Social and intellectual forces

What major event in 1789 spread ideas that inspired German nationalism?

The French Revolution:

• revolted against the old feudal order in France and promoted liberty, equality and fraternity

What happened to the German states in 1803 under Napoleon’s influence?

• annexed territory on the left bank

• ensured small German states were absorbed - total num reduced to 39

What happened to the Holy Roman Empire in 1806 under Napoleon’s influence?

It was formally dissolved

How did Napoleon unintentionally encourage German nationalism?

Germans built up resentment towards the French as:

• many were affected by rising prices, heavy taxes and French control

• Napoleon’s continental blockade to exclude British goods disrupted the German economy

• Loathed military conscription

What reforms did Napoleon bring to German territories?

1. Napoleonic code: ensured equality before the law, put an end to aristocratic and church privileges

2. Increased middle class involvement in gov

3. Abolishment of serfdom

4. Church lands secularised

What major event in 1813 that helped unify Germany?

War of Liberation:

• 1812: Napoleon invaded Russia and lost 500,000 men out of 600,000

• Fredrick William III of Prussia allied with Russia and Austria to declare war on France

• Battle of Leipzig: Defeated Napoleon

What was Romanticism’s role in early German nationalism?

A cultural movement stressing emotion, folklore, history, and the unique “Volksgeist” of the German people; promoted unity through shared language and traditions, with figures like Herder, Fichte, and the Brothers Grimm.

What happened in 1815?

The Congress of Vienna:

• Austria Gained: territory in Italy

• Prussia Gained: territory, population rose to 10 million

What replaced the Confederation of the Rhine in 1815?

The German Confederation:

• Union of 39 states with the aim to maintain independence, integrity and security

• Weakness: Little control of each state outside of preventing foreign alliances

What sparked the 1848 revolutions in the German states?

1. Increasing population: some areas found it hard to sustain and moved cities

2. Countryside: majority of rural population was poverty stricken

3. Urbanisation: insufficent jobs + housing due to influx of migrates = low wages

   • inadequate sanitation = diseases

4. Economic crisis

What was the economic crisis (1846-7)

• Potato Blight: potatoes main item of diet for peasants and the failure to crop = starvation causing food riots to break out

• Urban Workers: suffered from rise in food prices - there was a short ‘potato revolution’ where shop’s were looted

• Industrial Production: suffered a full in demand = employees laid of workers = increase in unemployment = lower standard of living for workers

What was Fredrick William’s response to the revolutions?

• made a personal appeal by writing a letter: ‘to my dear beliners’ promising that troops would be withdrawn if barricades were demolished

• rode through Berlin wearing a black, red and gold armband, declaring: ‘I want liberty. I will have unity in Germany’

What were the main aims of the German revolutionaries in 1848?

• In the meeting in Baden, liberals demanded: freedom of the press + assembly, trial by jury and a national parliament

Why did many rulers initially concede to demands in 1848?

Fear of unrest and revolution spreading; William offered constitutions and reforms to calm tensions.

What was the Vorparlament (March 1848)?

A preparatory parliament of German liberals and nationalists that organised elections for the Frankfurt Parliament

• Liberals: wanted to create a parliamentary monarch

• Radicals: wanted a republic with executive and legislative power

hat was the main division within the Frankfurt Parliament over unification?

1. Grossdeutschland: greater Germany including Austria

2. Kleindeutschland: smaller Germany which excluded Austria

What decision did the Frankfurt Parliament make on the unification question?

• Voted for a kleindeutschland and offered the crown to to the Prussian king, Frederick William IV who refused to accept it based on it being a crown ‘from the gutter’ that was ‘disgraced by the stink of revolution’

Why did the Frankfurt Parliament fail?

1. Lacked legitimacy: major EU powers refused to recognise it

2. No financial power: unable to collect taxation

3. Lack of authority: no loyal army

4. Divisions: Gross/Kleindeutschland

5. Opposition from Austria: Prince Felix of Schwarzernberg declared the indivisibility of Austria = led to Kleindeutschland even though Parliament voted for a Gross

6. Opposition from Prussia: Fredrick William IV didn’t accept the crown

Why did the 1848 revolutions fail?

1. Divisions of political aims: liberals and radicals wanted different things. gross/kleindeutschland

2. Rural Apathy: the rural population were not in a desperate economic situation as the harvests were good explaining the enthusiastic support amongst peasants

3. Lack of military power: FP and revolutionary groups had no army so nationalist uprisings were suppressed by the existing armies of Austria, Prussia, and other states.

4. Loss of support: encouraged by the slow progress of the FP which had few membs of lower/middle class and didn’t speak about how to help urban workers

What was the Kulturkampf?

Bismarck’s “Culture Struggle” (1871–78) to limit Catholic Church influence in Germany

• 1872: Catholic schools brought under supervision of the state + banned the Jesuit order

• 1873: Dr Adalbert Falk (Prussian minister of religion + education) introduced the May Laws

• 1875: All religious orders were dissolved

List some of the May Laws

• all candidates for priesthood had to attend a secular uni

• all religious appointments became subject to state approval

• 1874: obligatory civil marriage introduced

What was the results if the Kulturkampf?

• Attempts to suppress Catholicism were met with opposition: only 30/10K Prussian Catholic Priests submitted to new legislation

• It strengthened his political opponents: by 1874, the Centre party won 91 seats

What was the centre party?

1870: formed by German Catholics to defend their interests and joined forces with south Germans, poles and the people of Alsace-Lorraine.

• by 1871, it was the 2nd largest party

Long term impact of Germany loosing WW1?

1. Economic: War devastation, loss of territory, and reparations payments under the Treaty of Versailles caused hyperinflation, unemployment, and shortages, undermining confidence in the government.

2. Political: The Kaiser abdicated; the Weimar Republic was established, seen as weak and associated with “stab-in-the-back” myths, fueling radical nationalist and anti-democratic movements.

3. Financial: Reparations and economic collapse led to massive national debt and currency devaluation, creating resentment and a desire for revenge.

4. Overall: Humiliation, hardship, and instability made Germany fertile ground for revanchist and extremist nationalist ideologies, including support for groups like the Nazis.

What was radical nationalism in Germany?

• 1890-1914

• Belief in the race struggle made antisemitism more racial than religious

• Militant German nationalists became increasingly antisemitic as they believed Germans were the master race.

• Newspapers, politicians and musicians (like Richard Wagner who was a famous composer) presented this belief onto the public.

• Houston Stewart Chamberlin (Wagner’s SIL) published a bestseller where he claimed that Jews were a degenerate race in the “Foundations of the Nineteeth Century” - even drawing praise from Wilhelm II

• Those hit by economic and social change were easily persuaded that Jews were to blame

Belief in the race struggle (late 19th century)

• French Count Joseph de Gobineau argued that races were physically and psychologically different. He claimed that all the high cultures in the world were the work of Aryans and that work declined when interbred with racially lower stock

• Darwin’s “On the origins of species” (1895): provided more ammunition for the race cause. Many German writers claimed that Germans had been selected to dominate the earth and therefore needed more land which could be won from inferior races.