Then the Germans would have to form a political confederation with Belgium, Switzerland and Denmark and, finally – together with Vienna and Budapest – they would have to occupy the position of the declining Ottoman Empire on the Balkans, strengthening their influence to the Mediterranean and the Black Sea. List was convinced that the future was in the creation of greater economic units, and if the German states wanted to become a Great Power, their customs union (formed in 1834) would also have to unite their trade policy. But his followers, such as Friedrich List (1789–1846) thought in much broader geographical terms. Johann Gottlieb Fichte (1762–1814) envisioned a unified German state as a national state limiting its external trade to a minimum ( Der geschlossene Handelsstaat Tübingen, 1800). However, in this period, ideas emerged envisaging national unity beyond geographical limits determined by linguistic dividing lines, and linking it to the idea of a broader Central European economic union. Then, the major issue for German politics was to end geographical disintegration, and create economic and political unity. During the European reconstruction after the Napoleonic Wars, the 39 German principalities – including Prussia, Bavaria and the four Free Cities – played second fiddle to other events, or were the subject of decisions made in London, Vienna and St Petersburg. German ideas about Mittel Europa, and as a part of this, German political thought towards South-East Europe has evolved for over 200 years. This is an excerpt from Great Power Policies Towards Central Europe 1914–1945.

Hearts of iron 4 hungary