Transcript Addresses to the German Nation

What is a Nation? Germany,
the‘Special Path,’ and the Way to
1871
• The Making of the modern German state and
society.
• Germany’s transformation from maverick to
model state.
• Diversity
• No direct historical lines.
 Distinctive German way to modernity which contrasts with the standard (West
European, British, French) way:
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Industrialization: belated industrial revolution, several decades after that of England
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Failed bourgeois revolution in Germany (defeat of the democratic revolution of
1848)
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German unification not a result of the success of a liberal and democratic movement
but created by the militarist Prussian state (born in war)
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Aggression and war (Grasp for the World Power), started both World Wars
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Continuous dominance of antidemocratic, reactionary elites (Ostelbian agrarians,
estate owners, and “big business”)
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Traditions of Prussian militarism
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Culminating in: Third Reich, seen as logical result of the German “special path;”
later GDR dictatorship
 no valid normal model, suggested that there’s
something wrong with German society as a whole, very
inflexible, does not allow for historical coincidence,
individual failure, or other factors
 Wilhelmine Germany more modern than assumed
 built on a very conventional and old-fashioned
viewpoint of political history
 Still long-term factors continuities important and
relevant question
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A ‘loose association of territories that preceded the creation of the modern German
state.’ (Tim Kirk)
Usually considered to have come into being with the coronation of Charlemagne as
‘Emperor of the Romans’ in 800, but the term Holy Roman Empire of the German
Nation (Heiliges Römisches Reich deutscher Nation) was formally adopted in 1512.
At its greatest extent it encompassed modern-day Germany, Austria, Switzerland,
Holland, Belgium and parts of France and Italy.
After the Treaty of Westphalia (1648) which ended the Thirty Years War there were still
234 territories and 51 ‘Imperial Cities’.
The territories that made up the HRE were self-governing, but their sovereigns owed
allegiance to the Emperor, who was elected by 7 Elector-Princes (3 ecclesiastical, 4
secular).
Rudolf von Habsburg, Duke of Austria, became Emperor in 1273. His descendants ruled
the Empire off and on until it was abolished. From the 15th Century there were no nonHabsburg Emperors.
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Broke the power of the old Monarchical regimes and states in Central Europe.
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German nationalists, liberals and Romantics initially welcomed the French
revolution and saw the French armies as liberators.
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1805: Defeat of Austria at the Battle of Austerlitz
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1806: Defeat of Prussia at the twin battles of Jena & Auerstädt
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Napoleonic re-ordering of Germany:
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Holy Roman Empire abolished
Number of states reduced to 39
Puppet rulers installed in German states
Confederation of the Rhine formed
French legal system imposed
Source: Robert Gildea, Barricades and Borders: Europe 1800-1914 (Oxford: OUP, 1996)
Source: Martin Kitchen, The Cambridge Illustrated History of Germany (1996)
• Made up of 39 German States
• Designed to help preserve the status quo rather than as a basis
for a United Germany.
• The Austrian Chancellor Metternich saw it as a means of
preserving Austrian dominance over Germany.
• The Federal Diet (parliament) met at Frankfurt and was made
up of (unelected) representatives of all the states. It was always
chaired by the Austrian representative. In theory the Diet could
appoint ambassadors, negotiate treaties on behalf of members
and organize a Federal Army. In practice little was ever done
because the unanimous agreement of all 39 states was
required.
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Herder (1744-1803): The Volk (‘nation’
or ‘race’) is the decisive determinant of
human identity. The nation is therefore
identified not with the state (which is an
artificial body), but with the ‘organic
body’ of the Volk.
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Hegel (1770-1831): An individual only
achieved their full potential through
service to the state.
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German nationalism based on the idea
of a racial/cultural community with
shared language, history, traditions,
myths etc. Horizontal, trans-regional,
emotionally coded belonging. More
important that loyalty to the state.
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Dismissed as professor of
philosophy at the University of
Jena in 1799 for his support of
the French Revolution.
• Addresses to the German
Nation (1807-08): Argued that
France
now
represented
despotism and that it was
therefore up to ‘the German
nation’ to be the champion of
liberty. Notion of the Volk
(people)
vs
the
state.
Assymetries.
‘The Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars witnessed the
first upsurge of Nationalism in European history, partly
under the inspiration of the French armies and message of
liberation, partly in reaction against those armies and the
realities of occupation and oppression.’
Robert Gildea, Barricades and Borders: Europe 18001914 (Oxford: OUP, 1996)
• Both The Kingdom of Prussia and the Austrian Empire
incorporated territory outside the German Confederation and
non-German citizens.
• Großdeutschland (Greater Germany) – would incorporate the
German-speaking parts of the Austrian Empire and would
maintain Catholic Austria’s leadership of Germany.
