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What was Germany like in 1871?
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Germany – The Unification of Germany, 1815-71
In this course, Dr Anna Ross (University of Oxford) explores the unification of Germany, starting with the proclamation of the German Empire on the 18th January 1871, and moving back in time to consider how the Germans had reached this point. As we move through the course, we think about concepts of the nation, nationalism and national identity, before focusing on the events that led the unification in 1871—including the 1848 Revolutions, the Crimean War, the Austro-Prussian War, and the Franco-Prussian War. We finish by considering the astonishing impact of one man in the whole process: Otto von Bismarck.
What was Germany like in 1871?
In this lecture, we consider the diversity of the German people before 1871, and think about the origins of German national identity in the travel writings of people such as Theodor Fontane as well as in the landscapes of painters such as Caspar David Friedrich.
Are you ready?
00:00:04My name is Dr Anna Ross.
00:00:06I'm a junior research fellow at Oxford University,
00:00:07and this series of lectures is going to be on German unification.
00:00:10So let's start with the event itself.
00:00:15The 18th of January 18 71 where in the hall of mirrors at the
00:00:17Palace of Versailles the German nation was
00:00:23proclaimed present were many important dignitaries.
00:00:27King William, the first of Prussia, German emperor.
00:00:31Likewise Otto von Bismarck, chancellor of the German Empire.
00:00:35We have helmet phone, Malka,
00:00:39the Prussian chief of chief of staff and
00:00:41a whole array of different military personnel,
00:00:44as well as the assembled German princes.
00:00:47Now the event itself was not as ostentatious as one might expect.
00:00:51Indeed, there was no chance to practise beforehand,
00:00:58and many of the officers didn't have their ceremonial garb at hand.
00:01:01But what's interesting about many of the images produced after the event,
00:01:07particularly that of Anton from Vienna,
00:01:11is that it's invested with a new degree of pomp and celebration.
00:01:14Indeed,
00:01:20many of the events of German unification were widely celebrated after the event.
00:01:21In the new German empire,
00:01:26we see celebrations on the Battle of the Sudan and a whole range of other events.
00:01:27Likewise,
00:01:34many of the individuals involved in unification
00:01:35became hugely celebrated across the German Empire,
00:01:38and none more so than Otto von Bismarck, the Iron chancellor.
00:01:43Bismarck became an important part of the curriculum.
00:01:47He was noted in school books as being German people's most German son, or,
00:01:51likewise as the incarnation of the German character and the German spirit.
00:01:57After his death in 18 98 many Bismarck societies across the
00:02:03German Empire commissioned new Bismarck memorials and Bismarck columns to him,
00:02:09so that particularly in the years 18 98 to 1914,
00:02:15some 500 or so memorials were erected to the Iron Chancellor.
00:02:20And it was not just within the German empire proper,
00:02:25where these celebrations took place in the new colonies.
00:02:29Likewise, similar celebrations and memorials arose.
00:02:33So what led to all this pomp and celebration?
00:02:40Well, that's what we're going to look at in this series of lectures.
00:02:43We're going to look at the course of German unification.
00:02:47We're going to look at its causes, how it was characteristic
00:02:51and the ways in which historians have talked about this over time.
00:02:55So to do so, come back with me to the early 19th century.
00:02:59And let's have a look at what was German Germany like before 18 71.
00:03:04If one were to take a walk through the German lands in the early 19th century,
00:03:11the main thing that would stand out is a striking diversity.
00:03:16Indeed,
00:03:21there were many associations and groups established in the 19th century
00:03:22dedicated to walking through Germany and observing the different places,
00:03:27their histories, the flora and fauna,
00:03:32what people ate in the different parts of the German line.
00:03:36indeed,
00:03:39there were very many famous Germans who did this and partook in this culture,
00:03:40for example,
00:03:44Theodore Fontana was perhaps one of the most famous who trampled through
00:03:45the Mark Brandenburg around Berlin and recorded his perceptions of local places.
00:03:49Now, indeed,
00:03:57this whole culture of walking and looking at the
00:03:58diversity in Germany continued to blossom and grow,
00:04:00as Celia Applegate has written in the mid century,
00:04:04Illustrated newspapers and magazines depicted all
00:04:08the various different places across Germany.
00:04:11Likewise,
00:04:14the growth with photography helped to impress upon Germans
00:04:15just how variegated local places were in the German Empire
00:04:19and the German lands. I should say
00:04:25so what we have in Germany before 18 71 is
00:04:27a variegated sense of local places and local identities.
00:04:32On top of this, there were also a range of regional and state based identities.
00:04:37So, for example,
00:04:44there were two major states in the German lands Austria and Prussia to the north,
00:04:46and these guarded very strong state based loyalties.
00:04:53Likewise,
00:04:57there was a whole plethora of smaller German states in which they often
00:04:58work together as a third Germany in relationship to Austria and pressure,
00:05:03but also had their own important state based loyalties.
00:05:09For example,
00:05:12people living in the Kingdom of Saxony had very pretty circular loyalties there.
00:05:14Likewise, if you lived in Barden or Gutenberg or any of these different places,
00:05:19and as historians such as Abigail Green have investigated,
00:05:25these state based loyalties were very important to
00:05:29Germans in the German lands before 18 71.
00:05:32Now, on top of that, if that weren't enough,
00:05:38there is also an array of very
00:05:41important confessional loyalties throughout the German lands.
00:05:44Before 18 71 indeed, there were patches where many Germans were Protestants,
00:05:48others were Catholics,
00:05:54and these relationships played a very important
00:05:56role in how one understood oneself before unification
00:05:59So in some,
00:06:06we should say that the German lands were
00:06:06a multilayered landscape marked by competing local,
00:06:10regional and state loyalties in the years before 18
00:06:1471 as well as very important confessional allegiances.
00:06:18But what's really interesting about the 19th century is that we
00:06:24see a new type of identity emerge on this scene,
00:06:28and that's the national identity.
00:06:32So, for example,
00:06:36if we go back to our our theme of walking and looking at the German landscape,
00:06:36one of the most spectacular painters of the 19th century, Caspar David Friedrich,
00:06:42likewise walked and looked at these different places in the German lands.
00:06:47But rather than painting the particular and the local,
00:06:52he looked to paint at what was German In this landscape.
00:06:56He tried to capture the cool air,
00:07:00the deep green forests,
00:07:03the hardwoods of the oak trees and really
00:07:06convey a sense that there was another identity
00:07:09coming to the fore in Central Europe.
00:07:12Now, obviously, Caspar David Friedrich does many other things with his work,
00:07:15but he picks up for us
00:07:19this curious identity that we're going to need to
00:07:21explore in much more depth in our next lecture
00:07:24
Cite this Lecture
APA style
Ross, A. (2018, August 15). Germany – The Unification of Germany, 1815-71 - What was Germany like in 1871? [Video]. MASSOLIT. https://massolit.io/courses/the-unification-of-germany-1815-71/what-role-did-international-circumstances-play-in-the-formation-of-a-german-nation-state
MLA style
Ross, A. "Germany – The Unification of Germany, 1815-71 – What was Germany like in 1871?." MASSOLIT, uploaded by MASSOLIT, 15 Aug 2018, https://massolit.io/courses/the-unification-of-germany-1815-71/what-role-did-international-circumstances-play-in-the-formation-of-a-german-nation-state