HI 290 History of Germany Nation and Nationalism

HI 290 - History of Germany Nation and Nationalism: The making of Modern Germany

Module Themes • The Making of the modern German state and society. • Germany’s transformation from maverick to model state. • Diversity • No direct historical lines.

Germany’s ‘special path’ (Deutscher sonderweg) • Distinctive German way to modernity which contrasts with the standard (West European, British, French) way: • Industrialization: belated industrial revolution, several decades after that of England • Failed bourgeois revolution in Germany (defeat of the democratic revolution of 1848) • German unification not a result of the success of a liberal and democratic movement but created by the militarist Prussian state (born in war) • Weimar republic not accepted by large part of the population, seen as a result of the defeat and forced onto Germany by the victorious Entente • Continuous dominance of antidemocratic, reactionary elites (ostelbian agrarians, estate owners and “big business”) • Traditions of Prussian militarism • Culminating in: Third Reich, seen as logical result of the German “special path”

Criticism of the Sonderweg Theory • Not a valid or 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 often assumed. • Built on a very conventional and old-fashioned viewpoint of political history. • Nevertheless: still important and relevant questions concerning the long-term factors and continuities in modern German history.

The Germanies in history: • The Holy Roman Empire, c. 800 -1806 • The Confederation of the Rhine, 1806 -1815 • The German Confederation, 1815 -1871 • Second Empire: Imperial Germany, 1871 -1918: with Bismarck (1871 -1890) and Wilhelmine Germany (1890 -1918) • The Weimar Republic, 1918 -1933 • The Third Reich (Nazi Germany), 1933 -1945 • Allied Occupation of Germany, 1945 -49 • The Federal Republic of Germany (West), 1949 • The German Democratic Republic (East), 1949 -1990 • Reunited Germany, since 1990, and since 1998, “The Berlin Republic”

The Rise of Prussia

‘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 1800 -1914 (Oxford: OUP, 1996)

Johann Gottlieb Fichte (1762 -1814) • 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. The Volk (people) should thus rise up and drive out the invader.

Wars of Liberation Georg Friedrich Kersting, On Sentry Duty (1815) – showing three Freikorps volunteers of the Wars of Liberation.

Source: Martin Kitchen, The Cambridge Illustrated History of Germany (1996)

The Beginnings of German Nationalism • Johann Gottfried von 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. • Johann Goethe (1749 -1832): No need for a nation-state – Germany was a ‘cultural community’ like Ancient Greece. • Geog Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770 -1831): An individual only achieved their full potential through service to the state. • German nationalism based on the idea of a racial/cultural community with shared language, history, traditions, myths etc.

Which Germany? • 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) – would exclude Austria but include the whole of Prussia (including her ‘Polish’ territories), leaving Protestant Prussia as the dominant German state.

The Zollverein Early 19 th century cartoon supporting the elimination of customs barriers between states

The 1848 Revolutions • 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 (1835 -48) 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. Martial Law is introduced in November and the liberal constitution and parliament overturned Revolutionaries man the Barricades, Berlin 1848

The Frankfurt Parliament Meeting of the National Assembly in Frankfurt’s Paulskirche dominated by Philipp Veit’s painting of Germania, July 1848 • 5 March 1848: The Heidelberg Declaration: calls for a single German state governed by a united German parliament. • 31 March: 574 representatives from the German states met in Frankfurt to agree on what form the new German parliament would take (the Vorparlament). • 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. • The Assembly soon became bogged down in debate over what form a united Germany should take and how it should be governed. • June: A provisional government led by the Habsburg Archduke John was elected, but it had no real power and an ill-defined role. • 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. • May 1849: The parliament expelled from Frankfurt and moved to Stuttgart. • June 1849: The parliament forcibly broken up by the King of Württemberg’ s troops.

The Development of Prussia King Wilhelm I (1797 -1888) Bundesarchiv, Bild 146 -1970 -077 -18 / Wilhelm Kuntzemüller (1845 -1918) / CC-BY-SA • Economic boom in the 1850 s: industrial production, 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. • 1858: Friedrich Wilhelm IV declared insane and his brother Wilhelm becomes regent. • 1858: The ‘New Era’ – Wilhelm I appoints a mixed ministry of liberals and conservatives and the Liberals gain 55% of the seats in the Prussian Diet.

Enter Bismarck… • 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. ”

Austro-Prussian Rivalry and Wars of Unification • 1849 -50: Austrian attempts to join the Zollverein come to nothing, leaving Austria as the political leader of the German Confederation, but economically isolated. • 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. • 1862: Bismarck demanded that Austria recognize Prussia as its equal within Germany. • 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. • 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.

Germany United The Proclamation of the German Empire by Anton von Werner (1888) • The Franco-Prussian War (1870 -71) • 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: Proclamation of the German Empire in the Hall of Mirrors in the Palace of Versailles.