Table Of ContentGermany from Napoleon to Bismarck
1800-1866
Thomas Nipperdey
Germany from Napoleon to Bismarck
1800-1866
Translated by Daniel Nolan
Princeton University Press
Princeton, New Jersey
Published by Princeton University Press
41 William Street, Princeton, New Jersey 08540
All Rights Reserved
ISBN 0-691-02636-X
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A CIP catalog record for this book is available from the Dbraiy of Congress
First published in Germany in 1983
by Verlag C. H. Beck, Munich as
Deutsche Geschichte
1800-1866
Biirgerwelt und starker Staat
© C. H. Becksche Verlagsbuchhandlung (Oscar Beck), Miinchen 1983
© English translation Gill & Macmillan 1996
Translated by Daniel Nolan
Index compiled by Helen Dtton
This book has been composed in New Caledonia
Princeton University Press books are printed on acid-free paper and meet the guidelines for permanence and
durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council on Dbraiy Resources
Printed in Great Britain
1 3 5 7 9 1 0 8 6 4 2
Contents
ListofTables vii
I The Great Upheaval 1
1. The End of Empire: Germany under Napoleon 1
2. The Great Reforms 19
3. The Great War and a Difficult Peace 67
II Life, Work, Business 85
1. Population 85
2. Family, Gender, Generations 97
3. Everyday Life 111
4. Agriculture and Rural Society 125
5. Industrialisation 155
6. Crafts 182
7. The Lower Classes, Factories, Industrial Workers, Social Problems 191
8. The Problem of Minorities: the Jews 217
9. Bourgeois Society 223
III Restoration and Vormarz, 1815-48 237
1. The End of the Reforms: Constitutions and Restoration 237
2. The Great Movements 250
3. The State and the States 280
4. German and European Politics 313
5. The Effects of the July Revolution 323
6. The Formation and Restructuring of the German Political Parties 333
7. Vormarz 350
IV Faith and Knowledge; Education and Art 356
1. Religion, Church, De-Christianisation 356
2. Education: School and University 398
3. The Sciences 428
4. Aesthetic Culture: Music, Art and Literature 472
5. The Reading Revolution and the Rise of the Press 520
vi Contents
V The Revolution of1848-49 527
1. The March Revolution 527
2. The Road to the Paulskirche 537
3. Ertraparliamentary Movements: Denominational and Social Problems 547
4. Germany and Europe 553
5. Between Radicalisation and Counter-Revolution 560
6. The Imperial Constitution and the Empire 579
7. The End 588
8. The Failed Revolution 590
9. Epilogue: Germany as a Union of the States? 595
VI Between Reaction and Liberalism: Bismarck and the Problem of
German Unity, 1849-66 599
1. Reaction in Germany, 1849-59 599
2. German Policy in the 1850s 608
3. Germany in Europe: From the Crimean War to the Italian War 612
4. The New Era 620
5. The German Question, 1859-63 627
6. Politics and Society: Changes in the Parties 636
7. The Constitutional Conflict in Prussia and Bismarck's
Minister-Presidency 667
8. The Decision concerning Germany: German and European
Politics, 1863-66 684
9. Consequences 704
Epilogue 716
Index 717
List of Tables
Table 1: Population of the states of the German Confederation 86
Table 2: Selected population densities 88
Table 3: Live births, deaths, excess of births over deaths per year
in 25-year averages 89
Table 4: Birth rate, mortality rate, excess births over deaths in
selected 5-year averages 91
Table 5: Average proportion of illegitimate births out of the total
number of births, 1830-69 93
Table 6a: Proportion of the total population aged under 14 94
Table 6b: Proportion of population aged over 60 94
Table 7: Proportion of inhabitants in communities of over 5,000 inhabitants 95
Table 8: Population of German cities 96
Table 9: Emigration 97
Table 10: Illegitimate births 109
Table 11a: Estimatedyields 132
Table lib: Total yields 133
Table 12a: Increase in livestock numbers 133
Table 12b: Output 133
Table 12c: Index figures for livestock production 134
Table 13a: Land lost and gained by the peasants in Prussia 136
Table 13b: Land gained by the large landowners in Prussia 137
Table 14: Relative proportions of the various sizes of property (from large
landed estates to the smallest smallholdings) in Prussia in 1855 138
Table 15: Payment in kind/payment in currency 143
Table 16: Average yearly population growth by social class in rural
East Prussia 1805-67 143
Table 17: Losses in feudal revenues 147
Table 18: The cotton industry 160
Table 19: Workers employed in crafts and industry in the later Reich,
c.1800 and 1846-48 170
Table 20: Coal-mining in the Ruhr 170
Table 21: Iron production in Prussia 171
Table 22: Economic comparison between Austria and the German
