Expressions of German Nationalism 1815-1847

“The highest form of religion is to love the fatherland more passionately than laws and princes, fathers and mothers, wives and children.”

Quite strong words indeed which, while at the beginning of the restoration period, serves as an illustration of the use of a common history as a basis for unification.

Later in answer and perhaps with resignation to the tune to which Germany danced under Metternich; Ardnt in the late 1820’s writes;

“Oh Fatherland! You do not lack brave, bold hearts; you lack brave and bold voices which will proclaim with fervour and love you needs and your salvation”

Johan Joseph von Görres in1815 published a book with the title ‘Germanys Future Constitution.’  This title was widely distributed and discussed throughout Germany.  The publication clearly advocates the “grasping of this unprecedented opportunity” which Görres meant to mean the new confederation of German states and the possibility of the establishment of a forward looking constitutional confederation similar to the American model.  His argument was the creation of a unified Germany under an emperor with a national army in place, free trade within the empire and an imperial judicial tribunal.  The response to this from the Federal Diet was to shut down his periodical early in 1816.

The views that each of these authors expressed at the beginning of the period were certainly not held in isolation by these men alone.  The occupation parts of Germany had experienced under French rule had heightened the sense that the German language and culture was a unique entity.  Especially following Napoleons implantation of the French language as the language of administration which was seen as an attempt to destroy German culture did Nationalist ideology prevail over notions of Weltburgertum.  As Tenbrook notes the “robbing [by the French] of German character became obvious, resulting in the birth of a German national consciousness.”  

The Students and the Reactionaries

        In the spring of 1817 at Wartburg Castle in Thuringia gathered more than 500 members of Burschenschaften from universities all around the country.  This provided an opportunity for discussion, networking and celebration that as it transpired was the last above ground opportunity for this to happen.  The choice of location was particularly symbolic on several levels particularly due to Wartburg castle being the place that Luther had translated the Holy Bible into the German vernacular and had penned many of his hymns, all in the utmost secrecy.  Late at night on the final day of the gathering the insignia of the Prussian military and some federal documents were burned in a ceremony loaded with symbolism.  Following this all Burschenschaften were deemed illegal by the federal diet and the movement was driven underground.  It seems that this had the effect of further radicalising the movement into something of a resistance organization and amongst many of the members the adoption of old German costume became a symbol of affiliation for many.

The precise origin of the German tricolour is unknown but it was from the Burschenschaften that it came into widespread use.  The black, red and gold represented “the struggle out of the black knight of slavery through the red blood of battle to the golden day of liberty.”  The tricolour became known throughout Germany and was associated with the struggle against reaction and desire for constitutional government of the progressive political groups of the day.

The reactionary stance of the government proved to be a very salient feature of Metternichs Germany.  From the congress of Vienna arose an alliance between the Hapsburg Empire and the Tsar of Russia Alexander III who was noted for his extreme reaction within the Russian empire.  This was to prove fatal for one man who happened to hold the post of editor for a periodical financed directly by the Tsar himself.  This periodical entitled Literaeische Wochenblatt unsurprisingly was aligned with the Tsars own line of thought and consequently ‘inveighed against German nationalism and liberalism.’

August von Kotzebue (1761-1819) a playwright of some repute whom had spent many years at the court of the Tsar in his service was this man. Kotzebue was murdered by a young Burschenschaften named Karl Ludwig Sand (1795-1819) who had been a member of one of the most radical of the Burschenschaften groups named der Schwartzen with an inner circle known as der Unbedingten .  Sand obviously took offence at both the Russian involvement in German politics and the conservative nature of Kotzebues editorials. 

Der Schwartzen was founded Karl Follen whose poem der Großes Leid (the great song) was a radical tract intended to be passed on solely by word of mouth and never written down.  This work did influence on many liberal and nationalist thinkers not least of all Georg Büchner, the case of whom shall be later discussed.

It seems that Sand had committed his deed in a religious fervour and had for several months previous to the assassination kept a diary recording his thoughts and feelings about what he was preparing to do.  Following an unsuccessful suicide attempt Sand was executed nearly one year later.

The response to this act was the introduction of the Karlsbader Berschlüsse (Carlsbad decrees) by the Federal Diet.  The decrees were aimed at ‘ferreting out’ or otherwise removing subversives from positions of influence.  This meant university educated progressives everywhere were investigated for their nationalist or liberal views.  The Berschlüsse provided for supervision of university lectures by government officials.  This was in order to “observe carefully the spirit shown…in their lectures …[and] to give salutary direction to the teaching.” Press censorship was further institutionalised  as all papers, periodicals and books up to 320 pages long required official permission in order to be published.  Measures were taken to limit the independence of the Lutheran and reformed churches in Prussia especially but all throughout Germany because the independence and influence was feared by reactionary monarchs.  Gymnastic societies, and other political clubs too, were outlawed and all those successfully prosected under the Karlsbader Berschlüsse were to be prevented from state sector employment and educational opportunities throughout the entire German confederation.

