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Even the way the first unification happened was kinda ass. You basically had Prussia, which was essentially a military junta (that was already occupying vast swathes of Polish land) acting as a regional power that then decided it was their right to gobble up all the smaller Germanic states under the pretext of national unity and pride (except Austria, because they hated the Austrians and wanted them as a buffer against Russia and the Ottoman Empire).
The resulting German Empire they created was really just a larger Prussian Empire where the Prussian aristocracy ruled over all the other German states that had no say in domestic or foreign policy.
This inevitably resulted in the “German” Empire warring and undermining all their neighbours (like Prussia used to), engaging in aggressive imperialism and colonialism abroad (leading to the worst atrocities seen in the colonial era) and eventually, World War 1.
Even after the Kaiser was overthrown and the Weimar Republic was established, it was a well known fact that real power still lay in the old Prussian aristocracy that was backed by the German military (which was also full of Prussian nobles still) which in turn controlled the Reichstag and prevented progressive politicians or any working class movements from making any changes to the system.
This swath of contradictions is what inevitably gave rise to the Nazis, and the rest is history.