OCR German nationalism 1789-1919,

There was a question on whether politics was an important factor, and the mark scheme was terrible, and I wasn't entirely sure what points would be included

Was it "The development of German nationalism was mainly dependant upon political factors" How far do you with this view of the period from 1789 to 1919?

Yes it was that one

Yes it was that one

The turning points question is likely I suppose, but they might throw a curveball so I'm worried about putting all of my eggs into one basket. The mass appeal question would be really nice but the only thing is, it seems quite difficult to sustain the argument because the answer basically is no for all of the themes.
For example, economically, mass appeal didn't really occur until the 90s because economics only really applied to the industrialists.
Intellectually, mass appeal is more difficult to describe because these ideas that were discussed from the enlightenment were not popular until the kaiser after railways, education had come into effect and these ideas were encouraged, for example the Social Darwinism pamphlet.
Socially, the people were divided up until the Kaiser introduced Sammlungspolitik. Particularism was a very important factor in dividing the nation. This was capitalised on by Metternich who wanted to keep all of the states self interested and so the Diet was an ineffective tool for unifying the states. it encouraged them to be selfish and they were, the representatives were only concerned with the inner affairs of their own state. Bismarck employed divide and rule, so he singled out the socialists, the Catholics but the different factions were already present. For example, junkers, liberals, the minorities (Danes, Poles, French) middle class etc. Germany was unified in name only- the people did not feel 'German' until the Kaiser came along. However, his policies were supposed to unite the German people against the socialists, so whilst the German people came together under the Kasier, he encouraged the isolation of one group within Germany.

The argument is a bit of a repetitive one: mass appeal didn't come into effect until the Kaiser- unless someone fancies a debate?

I'd just approach this like any other factors question, its just a named factor, so political factors are things like policies so I'd talk about Foreign Policy or maybe political groups like the Navy League etc. But yeh it would be unlikely to come up again

Thank you very nervous, hoping for an economics question or turning point one