Translation:Peace of Prague (1866)

In the name of the Most Holy and Inseparable Trinity!

His Majesty the King of Prussia and His Majesty the Emperor of Austria, urged by the desire to return the benefits of peace to their lands, have decided to remodel the preliminaries signed at Nikolsburg^[1] on 26 July 1866 into a definitive peace treaty.

To this end, Their Majesties have appointed as their authorised representatives:

His Majesty the King of Prussia

Their chamberlain, True Geheimrat member and authorised representative, Carl Freiherr von Werther, Great Cross of the Royal Prussian Red Eagle Order with Oakleaf and the Imperial Austrian Leopold Order etc.^[2]

and His Majesty the Emperor of Austria

Their True Geheimrat member and chamberlain, extraordinary envoy and authorised representative Minister, Adolph Maria Freiherr von Brenner-Felsach, Commander of the Imperial Austrian Leopold Order and Knight of the Royal Prussian Red Eagle Order First Class etc.^[3]

who have convened in Prague at a conference and, after inquiry of their authorisations to be in good and correct form, have jointly reached the following articles:

Article I

In the future, an everlasting peace and friendship shall reign between His Majesty the King of Prussia and His Majesty the Emperor of Austria, as well their heirs and successors to the respective states and subjects.

Article II

In order to execute Article VI of the peace preliminaries agreed in Nikolsburg on 26 July this year, and after His Majesty the Emperor of the French has administrively declared to His Majesty the King of Prussia through his certified messenger at Nikolsburg on 29 July: „qu'en ce qui concerne le Gouvernement de l'Empereur, la Vénétie est acquise á l'ltalie pour lui étre remise á la paix",^[4] - His Majesty the Emperor of Austria from his side also accedes to this declaration, and grants his permission to the unification of the Lombardo-Venetian Kingdom with the Kingdom of Italy without any other annoying condition, as a liquidation of all debts, which adhering to the ceded territories, will be recognised, in agreement with the stipulations of the Treaty of Zürich.

Article III

The prisoners of war will be released immediately.

Article IV

His Majesty the Emperor of Austria recognises the dissolution of the present German Confederation and grants his permission to a new design of Germany without the participation of the Austrian Imperial State. Likewise, His Majesty promises to recognise the narrower federal relationship that the King of Prussia will form north of the line of the River Main, and declares to agree that the German states lying to the south of this line will join each other in a Union, to whom the national connection to the North German Confederation of the close understanding between both will be reserved and that will have an internationally independent existence.

Article V

His Majesty the Emperor of Austria transfers to His Majesty the King of Prussia all his rights to the Duchies of Holstein and Schleswig as acquired in the Peace of Vienna of 30 October 1864, with the proviso that the populations of the northern districts of Schleswig, if they will indicate by free plebiscite a desire to be united with Denmark, will be ceded to Denmark.^[5]

Article VI

According to His Majesty the Emperor of Austria's wish, His Majesty the King of Prussia declares himself prepared, at the upcoming changes in Germany, to continue to let the present territorial expansion of the Kingdom of Saxony exist in its current extent, however he does reserve Saxony's contribution to the war treasury and the future accession of the Kingdom of Saxony to the North German Confederation, to be concluded by a separate peace treaty with His Majesty the King of Saxony. On the other hand, His Majesty the Emperor of Austria promises to recognise the new arrangements to be made by His Majesty the King of Prussia in Northern Germany, including the territorial changes.

Article VII

In order to deal with the present ownership of the Confederation, a commission will convene in Frankfurt am Main within at most six weeks after the ratification of the present Treaty; at this convention, joint demands and claims to the German Confederation are to be announced and resolved within six months. Prussia and Austria will have themselves represented in this commission, and all other present governments of the Confederation are allowed to do the same.

Article VIII

Austria retains its right to the Imperial property inside the Fortresses of the Confederation,^[6] and to remove the Austrian matricular share from the movable property of the Confederation, or to otherwise employ it; the same goes for all of the movable assets of the Confederation.

Article IX

The state officials, civil servants and pensioners of the Confederation will be guaranteed their due or already granted pensions in proportion of the register; however, the Royal Prussian Government will take over the pensions which have hitherto been borne by the Federal Register Treasury and support for officers of the former Schleswig–Holstein Army and their survivors.

