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The Course of German Nationalism: From Frederick the Great to Bismarck 1763–1867
The arduous path from the colorful diversity of the Holy Roman Empire to the Prussian-dominated German nation-state, Bismarck's German Empire of 1871, led through revolutions, wars and economic upheavals, but also through the cultural splendor of German Classicism and Romanticism. Hagen Schulze takes a fresh look at late eighteenth and nineteenth century German history, explaining it as the interaction of revolutionary forces from below and from above, of economics, politics, and culture. None of the results were predetermined, and yet their outcome was of momentous significance for all of Europe, if not the world.
188 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1985
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
January 13, 2019
Poorly Organized Overview of an Interesting Topic
The title promised to cover exactly what I was interested as I hoped to gain order gain a better understanding of the underlying forces that led to the coalescing of Germany as a nation state in the time frame from Frederick the Great to Bismark. The time line presented at the beginning and the two maps showing the configuration of German principalities in 1815 and 1834 certainly were a good start. Shulze does appear to know his subject.
Unfortunately the overall presentation is rather poor. Chapter 1 starts in the middle of the period with the seemingly sudden revolt of 1948. The good burghers of Berlin are up in arms desiring political freedoms, which King Friedrich Wilhelm IV appears quite willing to give, but poor communication leads to an uprising that eventually fizzles out. At the start of chapter 9 and a decade later, Friedrich has gone mad, possibly over the bloodshed in chapter 1, and is removed from power. Chapter 2 is fairly good, it outlines the major factors affecting change, notably a rapid increase in population, improvements in transportation and communication, the intense focus on the need for an educated administrative class which gave rise to multiple institutes of higher learning and the start of industrialization. An unfortunate side effect was that this left large numbers of young men with skills more suited to the agriculture and pre-industrial guilds as unemployed fodder for the army and revolution. Chapter 8 revives the topic of the growth of rail transportation again, where England led, followed Germany and then France, but the poor phrasing on page 79 “by 1840 469 kilometers of railway had been laid and there were exactly 5000 (missing word?) within the Customs Union on the eve of the Revolution” leads one to conclude that some 4500 km of rail was laid in 8 years, but the lack of detail as to where and why is missing, leaving out specifics that might further bolster his case. What comes across is that these factors along with the disruptive influence of Napoleon's invasions, contributed to the creation of a middle class interested in exploring a common culture based on language and nationalist ideas.
The rest of the book is rather jumpy. Names appear briefly, seemingly significant but never to appear again. Snippets of poetry and song show up, but are not always effective illustrations, “The German Rhine” on pp65 being a notable exception as it shows how a popular song can be a unifying force. A book published in 1833 by Johann Droysen "The History of Alexander the Great" was supposed to be a hidden reference to Bismarck as Alexander (pp86), but Bismarck was only 18 at the time and was not elected to the Landtag until 1847. The “Italian crisis” of 1859 undermines the credibility of the German Confederation, but no follow through as to what it was how and how the effect played out. There's very little coverage of Frederick the Great at all and the material on Bismarck claims that his intervention in Denmark (Schlesewig Holtein and Lauenburg, pp72) was the brilliant counter-intuitive political move that consolidated hisinfluence. The reasons behind Metternich's fall from valued Austrian statesman to his banishment in disgrace is poorly explained and it's unclear what the effect was on the German confederation, nor is there any explanation of how Prussia came to be so large or how it and Austria related to the smaller principalities. (Perhaps I should have started further back with the 30 Years War and the Treaty of Westphalia.) A slight mathematical misstatement where Schulze says that the German population increased by a third between 1815-1848 from 22 to 35 million (pp68: it's 59% or almost 2/3) is also slightly annoying.
The 13 readings in the “Documentary Appendix” were reasonably good but could have used a lot more explanation as to context. The excerpt by Johann Riesbeck explained the sense of German exceptionalism and Eggers piece was a good example of an appeal to volkish nationalism across multiple polities. However the selection Fichte's writings, and Fichte along with Herder are fairly important figures in the nationalist camp, had nearly no argumentative substance – it was a mere pep talk. Surely something better could have been chosen. The letter from Freidrich IV to Count Bunsen gave a good sense of the former's reason for rejecting a monarchy and the 10th reading, a transcript from the 1948 debates in the National Assembly was helpful in understanding attitudes towards Austria.
A poor choice for a first look, but it might be suitable as a supplementary to a text or course that was better organized.
