lichnowsky, gave him his blessing and best wishes and went home, while muttering "après moi, le déluge". On the next day, he was found cold dead in his bed.
Meanwhile, the new Chancellor of Austria sat alone in his cabinet, looking at a map of Central Europe, with his eyes fixed on Prussia.
A great man passses away (2)
@Rabid: I can tell you something. I've played till 1866 and everything goes so fine that I'm scared that a disaster may befall on Austria. Because everything is going too fine...
@qwerkus: I'm afraid I've gone absolutely ahistorical, not paying attention to what may happen, but just going after my goal... And I'm quite "hungry", trust me. And about the strongest enemy... France looks quite dreadful, trust me.
@FlorisDeVijfde: Thank you!
@Insignificant: Then search no more!
@Nivek Beldo: I must confess that I have not the slightest idea whether I can create the dreaded Grossdeutchland with Austria in the vanilla Vicky but I can tell you something: I' close to know it.
@mad general: Welcome!
@Serek000;11376455: Liberals, grrrrr....
@Treppe: I'll try, trust me. About Metternich... no idea. As you can see, I needed him no longer
(1) They expected the Spanish inquisition, but not Metternich's goodbye.
(2) Yes, this is taken from the event from the VIP, but I'm playing vanilla, don't let that fool thyself.