1806 and Its Aftermath: Revisiting the Period of the Napoleonic Wars in German Central European Historiography

2006 ◽  
Vol 39 (4) ◽  
pp. 547-579 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katherine Aaslestad ◽  
Karen Hagemann
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Historical Memory ◽  
Economic Transformation ◽  
Holy Roman Empire ◽  
German History ◽  
Napoleonic Wars ◽  
Early Nineteenth Century ◽  
The Holocaust ◽  
Twentieth Century Europe ◽  
Maritime Museum

If the French faced the 200th anniversary of the Napoleonic Empire with some trepidation about how to commemorate the infamous Corsican, the British celebrated the Battle of Trafalgar as an enduring national victory. A grand exhibit in the National Maritime Museum in London, “Nelson and Napoleon,” observed this event in 2005. In contemporary Germany, however, the commemoration of 1806 has occurred mainly among small circles of specialists and remained largely absent from popular historical consciousness. In recent times, besides the exhibition on the Holy Roman Empire in the German Historical Museum in Berlin, only small local exhibits and substantial articles in magazines like Die Zeit and Der Spiegel recall 1806. Past momentous occasions such as 1848, 1914–1919, 1933–1945, and 1949 clearly overshadow in contemporary historical memory the tumultuous decades that surrounded the Napoleonic Wars. This tendency to overlook and underestimate the significance of the early nineteenth century also remains evident among scholars who work on later periods of German history. In the shadow of World Wars and the Holocaust, the period of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars between 1792 and 1815 seems distant to the contemporary audience. But why do historians also tend to disregard the importance of this era of warfare and domestic, social, and economic transformation—a period so rich in complexity—and its enduring consequences for nineteenth- and twentieth-century Europe?

Scientific Journey through Germany and Denmark

2019 ◽  
pp. 221-250
Author(s):  
Stanley Finger
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
The Netherlands ◽  
Psychiatric Patients ◽  
Holy Roman Empire ◽  
Napoleonic Wars ◽  
Local Institutions ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
German States ◽  
Considerable Support

Berlin was the first stop on Gall’s scientific journey, which began in March 1805, during the Napoleonic Wars that led to the collapse of the Holy Roman Empire. He arrived there with Spurzheim, a wax modeler, and at last one servant, and gave a series of lectures and anatomical demonstrations, while also examining prisoners and psychiatric patients in local institutions. His lectures attracted large audiences that were mostly positive toward him, though he did battle with Professor of Anatomy Johann Gottlieb Walter, whose turf he invaded. After Berlin he headed to nearby Potsdam, where he had been invited to lecture by royalty. Leipzig, Dresden, and Halle followed, and then Weimar and Jena, again with considerable support but also some critics. Next was Göttingen, where he spent time with fellow skull collector and anthropologist Johann Friedrich Blumenbach, who was less than impressed. He continued on to Hamburg and Kiel, and into Denmark, where he lectured to a mixed audience of 200 men and women. Returning to the German states, he met with an appreciative King Gustav IV Adolf of Sweden, who, like many others, rewarded him for his stop. Bremen and Münster were next on his agenda, ending this largely successful part of his scientific journey and positioning him to cross over to the Netherlands.

German History 1789-1871: From the Holy Roman Empire to the Bismarckian Reich

1999 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 288
Author(s):  
Robert D. Billinger ◽  
Eric Dorn Brose
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Holy Roman Empire ◽  
German History

Peace Problems of Today and Yesterday

1944 ◽  
Vol 38 (3) ◽  
pp. 512-521
Author(s):  
Quincy Wright
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
The Netherlands ◽  
International Order ◽  
Holy Roman Empire ◽  
Political Organization ◽  
Napoleonic Wars ◽  
Economic Relationships ◽  
Territorial State ◽  
Spiritual Authority ◽  
National Sentiment

The wars which are now drawing to a close can be compared to the Thirty Years War (1618–48), the War of the Spanish Succession, which really began in 1688 and lasted until 1713, and the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars (1789–1815). Each of these wars lasted thirty years or slightly less, and if we begin the present war in 1914, it already has become a fourth thirty-years war.All of these wars left problems which had aspects in common. In all, there was the problem of returning to the ways of peace, of settling boundaries and governments, of reconstruction, and of maintaining a stable international order. But in each successive war the area involved was larger, the number of participants in the peace was greater, their economic relationships were more pervasive, and a more intensive international political organization was attempted.At Westphalia in 1648, the effort was rather to establish the independence of states than to organize their interdependence. The ancient structure of the Holy Roman Empire and the universal spiritual authority of the Papacy were crumbling. The national independence of Switzerland and of the Netherlands and the virtual independence of the states of Germany were recognized. The notion of the sovereign territorial state, so different from the conception of a feudal hierarchy which had dominated medieval thinking, took root in men's minds and was promoted by the administration of efficient governments beginning to realize the possibilities of building power upon national sentiment.

scholarly journals Central European History and the Holy Roman Empire

2018 ◽  
Vol 51 (1) ◽  
pp. 40-45
Author(s):  
Joachim Whaley
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
British Journal ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
European History ◽  
Holy Roman Empire ◽  
German History ◽  
Central Importance ◽  
Central European ◽  
East European ◽  
New Literature

