Das Lied der Deutschen

Lecture 1

The Legacy of 1848 / Is Germany Unique?

From the Meuse?From the Meuse to the Memel / From the Adige to the Belt

Pre-1848 Social Groupings• Aristocracy: high nobility (Hochadel), aristocracy

of the courts (Hof- and Dienstadel)—core of the counterrevolution, minor aristocracy (Kleinadel), and aristocracy of the towns.

• Middle classes: the commercial middle class (bourgeoisie), civil servants and educated middle class, freelance intelligentsia, and the lower middle class (Kleinbürgertum or petit bourgeoisie).

• Peasantry: highly stratified depending upon region and regional history.

• Growing underclass.

Political Oppression

• Press Censorship• Outlaw of any political associations• Radicalization of political groups

Internal Pressures

• Hungry 40s• Demographic Changes• Rise in prices of basic goods• Food riots• Dissatisfaction with Political System

Int’l Developments

• Succession in Schleswig-Holstein• Swiss Reforms • Italian nationalism against the Austro-

Hungarian Empire

End of the July MonarchyParis Barricades of February 1848

H. Vernet, Barricade in the Rue Soufflot, Paris1848

Republican Uprising in Baden, 1848

http://www.bild.bundesarchiv.de/cross-search/search/_1255276722/?search[page]=6

On the barricades, 1848

http://www.bundestag.de/blickpunkt/105_Unter_der_Kuppel/0409014.html

March Demands

• A people’s army with freely elected officers• Freedom of the press• Trial by jury• Creation of a German parliament

Bundestag Decrees

• Press Freedom• Revision of the Federal Constitution• Recognition of the colors red, black, and

gold as federal colors• Creation of the Committee of Seventeen

to oversee the creation of a constitution

Rough Breakdown of Political Associations

• Workers’ Associations• Democrats• Constitutionalists• Catholics• Conservatives

Counterrevolution

• European context-late spring/summer/fall 1848

• Poland• Prague• Paris• Northern Italy• Frankfurt / Baden

Friedrich Christoph Dahlmann

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Friedrich_christoph_dahlmann.jpg

“Injustice has lost all sense of shame.”