While Sands act was indeed shocking but so too was the increasingly repressive nature of the German Confederation.  Görres published in 1819 an essay titled Kotzebue und was Ihn gemordet, which was an attack on both the despotic repression that was coming from above and violent agitation from below.  It was as he observed correctly a fight between the old order meaning the absolutists and the new order referring to the young generation.  Görres concluded that the murder of Kotzebue was just a sign of the times.  As a result of his particular text Görres was forced to flee to Strasbourg and remained there for the following eight years.

Biedermeier Germany

From the 1820s onwards the dominant form of (available) literature embraced domesticity and bourgeoisie values.  Following the restoration period it was termed the Biedermeier movement by literature critics.  Biedermeier literature had been described as ‘stodgy’ and as extremely moralistic.  It generally took the form of the novella and its authors were born in the mid to late 18th century.  With regard to content a close comparison can be found in English literature of the Victorian age.  The literature of choice for the emerging comfortable Bourgeoisie middle-class Biedermeier reflected values of “cleanlieness, decency, morality and strong family bonds.”  

However insular the literature may have been there was no escaping the fact that Germany was in a state of transition.  The economy was shifting away from the form it had taken for centuries and a large labour force was employed in factories while a larger number moved to cities in search of employment.  The birth rate was increasing and small states such as Saxe-Weimar sponsored immigration in an attempt to allay Malthusian fears of overpopulation.

 For a number of reasons then the cultural climate changed in the early 1830s.  Perhaps the most important political development contributing to this change was the July revolution in France.  The conservative Bourbon rulers, who had been placed on the throne after Napoleons defeat and exile were deposed by Loius-Phillipe (1773-1850), known s the Citizen King and identified with sectors of the middle classes.  This was a signal for other European uprisings and even in some German states there were disturbances and protests.  However these changes were only part of a deeper process bought by the onset and continuation of the industrial revolution.

Young Germany

The Ancien Regime had in Germany it seems reached the point of no return and a new generation of writers came of age the Junges Deutschland.  These authors were largely borne after 1800 and the values and ideals that they presented after 1830 were directly in contrast with the Biedermeier writers.   A conservative form of post-romantic and post-classical literature Biedermeier was the opposite side of the coin to Junges Deutschland in that both subsets made an attempt to reconcile the experience of the post-Napoleonic years with the expectations for the future.  The Young Germany writers can be seen as the first representatives of a progressive literary modernity to appear in Germany.

There are two terms applied to the progressive literature entire Restoration period Vormärz and Junges Deutschland.  The former literally means before March meaning the revolutions March 1848 while the latter was a group of five writers who were singled out and labelled by the Federal Diet as too radical.  The choice of label given them reflects the broader European political scene at the time in that similarities were seen in other European movements in literature and social life such as  ‘das Junge Europa’ in Switzerland, ‘Giovine Italia’ in Italy and ‘ La Jeune Francais.’ 

Choosing to write in a more journalistic and direct style than their older Biedermeier counterparts these authors favoured forms such as prose, essays and travel writings.  

  Stahl writing in 1970 notes “Their main literary merits consist in a flair for significant descriptive detail and the acute analysis of motivation as the product of personality and environment.”  However Stahl derides the authors as being too Byronistic, modish and for being ‘der Zerrissenne.”  

Because the writers of Junges Deutschland were anything but a coherent group of authors except in the minds of reactionaries in order to gain some idea of what they represented an examination of their detractors may be of use.

The opposition to Junges Deutschland is personified in Wolfgang Menzel.  As the editor of a journal Menzel took every opportunity to denounce the Young Germany and played a leading role in the legitimisation of repression during the period of Restoration.  

In his youth Menzel was a member of the very first Burschenschaften at Jena University and subsequently was very heavily influenced by Jahn and Folley.  Yet his sense of Nationalismus clearly was not expressed in the radical terms of Karl Sand for he presided as editor of Literatureblatt part of the Stuttgart Morgenblatt für gebildete Stände (Morning Journal for the Educated Classes) for a period of 42 years.  The example of Menzel serves to illustrate that not all Burschenshafter were consumed by anti—reactionary ideals.  

It was his attacks on liberalism that preceding the definition of and banning of the Junges Deutschland movement in 1835 that sanctioned and gave impetus to this action in the minds of the middle classes.  He accusations against liberal authors consisted of “frivolity, Francophone attitudes, immorality and Jewishness” also of “irreligion and [a profound] lack of patriotism.”

