From this Bismarck deliberately dissociated himself.

"I have never heard," he said, "a Prussian soldier singing, 'Was ist des Deutschen Vaterland ?'" The new flag of Germany was to be the German tricolour, black and white and gold.
"The Prussian soldiers," cried Bismarck, "have no tricoloured enthusiasm; among them you will find, as little as in the rest of the Prussian people, the desire for a national regeneration; they are contented with the name of Prussia, and proud of the name of Prussia.

These troops follow the black and white flag, not the tricolour; under the black and white they die with joy for their country.

The tricolour they have learnt since the 18th of March to look on as the colours of their foes." These words aroused intense indignation.

One of the speakers who followed referred to him as the Prodigal Son of the German Fatherland, who had deserted his father's house.