The title promised to cover exactly what I was interested as I hoped to gain order gain a better understanding of the underlying forces that led to the coalescing of Germany as a nation state in the time frame from Frederick the Great to Bismark. The time line presented at the beginning and the two maps showing the configuration of German principalities in 1815 and 1834 certainly were a good start. Shulze does appear to know his subject.
Unfortunately the overall presentation is rather poor. Chapter 1 starts in the middle of the period with the seemingly sudden revolt of 1948. The good burghers of Berlin are up in arms desiring political freedoms, which King Friedrich Wilhelm IV appears quite willing to give, but poor communication leads to an uprising that eventually fizzles out. At the start of chapter 9 and a decade later, Friedrich has gone mad, possibly over the bloodshed in chapter 1, and is removed from power. Chapter 2 is fairly good, it outlines the major factors affecting change, notably a rapid increase in population, improvements in transportation and communication, the intense focus on the need for an educated administrative class which gave rise to multiple institutes of higher learning and the start of industrialization. An unfortunate side effect was that this left large numbers of young men with skills more suited to the agriculture and pre-industrial guilds as unemployed fodder for the army and revolution. Chapter 8 revives the topic of the growth of rail transportation again, where England led, followed Germany and then France, but the poor phrasing on page 79 “by 1840 469 kilometers of railway had been laid and there were exactly 5000 (missing word?) within the Customs Union on the eve of the Revolution” leads one to conclude that some 4500 km of rail was laid in 8 years, but the lack of detail as to where and why is missing, leaving out specifics that might further bolster his case. What comes across is that these factors along with the disruptive influence of Napoleon's invasions, contributed to the creation of a middle class interested in exploring a common culture based on language and nationalist ideas.
The rest of the book is rather jumpy. Names appear briefly, seemingly significant but never to appear again. Snippets of poetry and song show up, but are not always effective illustrations, “The German Rhine” on pp65 being a notable exception as it shows how a popular song can be a unifying force. A book published in 1833 by Johann Droysen "The History of Alexander the Great" was supposed to be a hidden reference to Bismarck as Alexander (pp86), but Bismarck was only 18 at the time and was not elected to the Landtag until 1847. The “Italian crisis” of 1859 undermines the credibility of the German Confederation, but no follow through as to what it was how and how the effect played out. There's very little coverage of Frederick the Great at all and the material on Bismarck claims that his intervention in Denmark (Schlesewig Holtein and Lauenburg, pp72) was the brilliant counter-intuitive political move that consolidated hisinfluence. The reasons behind Metternich's fall from valued Austrian statesman to his banishment in disgrace is poorly explained and it's unclear what the effect was on the German confederation, nor is there any explanation of how Prussia came to be so large or how it and Austria related to the smaller principalities. (Perhaps I should have started further back with the 30 Years War and the Treaty of Westphalia.) A slight mathematical misstatement where Schulze says that the German population increased by a third between 1815-1848 from 22 to 35 million (pp68: it's 59% or almost 2/3) is also slightly annoying.
The 13 readings in the “Documentary Appendix” were reasonably good but could have used a lot more explanation as to context. The excerpt by Johann Riesbeck explained the sense of German exceptionalism and Eggers piece was a good example of an appeal to volkish nationalism across multiple polities. However the selection Fichte's writings, and Fichte along with Herder are fairly important figures in the nationalist camp, had nearly no argumentative substance – it was a mere pep talk. Surely something better could have been chosen. The letter from Freidrich IV to Count Bunsen gave a good sense of the former's reason for rejecting a monarchy and the 10th reading, a transcript from the 1948 debates in the National Assembly was helpful in understanding attitudes towards Austria.
A poor choice for a first look, but it might be suitable as a supplementary to a text or course that was better organized.
October 25, 2020
Had to read this for a class on intellectual history. The premise is very interesting, and I liked how the author was able to tie up so many (often seemingly unrelated) threads together to analyse the development of nationalism and Unification of Germany.
However, I would have appreciated if it had been a little more reader-friendly in its organisation of information within chapters- there were time leaps that often left me confused.
However, I would have appreciated if it had been a little more reader-friendly in its organisation of information within chapters- there were time leaps that often left me confused.
December 24, 2022
The Course of German Nationalism: From Frederick the Great to Bismarck 1763-1867 by Hagen Schulze – Now this was some light reading while I worked on my senior history capstone paper. Lol It was really interesting though! Happy Reading!
February 25, 2008
clear and concise; unfortunately a tepid writing style
May 11, 2016
Very dry account of something that should be very interesting. German nationalism had a huge impact the world over.
Also, lots of what happened rather than exploration of why.
Also, lots of what happened rather than exploration of why.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews