The source under discussion is an excerpt from a letter written by František Palacký in response to the invitation of the Vorparlament (pre-parliament) to discuss the national constitution of the assembly. The letter itself was written on April 11, 1848, at the height of the European revolutions. The debate over Palacký's response was mainly about the formation of nation states. Specifically, whether Austria should or wants to form a political alliance with Germany. Would Germany have remained small with Prussian leadership or would it have become larger with unification with Austria? In reality the purpose of the initial invitation was to gain the support of the Czechs to build a superior national state. During this period the Austrian Empire saw a variety of different ethnicities, some of which held a dominant majority, such as Germany. The Czechs at that time were also a predominant ethnic group and had been encouraged to have a sense of pride in relation to their language and literature almost as a means of separating them from the Germans, a reminder of their heritage and a rejection of the "German". good manners and regime'. Considering that the Czechs did not feel united or sympathetic to the Germans, Palacký's refusal to adhere to the constitution is not unexpected. In fact, Palacký emphasizes at the beginning of the letter that he was not "German, at least I don't feel like one" and therefore should not have been included in the proceedings, his lack of German origins making him irrelevant to the situation. . Palacký, however, includes reasons why Austria and Germany should merge together and suggests how they should go about doing so. He states that it is logical that Germany... middle of paper... the situation in 1848 and that the Czechs. Although it may not have had much importance in relation to the potential of Austro-German unification, it became one of the most key political statements leading to the development of Czech national politics. Works Cited Encyclopaedia Britannica, Frankfurt National Assembly, http ://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/217271/Frankfurt-National-AssemblyF. Palacky to the Committee of Fifty, Frankfurt am Main, 11 April 1848 The Age of the Sage, Germany and the Revolution of 1848, http://www.age-of-the-sage.org/history/1848/german_revolution.htmlBooks Open Edition, Letter to Frankfurt, 11 April 1848, http://books.openedition.org/ceup/2345Discourse on collective identity in central and south-eastern Europe (1770-1945), ed. by Balázs Trencsényi and Michal Kopeček (Hungary: Central European University Press, 2007)