Article X

The interest of the pensions guaranteed by the Imperial Austrian Governorship in Holstein remains in place to the interested parties.

The sum of 449,500 Reichsthaler in Danish Imperial Coins in four-percent Danish government bonds, still in custody of the Imperial Austrian Government, but belonging to the Holsteinian finances, will be refunded to the latter immediately after the ratification of the present Treaty.

No inhabitant of the Duchies of Holstein and Schleswig, and no subject of Their Majesties the King of Prussia and the Emperor of Austria will be persecuted, worried or complained about in his person or his property on account of his political stance during the latest events and the war.

Article XI

His Majesty the Emperor of Austria obliges himself to pay His Majesty the King of Prussia the sum of forty million Prussian Thaler, in order to cover a part of Prussia's costs grown out of the war. However, the amount of money in war costs from this sum is reduced by fifteen million Prussian Thaler which His Majesty the Emperor of Austria is still to exact from the Duchies of Schleswig and Holstein according to Article XII of the Peace of Vienna of 30 October 1864, and by five million Prussian Thaler as the equivalent of the free medical treatment which the Prussian Army enjoys in the Austrian territories they've occupied until the conclusion of peace, so that only twenty million Prussian Thaler remain to be paid.

Half of this sum will be corrected simultaneously with the mutual ratification of the present Treaty, the second half three weeks later in Oppeln.^[7]

Article XII

The withdrawal of the Royal Prussian Troops occupying the Austrian territories will be completed within three weeks after the mutual ratification of the Peace Treaty.

From the day of mutual ratification on, the Prussian General-Government will restrict its functions to the purely military operational scope.

The special regulations according to which this withdrawal is to take place, are stipulated in a separate protocol, that constitutes an attachment to the present Treaty.

Article XIII

All treaties and agreements concluded before the war between the high contracting parties will, insofar these will not by their nature have to lose their working after the dissolution of the German Confederal relations, hereby enter into force again. Specifically, the General Cartel Convention between the States of the German Confederation of 10 February 1831,^[8] together with the corresponding supplementary provisions, retain their validity between Prussia and Austria.

However, the Imperial Austrian Government declares that the monetary treaty concluded on 24 January 1857 would lose its most important value for Austria by the dissolution of the German Confederal relations, and the Royal Prussian Government declares to be prepared to take part in negotiations with Austria and the other participants because of the abolition of this treaty. Likewise, the high coutracting parties reserve the right to negotiate as soon as possible a revision of the Trade and Customs Treaty^[9] of 11 April 1865, in the sense of a greater facilitation of traffic going both ways. In the meantime, the proposed treaty is to enter into force again, with the stipulation that each of the high contracting parties should be allowed to leave it to be effective in six months after an announcement.

Article XIV

The ratifications of the present Treaty should be exchanged in Prague within a period of eight days, or earlier if possible. In accordance with this, the authorised representatives concered have signed the present Treaty and provided the seal of their coats of arms.

Thus done in Prague, on the twenty-third day of the month of August, in the year of salvation, eighteen hundred sixty and six.

(L. S.) Werther (L. S.) Brenner

Notes (Wikisource)

1. Modern-day Mikulov in the Czech Republic.
2. Karl Anton Philipp von Werther (1809–1894).
3. Adolph von Brenner-Felsach (1814–1883).
4. Translation from French: "That concerning the government of the Emperor, Venetia [i.e. the Kingdom of Lombardy–Venetia] is acquired by Italy in order to bring it back to peace."
5. See Bismarck's notes on Article V of the Peace of Prague (1866).
6. The Fortresses of the German Confederation were located in Mainz, Luxembourg, Landau, Ulm and Rastatt.
7. Modern-day Opole in Poland.
8. Allgemeinen Kartell-Konvention vom 10. Febr. 1831 für sämtliche deutsche Bundesstaaten über gegenseitige Auslieferung der militärischen Überläufer ("General Cartel Convention of 10 February 1831 for all States of the German Confederation on the Mutual Exchange of Military Defectors").
9. The Zollverein, or German Customs Union.