Central European History (CEH) began to appear at a crucial juncture in the historiography of the Holy Roman Empire. Of course its remit was much broader. Founded sixteen years before the British journal German History, Central European History, together with the Austrian History Yearbook (founded in 1965) and the East European Quarterly (founded in 1967), took over the role occupied between 1941 and 1964 by the Journal of Central European Affairs. Each of these US journals shared an openness to new approaches and to work on all periods since the Middle Ages, as well as a desire—in the words of CEH's inaugural editor, Douglas Unfug—to keep “readers abreast of new literature in the field …,” with “reflective, critical reviews or review articles dealing with works of central importance … [and] bibliographical articles dealing with limited periods or themes…”

scholarly journals BOURGEOIS MODERNITY VERSUS THE HISTORICAL ARISTOCRACY IN CHRISTOPH MEINERS'S POLITICAL THOUGHT

2018 ◽  
Vol 62 (4) ◽  
pp. 943-966 ◽  
Author(s):  
MORGAN GOLF-FRENCH
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Roman Empire ◽  
French Revolution ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
Holy Roman Empire ◽  
Early Nineteenth Century ◽  
Radical Critique ◽  
Late Eighteenth ◽  
Bourgeois Modernity

AbstractChristoph Meiners (1747–1810), a major historian and philosopher of the German late Enlightenment, has received increasing recognition as a significant thinker in the emergence of nineteenth-century racial theories. The scholarly focus on Meiners's hierarchical view of race and its legacy has led to the classification of his broaderoeuvreas conservative, or even reactionary. By examining hisGeschichte der Ungleichheit der Stände unter den vornehmsten europäischen Völkern(1792), written in response to the French Revolution and the contemporary circumstances of the Holy Roman Empire, this article sheds new light on his work, as well as on an under-researched line of thought in the 1790s. Rather than a conservative or reactionary work, this text is a radical critique of the German aristocracy that ultimately recommends the abolition of most significant aristocratic privileges and the overhaul of its membership in favour of the bourgeoisie. This article presents not only a more complex understanding of Christoph Meiners's ideas, but also calls for a reappraisal of the categories applied to late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century intellectuals both in Germany and in Europe more broadly.

scholarly journals An Empire For Our Times? A Discussion of Peter Wilson's The Holy Roman Empire: A Thousand Years of Europe's History

2017 ◽  
Vol 50 (4) ◽  
pp. 547-572 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe ◽  
Holy Roman Empire ◽  
Protestant Reformation ◽  
James Madison ◽  
The Holocaust ◽  
History Of

In the two centuries since its dissolution in 1806, the Holy Roman Empire has usually been viewed as an antiquated relic of the medieval past, a dysfunctional polity that hindered Germany's development into a modern, liberal nation-state. In the wake of its demise, a chorus of famous intellectuals and statesmen—including Voltaire, James Madison, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Leopold von Ranke, and Heinrich von Treitschke—derided the Empire as a “monstrosity” hampered by outmoded institutions and backward policies. More recently, in the wake of World War II and the Holocaust, advocates of the so-called Sonderweg thesis blamed the Empire for Germany's belated unification and for the Germans’ supposedly “authoritarian” bent. In Heart of Europe [the American title of the study—Ed.], a bold and sweeping account of the Holy Roman Empire's thousand-year history, Peter Wilson sets out to supplant these anachronistic interpretations by explaining “what it was, how it worked, why it mattered, and its legacy for today” (5). With this important book, the best single-volume history of the Holy Roman Empire currently available, Wilson succeeds in answering these fundamental questions and provides fascinating insights into European politics from the early Middle Ages to the present. I would like to focus first on what I see as Wilson's most significant contributions to the existing scholarship on the Empire, and then examine how he treats the Protestant Reformation as a case study of the merits (and drawbacks) of his approach.

scholarly journals COUNTER-REFORMATION IN GERMANY

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 28-37
Author(s):  
Svetlana Vasileva
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Martin Luther ◽  
Political Context ◽  
Holy Roman Empire ◽  
Previous Article ◽  
German History ◽  
Counter Reformation ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
German Nation ◽  
Religious Problems

The article studies the Counter-Reformation process in Germany and the neighboring European ter-ritories in a wider context as a complex of geopolitical, social and religious problems growing in Europe in the 15th and the 16th centuries. The study aims at finding connections between the Reformation processes launched by Martin Luther and the subsequent course of German history during the Counter-Reformation. The article focuses on the situation in Germany against a wider background of the developments in the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation. This paper con-tinues the author’s previous article on the German Reformation and Martin Luther’s role in it. It ex-amines the consequences of the Reformation that brought Germany on the edge of a humanitarian disaster in the Thirty Years’ War. The course of the war, as well as its geopolitical causes and con-sequences for Germany and for the whole of Europe are also investigated. The author describes and analyzes a broad historical and political context which determined the circumstances and reasons for many European states’ participation in the Thirty Years’ War, as well as the consequences of the Peace of Westphalia.

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