In reviewing a novel by Gutzkow he states, “I find here a novel by Mr. Gutzkow which is puffed up with impudence and obscenity, and now I must perform my duty, such mentality can grow only out of the deepest mire of demoralization, out of a brothel.  Mr. Gutzkow has taken it upon himself to transplant this wicked French shame, which, in the arms of harlots, slanders God and Germany.”

        On the 10th of December 1835 the Federal Diet passed a resolution banning all past, present and future writings of Heine, Gutzkow, Laube, Wienbarg and Mundt.  Perhaps, it must be said, out of the fear of their influence rather than the actual weight of the authors.

Vormärz

        Aside from the Junges Deutschland authors there were a great many who can be filed under the heading of Vormärz.  The two brothers Wilhelm von Schlegel (1767-1845) and Friedrich von Schlegel (1772-1829) were both writers who preceded Young Germany.  Their ideas are typical expressions of distaste for absolutist rule couched in the rhetoric of nationalism.

Wilhelm von Schlegel, “there is at this moment but one aim for me; to point out to the Germans the picture of their old glory, their old dignity and freedom in the light of former times; I mist kindle every spark of national sentiment where ever it may slumber.  Sentiments must reunite what external circumstances have kept apart.”  

And from Friedrich von Schlegels influential ‘Proclamation to the Saxons’ comes this extract. “Its just this division which has always been our misfortune. Unfortunately I see the traces of it creeping up again everywhere; of all times now, when it matters so much that it should not be a question of Saxony, Prussia, Hanover or the like but of Germany.”

Both of these quotes again show that concepts of freedom, liberty and the pursuit of happiness were bound within the collective unification of German states.  It is hard to say how much of this desire for unity would have been expressed had constitutional government been the norm.  It is clear from the example of Menzel that Nationalistic feelings were not the sole domain of liberal or so-called radical thinkers.  It is just that while some wished to take advantage of liberation and the French experience to forge a Germany governed by a single constitution others devoted their nationalismus towards the aristocracy and the aincen regime.

For many of the literate radicals the task ahead was to make the people aware of their exploitation and of an alternative to their desperate condition through the promise of socialism.  

Georg Büchner

Georg Büchner (1813-1837) is an example of such a man whom, born as Germany was being liberated at Leipzig, is a product of the early years of the ferment of Restoration.  In himself he is a testimony of social conscience highlighting the struggle of the age.  Büchner remains remarkable not only for his achievements in the field of Science but literature too during what can be described only as a short and dramatic life, but also as a shining example of a Burschenshafter and the momentum the movement gained.  While the example of Karl Sand is rather extreme in its illustration of revolutionary dedication both he and Büchner show signs of the urgency that must have been felt by the generation emergent.  Showing that many members of the next generation found themselves by default as being ideologically contrary to Metternichian ideals of absolution and the entire ruling class of Germany.

Der Hessische Landbote (the Hessian courier) is the title of Büchners first pamphlet.  Its subject matter was intended to shock though its images of exploitation and oppression that faced the common people.  Swiftly acted against by the authorities the printer and publisher were arrested and spent several years in jail while Büchner escaped home to Darmstadt.  Büchner was under suspicion and had his movements tracked and lodgings searched on several occasions yet this did not stop him from pursuing his revolutionary goals.

Büchner was the leader of Gesellschaft der Menschenrechte  (the Society for Human Rights), which was modelled closely on the Burschenschaften of which he had established two branches within Germany with the express purpose of manufacturing revolution.  Members were involved in weapons training and the Society of Human Rights had a principal to regard all wealth as the property of the community along communist lines.

 This was not by any means a half-hearted undertaking by Büchner.  Library records show that he had read extensively on the French revolution and his letters allude to an assessment in order to create and improve revolutionary strategy.  

The first piece of literature to come from his pen was the critically acclaimed Dantons Tod (Dantons Death).  This was an examination of the French revolution in the Dramatic form set for stage.  In it critics have observed the development of Büchners ideas on revolution and labelled this work as a study in revolutionary ideology and organization in the respect of the failure of the previous French revolutions of how to complete or continue revolution following the initial coup.          

As Holmes writes “Büchners play, however, does not deal directly with the overthrow if the ancien regime, but with the subsequent development of the revolution.  It incorporates a political arrangement of the counter-revolutionaries within the revolution, a factional platform against the factions that prejudice the permanent revolution.”

Manifestations of popular sentiment

So it is obvious through the examination of some German intellectuals that Germany was subject to an internal struggle.  While quite serious issues were grappled with in the intellectual and political spheres how much did this affect ordinary Germans.  To be sure there had to be a widespread consciousness of the reactionary stance that the German confederation had adopted but the overwhelming percentage of Germans lived in a rural setting and were illiterate.  The events in the period following the July Revolution gives some clues in regards to popular feeling.

