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Modern Germany. Lecture 2: 1848 and German Unification. Burschenshaften and the Wartburg Festival (1817). Romanticism, nationalism, and reaction. Romanticism (human feelings, intuition, the primitive) versus the Enlightenment (human reason, civilization)
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Modern Germany Lecture 2: 1848 and German Unification
Romanticism, nationalism, and reaction • Romanticism (human feelings, intuition, the primitive) versus the Enlightenment (human reason, civilization) • Different understandings of the French Revolution (Freiheit, Libertät) • Student fraternities (Burschenschaften) • Suppression by German rulers (conservatism, Klemens von Metternich)
Revolutions of 1848 • Affect German society and culture • Affect German unification in 1871 • “Failure” of German liberalism • Sonderweg (Fritz Fischer)? • David Blackbourn, Geoff Eley • Socioeconomic trends in history
Revolutions of 1848 • Sweep Western and Central Europe • Role of modern ideologies • Socioeconomic factors (crop failures, industrial revolution) • Liberalism, socialism (France) • Nationalism, socialism (German & Italian states, Austrian Empire) • Conservatives on the run
Results of 1848 revolutions • All defeated • Social and national divisions • Fears of the middle class • Liberals change tactics • Yet some reforms kept • Universal male suffrage (France) • Abolition of serfdom (Austrian Empire) • Parliaments (German, Italian states)
Count Camillo Cavour, Prime Minister of Sardinia, and Realpolitik
German unification • Many German states before 1870s • Failure of liberals 1848 • Austria = multinational empire • Prussia = economic and military power
Otto von Bismarck • Prussian prime minister • Political realism (Realpolitik): “blood and iron”
Austro-Prussian War 1866 • Struggle for power over German states • Austria defeated by Prussians • North German Confederation created
Franco-Prussian War 1870 • United Germany • Industrialization = world power status • European balance of power disrupted • A “people’s war” (French vs. Germans)