• Kleindeutschland (Little Germany/lesser Germany) – would
exclude Austria but include the whole of Prussia (including her
‘Polish’ territories), leaving Protestant Prussia as the dominant
German state.
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Prussian Tariff Reform Law
(1818): Designed to protect
Prussian industry from cheap
imports & break down internal
barriers to free trade.
1818-34:
Prussia
tried
to
encourage free trade within
Germany by forming customs
unions with neighbouring states.
By 1836 the Prussian Customs
Union (Zollverein) was made up
of 25 states with a population of
26 million. Trade barriers &
customs duties between members
were abolished and there were
moves towards standardization of
weights and measures and
currency.
Meeting of the National Assembly in Frankfurt’s Paulskirche
dominated by Philipp Veit’s painting of Germania, July 1848
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5 March 1848: The Heidelberg Declaration: calls for a single
German state governed by a united German parliament.
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31 March: 574 representatives from the German states met
in Frankfurt to agree on what form the new German
parliament would take (the Vorparlament).
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After elections in April the parliament met in Frankfurt in
May 1848. It was largely made up of liberal middle-class
professionals (teachers, lawyers etc.) and was moderate in
character.
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The Assembly soon became bogged down in debate over
what form a united Germany should take and how it should
be governed.
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June: A provisional government led by the Habsburg
Archduke John was elected, but it had no real power and an
ill-defined role.
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March 1849: A Constitution for a united German Empire
agreed and the Imperial crown was offered to the King of
Prussia, who refused it. The rulers of Bavaria, Saxony and
Hanover also rejected the Constitution.
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May 1849: The parliament expelled from Frankfurt and
moved to Stuttgart.
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June 1849: The parliament forcibly broken up by the King of
Württemberg’ s troops.
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Revolutionaries man the Barricades, Berlin 1848
24 Feb. 1848: Revolution in France – King Louis
Philippe overthrown and a Republic established.
13 March: Demonstrations in Vienna lead to the fall
of Metternich
24 October: The Austrian Emperor Ferdinand (183548) abdicates in favour of his nephew Franz Josef
(1848-1916).
13 March: Prussian troops fire on demonstrators in
the palace square in Berlin, leading to 2 days of
rioting
16 March: News of Metternich’s fall reaches Berlin.
King Friedrich Wilhelm IV (1840-61) agrees in
principle to a new constitution, parliament and an
end to censorship.
18 March: More fighting in Berlin – at least 300
rioters killed by the Army.
21 March: Friedrich Wilhelm grants a series of
reforms including the appointment of a liberal
ministry.
August-November: The Prussian King reasserts his
control by sending in General Wrangel. Martial Law
is introduced in November and the liberal
constitution and parliament overturned
One of the most heterogeneous
and politically progressive
areas of Berlin
Fete de la soupe (since 2004)
• Economic
King Wilhelm I (1797-1888)
Bundesarchiv, Bild 146-1970-077-18 / Wilhelm Kuntzemüller (1845-1918) / CC-BYSA
boom in the
1850s: industrial revolution,
foreign trade & railway
building all doubled between
1851 and 1858.
• 1850-58: Minister-President
Otto von Manteuffel pursued
a policy of trying to bolster
support for the monarchy
through limited social (but
not political) reform.
• Realpolitik
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1860: Constitutional crisis in
Prussia when parliament refuses
to finance army reforms.
1862: Otto von Bismarck
appointed minister-president.
“As soon as the army shall have
been brought into such a
condition as to inspire respect, I
shall seize the first best pretext to
declare war against Austria,
dissolve the German Diet, subdue
the minor states and give national
unity to Germany under Prussian
leadership.”
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1849-50: Austrian attempts to join the Zollverein come to nothing, leaving Austria
as the political leader of the German Confederation, but economically isolated.
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1850: The ‘Capitulation at Olmütz’ – Prussia forced to abandon her plan to replace
the German Confederation with a union led jointly by Prussia and Austria.
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1862: Bismarck demanded that Austria recognize Prussia as its equal within
Germany.
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1864: German-Danish War – Austria & Prussia co-operate to prevent Denmark
from annexing the Duchies of Schleswig and Holstein. By the terms of the
Convention of Gastein: Schleswig was ceded to Prussia and Holstein to Austria.
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1866: Seven Weeks (Austro-Prussian) War – Austria brings an action against
Prussia in the Federal Diet & Prussia walks out declaring the end of the German
Confederation. Prussia decisively defeats Austria a Sadowa (Königgrätz) on 3 July.
• The Franco-Prussian War (1870-71):
The Proclamation of the German Empire
by Anton von Werner (1888)
primacy of domestic policy
• War with France created an huge
upsurge in German national feeling
– popular pressure in the South
German states to transform the
wartime alliance into a permanent
union.
• 18 January 1871: Bismarck has the
German Empire proclaimed in the
Hall of Mirrors in the Palace of
Versailles.