The Hambach festival of 1832 in the Bavarian Palatinate for instance.  Between 20 and 30,000 people from all over the German speaking lands gathered for a number of reasons.  Primarily to drink beer and listen to inflammatory speeches calling for German unity based upon the sovereignty of the people, the liberation of the Poles and the emancipation of women.  The Bavarian army set out to disband the gathering but arrived more than a day after the event.  The down stream effects of this gathering were significant in that participants of the Hambach festival went home and many smaller meetings took place in what was a process of dissemination.

One month after the Hambach festival what was known as the ‘Six Articles’ were introduced into the Federal Diet.  These included the prohibition of all political associations and popular meetings and festivals and again appealed to previous laws.  Liberal periodicals were further suppresses and leading public writers were barred from editing any periodicals for the following five years.

In April 1833 the guardhouse of the city of Frankfurt was seized by a group of student and proletariat radicals and a provisional government declared.  This lasted for one week until a very large combined Prussian and Bavarian joint force suppressed it with much loss of civilian life.  This event was dramatic and bought the conservatives a tangible element of fear with which public sentiment could be manipulated.  Consequently Metternich took advantage of this situation and summoned a ministerial conference at Vienna early in 1834.  The pretext of this meeting was the smothering of anti-reactionary movements in the press and universities but the real issue as it transpired was that that Metternich wished to press was that of further limiting any existing constitutions.

Achievements of this conference included a measure to prevent the local government Estates from discussing the validity of Federal resolutions and a limiting of the power over budgets that individual diets held.  This was achieved in a measure that gave power to the Federal Diet to overrule any or all budgetary decisions.  Previously individual diets could use this power to challenge the authority of the monarchy and force certain issues or gain further rights.  Furthermore a ‘trivial’ code of rules was place upon the universities in order to make it more difficult for them to communicate amongst themselves.  As Ward notes this conference was  “all part of the Austrian plan for scuttling the constitutions.”

Conclusion

        The period of restoration if it was anything but a time of social revolution it surely experienced an economic one.  The national customs union or Zollverein was instituted in its full form by 1834 by which time the new railway and telegraph systems had begin to cover most all the important trade routes.  Rural life was changing with an increasing industrial labour force, which doubled between 1832 and 1848 to 1,000,000, facilitating the population shift from rural to urban settings.

        The Austrian influence upon the German Confederation of states provides several reasons contributing to the discouragement of discussion about the creation of a single German state.  The status of Austria within the Confederation meant that it decided the policy directions therefore what was good for Austria would suit the rest of the German states also.  The Hapsburg Empire needed absolutism in order to retain its hold over a vast range of non-German territories so this was pushed onto the rest of Germany.  For sure it was the interest of many of the princely houses to follow this line of action but a proportion of the rulers sincerely wanted to modernise and adopt constitutional rule.  The question of mans relationship with society was being asked and answered in France, England, Belgium and other European states and through not addressing the issue of popular sovereignty German political institutions retained a decidedly medieval façade during the period of restoration.

        Intellectuals and artists all questioned the status quo and while some acquiesced others placed their hearts and minds into the service of the people.  The call for popular sovereignty therefore took nationalistic feelings and a loyalty to the fatherland to be more important than loyalty to individual kings and princes.

        Expressions of nationalism between the years 1815 and 1847 were therefore calls for reform in the name of a greater power.  

And that power was of the people.

Sources:

Finney, G., Revolution, resignation, realism (1830-1890) in The Cambridge History of German Literature Ed. Kelly, W., Cambridge     University press: Cambridge 1997

Herwig, H.H., Hammer or Anvil?: Modern Germany 1648-present  D.C Heath and Company: Canada: 1994

 

Holborn, H.,  A History of Modern Germany 1648-1840  Eyre and Spottiswoode: London: 1965

Holmes, T. M., The Rehearsal of Revolution: Georg Büchner’s Politics and his Drama Dantons Tod Peter

Lang AG, European Academic Publishers: Berne: 1995

Holub, R.C., Young Germany   in A Concise History of German Literature Ed. Vivian, K., Camden House: Colombia: 1992

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Saul, N., Aesthetic Humanism  in The Cambridge History of German Literature ed. Kelly, W., Cambridge university Press: 1997Steinburg, S. H., Short History of Germany Cambridge university press: Cambridge 1944

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Stahl, E. L., and Yuill W. E., German Literature of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries The Casset Press: London: 1970 p.15

Benn, M. B., The Drama of revolt: A critical study of Georg Büchner  Cambridge University Press: Cambridge: 1976

Ward, A. W.,  Germany, 1815-1890 Cambridge University Press: Cambridge: 1916

Internet Sites:

Kotzebue Periodical title sourced via  Accessed: 2/10/02 1:38 PM

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