Background
The two powers faced the issue of governing the provinces when after the Second War of Schleswig the Treaty of Vienna signed on 30 October 1864 had stipulated Denmark's cession of the Elbe Duchies to victorious Prussia and Austria. The territories formerly were held by the Danish royal House of Glücksburg in personal union—while Schleswig north of the Eider River was a Danish fief, the Duchies of Holstein and Saxe-Lauenburg in the south had been Imperial States and therefore were member states of the German Confederation since 1815.
After the war, Prussia aimed at the annexation of the provinces with her state territory, against the strong resistance of the Austrians, who persisted on the status of a condominium. To ease the tensions, the Prussian minister-president Otto von Bismarck met with the Austrian envoy Gustav von Blome at the spa town of Bad Gastein in the Austrian Alps.
Read more about this topic: Gastein Convention
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