The sudden pause of the Near East War jolted many within the Austrian Government awake. There's no surprise here, the great powers are no fools—they wouldn't allow a unified German Empire to rise and compete for their spoils.
This was within Franz's expectations, unlike the historical existence of the Empire, the present Austria seemed much more powerful.
While deterring the nations of Europe, it was also inevitable to attract their wariness. At this time, diplomatic means became extremely important; blindly using brute force is not the act of the wise.
Berlin
Metternich proposed the partition of the German Region to the Prussian Government, and without a doubt, the Prussians were not fools—the two sides found it very difficult to come to an agreement.
Austria could easily annex the South German Region, but for Prussia to annex the Northern Germany was very troublesome, a matter of soft power.