Liberal German Empire

In this timeline, the German Empire is not stuck with an ultra-reactionary overpowered chancellor for two centuries after its unification, thus the political and diplomatical development takes a different turn.

Events leading up to PoD
After a series of quick wars in the 1860's and a final war against France in 1870, the German Empire was founded on January 18, 1871 in Versailles, France. Under the guidance of the "iron chancellor" Otto von Bismarck, a staunchly reactionary power-hungry political genius, the new Empire was given a constitution which made the chancellor the most powerful position, while the parliament was diminished to a mere tool used to justify the chancellor's actions through popular backing. During the first decade of the Empire, Bismarck single-handedly destroyed the liberal party by forcing it to ally with him and thus commit treason to its core beliefs, while he was at the same time waging war on the Catholic minority and later also on the social-democratic laborer's party. In diplomatic terms, Bismarck tried to prevent further wars by entangling Germany and its neighbours in an intricate web of alliances and securities while escalating conflicts on the peripheries of Europe to steer them away from Germany.

Synopsis of OTL
The old Emperor Wilhelm I. lived to his 90s, thus preventing his liberal-minded, anglophile son Friedrich from rising to power. Bismarck's internal policies destroyed the German party system and cemented the non-democratic constitution. When the diplomatic web of treaties became more and more entangled, Germany lost its traditional dynastic bonds to Russia and thus had to lean on the weak Austrian monarchy for protection. When old Kaiser Wilhelm I. died in 1888, his liberal son Friedrich only outlived him for some 90 days. The new Emperor Wilhelm II did dispose of Bismarck, but pursued a very arrogant diplomatic course and thus alienated Britain even further. With the Great War of 1914, Germany fought at the side of Austria against almost all its neighbors and finally lost, making way for the later rise of Adolf Hitler and all the terror that went with him.

Point of Deviation
In this timeline, Kaiser Wilhelm I. died at age 68 in 1874, being succeeded by his son Friedrich III. While Friedrich himself was too weak-willed to oppose the chancellor, his wife Victoria (a daughter of Britain's Empress of the same name) was well known for her emancipation and willpower. In the fourteen years of their rule, the Empire was transformed into a true constitutional monarchy based on the model of the United Kingdom, stabilizing the democratic system while retaining its rich monarchical traditions.

1874-1876: Political war and French ultimatum
When Wilhelm I died, the German economy was ride in the middle of a downhill slide following the boom of the "Gründerzeit" (Founding Epoch). Chancellor Bismarck detested the libaral anglophile ideas represented by the new Emperor and his wife, so he started a political war on his monarch. While most of the industrial, financial and intellectual elites sided with the Emperor, the traditional pillars of the Reich, military and nobility, sided with Bismarck. Emperor Friedrich's and Empress Victoria's lobby did prevail in the Reichstag (parliament), but Chancellor Bismarck repeatedly dissolved the parliament to undo any political progress that could be made. When the crisis escalated to the brink of a civil war in late 1875 over the issue of free trade vs. protectionism, France sensed its chance to snatch Alsace-Lorraine which it lost only four years ago to the Reich and issued an ultimatum: Return the territory or face war.

This ultimatum came too early for Bismarck's diplomatic plans, as the "Dreikaiserabkommen" of 1873, a treaty between the Emperors of Germany, Austria and Russia, only held general phrases about not provoking war and trying to solve any differences diplomatically. There were no formal alliances in place yet, so everything depended on the ambitions of the other European powers.

The United Kingdom under the rule of Queen Victoria and Premier Minister Benjamin Disraeli saw the crowning of the anglophil German Emperor and Emperess, the latter a daughter of the Queen herself, as a major turning point in European history. While they did not openly side with Germany against France, they made it clear that the UK would not tolerate a revanchist war in Europe.

Russia under Czar Alexander II had fully recovered from the disastrous Crimean War. Political reforms strengthened the Russian economy and military, while the marriage of the Czar's only daughter to a British duke just a few months ago mended the relations between the two powers. With the Dreikaiserabkommen, Russia found itself closer to Germany than to France, even if there was no formal alliance yet.

Austria had no ambitions for a war on the Western Front, as all its power was needed to hold together what it already owned. However, threatened by both Russia and Italy and with a revanchist Ottoman Empire and the Balkan powder keg to its south, Germany was the only friend it had and thus Kaiser Franz Joseph I openly supported the Germans against France, hoping to scare France away from waging war.