Revolutions of 1848
In the rise of German nationalism in 1848 a series of loosely assembled protests and rebellions erupted across the German Confederation including the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The middle classes were raised in the liberal principles of democracy while the working classes not given the universal suffrage and the right to vote were clamouring for better living conditions.
Conservative Juncker aristocracy quashed the revolutions of 1848 and 1849 in Germany and forced the liberals into exile where they became known as the Forty Eighters. Many sailed across the Atlantic to settle in the United States of America from Wisconsin to Texas. There was plenty of political fervour but not the kind to be found in a glass.
Nationalism in Germany during the nineteenth century was a driving force that brought about significant political and cultural changes. The longing for unity influenced by historical events and the intellectuals bent on the economic factors and social movements laid the foundation of the German Empire in 1871.
Eminences such as Johann Gottlieb Fichte and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe played important roles in the rise of German nationalism. Fichte’s speeches emphasized the superiority of the German people particularly and called for collective action to establish a strong and unified Germany. Goethe’s writings glorified German culture and history fostering a sense of national pride and identity of the German people.
The results of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars as events that disrupted the existing political order brought to the forefront questions of individual rights and sovereignty with national identity. As a reaction to the French occupation and subsequently the Congress of Vienna headed by Prince Metternich the Austrian Court and State Chancellor conducted themselves wholly in the tradition by attempting to denationalise the question of the Rhine frontier and to treat it as a matter involving all the European powers.
German public opinion responded to signs of a French mobilisation that were almost devoid of emotion whereas the South German press already was engaged in a lively campaign against neighbouring treacherous intentions explaining in innumerable articles that France’s demands for a new frontier affected not only Prussians, Badners or Bavarians but all Germans.
German intellectuals and politicians began to advocate for a unified German state based on a shared language and culture in history. Nationalism emerged as a response to the political fragmentation of Germany which was composed of numerous small states and kingdoms of the German Palatinates.
The formation of the German Customs Union called the Zollverein in 1834 encouraged economic integration and cooperation among German states in a step towards unity which laid the groundwork for the political unification of Germany. Among different German states strengthening the sense of a shared destiny in the growth of industrialization and urbanization accelerated the process of building a German nation with the development of a common market and infrastructure that facilitated communication.
A united Germany could better protect its interests and promote its economic and military power. Intellectuals like Friedrich Ludwig Jahn and Johann Gottlieb Fichte advocated for the creation of a strong German nation state to ensure the political and economic success of the German people.
Historically the ideas of the German Romantics celebrated the unique characteristics of the German people and legacy. They emphasized the importance of folklore, mythology and the tales of the Brothers Grimm in shaping the German national identity.
Wilhelm Richard Wagner the enigmatic German composer created the stage of something grand for the total work of art or Gesamtkunstwerk where music, drama, verse, legend and spectacle of a cosmic opera cycle that spans time and space are the very fabric of a canvas with the existence of Gods, heroes and cursed gold. These factors eventually paved the way for the unification of Germany under Prussian leadership in 1871.
The opening phase was called the March Revolution in German also the März revolution initially part of the revolutions of 1848 that broke out in many European countries. The series of spasmodic coordinated protests and rebellions arose in the states of the German Confederation including the Austrian Empire and stressed pan Germanism.
With the unification of Germany under democratic principles and with equal rights and opportunities for all Germans liberal thinkers such as Heinrich von Treitschke believed that a united Germany would be a beacon of democracy and progress in the heart of Europe. Treitschke was born in Dresden in 1834 and the views and sympathies held in the career as historian, political writer and a member of the National Liberal Party during the time of the German Empire favoured colonialism. Referring to the Kingdom of Prussia during the Austro-Prussian War led him to move to Berlin where he became a Prussian subject and the editor of the Preussische Jahr Bücher. Writings from the perspective of colonialism were influential but they also stirred controversy due to his strong advocacy of German nationalism and increasing criticism of liberalism.
Every virile people have established colonial power. All great nations in the fullness of their strength have desired to set their mark upon barbarian lands, and those who fail to participate in this great rivalry will play a pitiable role in time to come.
Heinrich von Treitschke, lecturer at the University of Freiburg
Treitschke’s extreme nationalism also opposed the British Empire, Catholics, Poles, Jews and socialists within Germany. Previously divided into numerous independent states eminent figures like Johann Gottlieb Fichte and Ernst Moritz Arndt advanced the idea of a unified German nation inspiring a sense of national identity and common heritage.
Activism for liberal reforms spread through many of the German states each of which had distinct revolutions. They were inspired also by the street demonstrations in Paris led by workers and artisans which took place through the twenty second to the twenty fourth of February in 1848 and became known as the February Revolution in France. The riots resulted in the abdication of King Louis Philippe and led him to exile in Britain.
The revolutions spread from France across Europe with demonstrations against the government which erupted in both Austria and Germany beginning with large protests on the thirteenth of March in Vienna. As a result the resignation of Prince von Metternich as chief minister to Emperor Ferdinand I of Austria in 1848 caused the statesman to go in exile to Britain.
Origin of the flag of Germany with cheering revolutionaries in Berlin on the nineteenth of March 1848.
Creating the German flag the demonstrators expressed popular discontent with the traditional autocratic political structure of the thirty nine independent states of the Confederation that inherited the German territory of the former Holy Roman Empire after its dismantlement as a result of the Napoleonic Wars.
French Emperor Napoleon’s mighty forces conquered and gained of control the whole of mainland Europe including the numerous German states. Napoleon reorganised Germany into thirty nine larger states also establishing the Confederation of the Rhine as a league of sixteen German states which brought about unification to Germany. Napoleon was defeated firstly at Leipzig in 1813 and then at Waterloo in 1815 bringing an end to the Confederation of Rhine.
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