Peace of Prague (1866)

Two signatures at Prague

At Prague on 23 August 1866, the Prussian plenipotentiary Karl von Werther and the Austrian plenipotentiary Adolph Maria von Brenner-Felsach signed a definitive peace treaty, converting the Nikolsburg preliminaries of 26 July into a final settlement.

Bismarck had shaped and signed those preliminaries. He is not among the two names printed beneath the Prague document, and neither are Wilhelm I or Franz Joseph.

What Austria gave up

Austria recognised the dissolution of the existing German Confederation and accepted a reorganisation of Germany without Austrian participation, including a Prussian-led federation north of the Main.

It also consented to the union of the Lombardo-Venetian Kingdom with Italy and transferred its Schleswig-Holstein rights to Prussia. Austria had already placed Venetia in Napoleon III's hands, so the article consented to that union rather than ceding territory directly, and Austria and Italy made their own Peace of Vienna in October.

Deadlines, and a discounted indemnity

The nominal indemnity was 40 million Prussian thalers, but deductions written into the same article cut the cash payment to 20 million.

One article ordered prisoners of war on both sides released immediately. Ratifications were to be exchanged within eight days, and Prussian troops were to leave occupied Austrian territory within three weeks of ratification.

Two things in the listing do not come from the treaty: Article IV carries no parenthetical about Luxembourg and Limburg, and the terms were comparatively lenient toward Austria itself — Prussia's annexations principally affected the northern German states that had sided with it.