Congress at Frankfurt, 1863

This wood engraving satirizes the failed Frankfurt Congress of 1863, where German princes gathered to reform the German Confederation. On the left, crowned heads and diplomats strain futilely against one another—a visual pun on political deadlock. On the right, a solitary figure sits at ease, unbothered: Prussia's Otto von Bismarck, who would soon sideline such assemblies through military force.

The print descends from a rich Northern European tradition of political satire—the sharp observational humor of Hogarth and Gillray, refined through 19th-century German and Dutch caricaturists. Exaggerated features and theatrical gesture convey political failure without elaborate text. This tradition directly feeds into modern editorial cartooning and the sequential narrative comedy that would become the comic strip.