The National Assembly had lost this battle of wits with Franz, but they were not ready to give up.
At the time, the German Nation's nationalists were no small force. Indeed, victory in the war against a foreign power had multiplied their strength and influence countless times over.
Meanwhile, after the war against France ended, large numbers of Austrian Imperial troops had rushed to the Hungarian front. Some units had even been disbanded on the spot.
After much deliberation, the members of the Frankfurt National Assembly decided to issue a call to all Germans:
"Let all who believe in democracy, equality, and freedom unite to overthrow the tyranny of the Emperor of Austria, and let the sunshine of democracy, freedom, and fraternity pierce the boundless darkness cast by autocratic emperors.
"Better to be German than an Austrian dog."
In truth, even with the main Austrian forces away, the fighting strength they had demonstrated had terrified the vast majority of nationalist officers. No one wanted to cross swords with them.
However, the Austrian Empire had already begun establishing a basic social insurance system and had started implementing it in some of the imperial factories. This filled the National Assembly's elite with an imminent sense of dread.
Their victory in the war against France had given the Assembly's grandees the mistaken impression that the German Allied Forces were very strong—at least as strong as the Austrian Imperial Army.
The Austrians had to deal with the Hungarians and had even made the blunder of laying down their arms and turning their horses out to pasture, while most of the German Allied Forces were gathered in Frankfurt and the Rhineland.
This was a gift from heaven. If they united the nationalists of all Germany and took Vienna by surprise, they could use their strength