North German Confederation, 1867–71, alliance of 22 German states N of the Main River. Dominated by Prussia, it replaced the German Confederation German Confederation, 1815–66, union of German states provided for at the Congress of Vienna to replace the old Holy Roman Empire, which had been destroyed during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.
..... Click the link for more information. and included the states that had supported Prussia in the Austro-Prussian War (1866). The South German states, notably Bavaria, Baden, Württemberg, and the grand duchy of Hesse, though excluded from the confederation, were nevertheless closely bound to it through their membership in the Zollverein Zollverein (tsôl`fərīn`) [Ger.,=customs union], in German history, a customs union established to eliminate tariff barriers.
..... Click the link for more information. . Prepared in broad outline by Otto von Bismarck Bismarck, Otto von (bĭz`märk, Ger.
..... Click the link for more information. , the constitution of the confederation, when adopted by the members, provided for a federal council (Bundesrat), composed of deputies from the states, and a lower house (Reichstag), elected by direct manhood suffrage. Prussia exercised predominant influence in both bodies. Executive power was vested in the president—the king of Prussia—who appointed the federal chancellor (as it turned out, Bismarck). The states retained their own governments, but the military forces were controlled by the federal government. In 1871 this constitution was adopted, with some changes, by the German Empire, which replaced the confederation.

North German Confederation

(1867–71) Union of the German states north of the Main River, formed after Prussia's victory in the Seven Weeks' War. The confederation recognized the individual states' rights but was effectively controlled by Prussia, whose king served as its president and whose chancellor was Otto von Bismarck. Its constitution served as a model for that of the German Empire, with which it merged in 1871.