2. From napoleon to the congress of Vienna 1815

Napoleon imperialism

crowned himself emperor in 1804 - reorganised territories

small german states left HRE + joined French protection

july 1806 - confederation of Rhine - end of HRE

over 50% of German land experienced leadership changes, places like Bavaria, Württemberg having French ‘Monarchs’.

states reduced 300 → 30, the majority of leadership given to the Napoleon family.

confederation of Rhine 1806

group of small German states - ‘third Germany’

Regional monarchs gained power - implemented reforms

exacerbated industrialisaton + modernisation

abolition of feudal privileges + serfdom

Napoleonic Code reorganised administrative systems

reform of politics/society

Rhineland modernisation - Austria remained traditional, Habsburg lost territory

Prussian defeat at Jena 1806 - lost territory and power

‘defensive modernisation’ employed by Prussia from above (education, military, and army reforms)

national conscription

uni of berlin established

under Napoleon

Polarising reactions.

French-German rivalries.

Intense economic exploitation

French troops plundered the land.

Napoleon drafted men from the occupied territories → Over 100k men who lived in the German lands

Benefits;

regional prosperity and freedom

Reforms improved Jewish status → granted citizenship rights as proclaimed by the FR in states under Napoleonic rule.

Emancipation edicts issued in Prussia in 1812 + Bavaria in 1813 as well as in smaller states constituted breakthroughs in some respects however they fell short in granting complete equality.

Napoleonic code decriminalised same-sex relations → 1813 new Bavarian code exempted same-gender sexual acts from criminal prosecution.

Wars of liberation

• Affected different territories different as some were occupied, reformed, not reformed.

• Accelerated the formation of a German national consciousness.

• Educated public in Prussia interpretated defeats as national humiliation.

• Hostility towards France.

• Most people indifferent to Frederick Williams appeal to 'my appeal' due to resistance to conscription.

• Hating French defined what it was to be German.

Ernst Moritz Arndt: writer, poet

• Extreme Francophobia.

• Prussian patriotism and German nationalism. United by its common language, Germany was built arround Prussia.

• Promoted a specific set of values.

• Effort to unite GM people with songs, stories and poem.

• Prussian Nationalism (most powerful state in Germany, believed its what a German nation should be like).

Other prominent figures:

• Create pride on common folk tradition (Brothers Grimm)

• Reconstitute old pure, innocent German traditions.

• Grimms established a German nation to cultivate bourgeois culture, patriarchal values → Even changed Rapunzel

congress of vienna 1813

• 1813 a coalition of Austria, Prussia, Sweden and Russia defeated Napoleon at Leipzig.

• Confederation of the Rhine was dissolved.

• South German states signed treaties with Austria.

• Wars of liberation end in April 1814.

• Responds to the republican challenge.

• First principle: solidarity among the existing princes or rulers against revolutionary ideas and movements in the German states.

• Holy alliance: coalition between the rulers of Russia, Austria and Prussia.

• Re-establish monarch rule (legitimacy) government by divine right (given by God).

• Restoring political order in Europe to its pre-revolutionary status. However, they saw success in Napoleons reform, so smaller states were not revoked. Territorial changes were also not that revoked (300 states by HRE).

• Austria + Prussia got immense power and control. Benefited a lot.

german confederation 1815-66

• Bavaria stays a kingdom

• Prussia gains control over multiple territories which are rich in resources

• An association of states

• Defensive and weak alliance

• No central government or federal court

• Were against liberal ideas and national ideas (especially the Austrian emperor). Different ethnic minorities means that a rise is bad as it will make different states believe they need status/freedom.

Restoration + Change:

• Dissapointed outcome for those especially in the younger generation of academically trained men who had fought in the liberation wars.

• Jews who lived in these states had their benefits worsen (Bremen shut their gates to Jews again)

• Prussian edict of 1812 stayed but was not extended to the new territories where the majority of Jews now lived.

• Number of changes made by Napoleon remained (serfdom, guild privileges). Restrictions on the miblity of labour were not restored.

 

french revolution - German interpretation

• Huge impact in Europe/elsewhere.

• Shocked the old order (came from the Monarchy) Anciem Regime. 

• Established a new political grammar (David Blackbourn) a new way of thinking about politics and a new way of thinking of what is possible.

• Declaration of the rights of man and of the Citizens - ideas contrast the hierarchies and inequalities which were set in for monarchs

• Republical vs Monarchial principles.

• Fraternity, equality, liberty - stays a political promise which resonates throughout the 19th century. Many people believed in this ideology. German perspective towards the revolution:

  • Some are interested, some curious.

  • Some were feeling superior as they believed Germans were much more orderly to act like this.

  There was peasants uprising in German lands, but not revolutionary.

  • Some appalled due to the old order falling.

  • Terror in the early 1790s: the educated public shifted their view of it as horror.

  • HRE and French Gov. hostility grew.

primary source: to my people 1813, a boys childhood in Colonge, 1810

to my people:

propaganda to create national resistance

prussia lost war - territory lost

patriotic emotion against feelings of humiliation

“great sacrifices will be demanded” emphasising unity + sacrifice

a boys childhood:

local, traditional

either reform was necessary or it showcased Napoleon impacted cities more.

disconnection between regions of Germany

Mary fulbrook views

lack of serfdom + napoleonic code - introduction of ‘capitalist approach’

yet economic reforms some did not last: noble tax exemption brought back

early 19th century - limited nationalist sentiment

wars of liberation induced patriotism but not unified

romantic ideas of the volk - supporters mainly educated elites, peasants didnt gaf

germany after congress was still divided, rural, conservative

1815 - turning point politically, not socially

hagemmann views:

remasculine and militarise the nation under warriors

french feminised

Prussian writers emphasised patriotism through honour + masculinity

fatherland ‘harmed’ it was everyones moral duty to save it

true manhood tied to fighting

nation male + masculine

women subordinate (mothers of the nation, priestesses of the temple)

sentiment was regional - mainly within Prussia

ideas of national military extended into 20th century