Well, up until 1815 there was only the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation, which covered mostly the German-speaking parts of Central Europe and some histori

Well, up until 1815 there was only the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation, which covered mostly the German-speaking parts of Central Europe and some historically aligned places; in reality, several dozen mostly sovereign nations under control of noblemen. But there has never been anything resembling Germany, rather Germany and Germans were defined by culture and by language. That's why Kafka could have had this mixed identity of being German (he wrote in German after all), Jewish and Czech. Following the napoleonic wars, nationalistic movements started to emerge in Europe, which, naturally, were opposed by the individual rulers of all the small states within the cultural area of Germany. Two separate ideas were discussed: the "kleindeutsche" or small solution and the "großdeutsche" or large solution, the latter including also the Austrian empire. There were two issues with the latter. Prussia and Austria were the two dominant states within the German cultural area. Austria, however, was a giant multicultural and multiethnic state with its own separatist movements. So when Bismarck pushed for unification, his aim was mostly to have Prussia gain power, not to cater to romantic ideas of pan-germanism. To achieve this, he had to keep his main potential rivals, the Austrians, at bay, and actually even fought the Austrians in the second of three unification wars (in 1866). So in a sense, the Anschluss was a step back to the "großdeutsche" solution, not some inconceivable invasion of a militarily inferior power. In the 140 years since the first German unification, Austrians and contemporary Germany have separated culturally quite a lot; but still, at least in the sphere of culture such as literature, music and the arts, Germany, Austria and German-speaking Switzerland are treated similarly. Disclaimer: IANAH and wrote it up in less than ten mminutes