(1815–66) Organization of the states of central Europe, established by the Congress of Vienna to replace the destroyed Holy Roman Empire .
It was a loose political association of 39 German states, formed for mutual defense, with no central executive or judiciary. Delegates met in a federal diet dominated by Austria. Amid a growing call for reform and economic integration, conservative leaders, including Klemens, prince von Carlsbad Decrees (1819), and in the 1830s Metternich led the federal diet in passing additional measures to crush liberalism and nationalism. The formation of the Zollverein and the Revolutions of 1848 undermined the confederation. It was dissolved with the Austro-Prussian War (1866) and the establishment of the North German Confederation .