Reich of 1871 177
viii List of Tables
Table 23: Craft workers within the borders of the later German Reich 183
Table 24: Development of crafts in Prussia 184
Table 25: Index figures for the development of crafts in Prussia, 1816-46 185
Table 26: Shift in the distribution of persons employed in individual
crafts sectors in Prussia, 1816-46 185
Table 27: Numbers of masters and assistants within the populations of
individual states, 1846-49 185
Table 28: Numbers of craftsmen by region 186
Table 29: Weekly wages in various trade sectors for the period 1840-49 196
Table 30: Incomes of selected groups of employees in the territory of
the later German Reich for 1810-49 197
Table 31: Income of workers in industry and crafts in the territory of
the later German Reich for 1850-70 207
Table 32: Wages in mining, 1850-70 208
Table 33: Average wages of workers in the engineering works in
Esslingen, 1848-70 209
Table 34: Jewish social structure within the borders of the later Reich 220
Table 35a: Number of Germans and those of other nations involved
in vital discoveries in the field of physiology 437
Table 35b: Number of Germans, as compared with French and English,
involved in discoveries in the study of heat, electricity,
magnetism and optics 437
Table 35c: Number of Germans, as compared with French and English,
involved in medical discoveries 438
Table 36: Electoral turnout in Prussia 644
The Great Upheaval
1. The End of Empire:
Germany under Napoleon
I
n the beginning was Napoleon. His influence upon the histoiy of the German people,
their lives and experiences was overwhelming at a time when the initial foundations
of a modem German state were being laid. The destiny of a nation is its politics, and
those politics were Napoleon's — the politics of war and conquest, of exploitation and
repression, of imperialism and reform. The nations and the other states were left with
no option but to acquiesce or to resist. Rarely have power politics and pressure from
without so dominated eveiy sphere of life. The great reforms which so altered the state
and society were themselves shaped by these forces. True, it was with the French
Revolution that the ideas on which the modern world is based, and which went on to
become an integral part of modem consciousness, first came into being. The French
Revolution marked a new era in world history. For the Germans, however, the collapse
of the old order became a reality only under Napoleon, and in the form of a militaiy
imperium. Only those blinded by ideology to the phenomenon of power, those who
concentrate all their attention on the movements within society, on 'internal' politics,
and on structures, could ignore this basic fact.
The German nation's fate was shaped by the larger political events taking place
around it. The revolutionaiy wars — from 1792 onwards — had ended with the defeat
of the German and other European powers. Napoleon, the revolution's general, was
also its tamer. His victory was absolutely without precedent. In 1801, the territories on
the left bank of the Rhine finally fell under French rule. In 1803, the map of Germany
was redrawn; the princeling rulers were to be 'compensated' for their territorial losses.
Tliis triggered a revolution from above by the 'old' Germany. The ecclesiastical states
were 'secularised'; most of the imperial cities, hitherto 'imperial sovereignties', and a
whole series of smaller secular states (including what remained of the Electorate of the
Palatinate) were 'mediatised', i.e. dissolved as political unities and absorbed into the
large and medium-sized states. The German map was effectively simplified in a
settlement agreed to by the Deputation of the Imperial Diet. In general, the new
acquisitions heavily outnumbered the losses.
2 Germanyfrom Napoleon to Bismarck
This geographical reform took place under the auspices of the two major continental
powers, France and Russia, and in accordance with the plan and model laid down by
them. Many personal alliances and a good deal of corruption played a significant role.
France's dominant position and her interests were politically decisive for this revolution
from above. France was now the puppet-master of German affairs, a fact which had two
direct consequences. First, it caused the dissolution of the old Empire, which had relied
on the imperial church and the aristocracy outside the larger territories for its power
and legal system. Secondly, unified medium-sized states (Mttteistaaten) capable of sup
porting themselves were created or consolidated in the south and south-west by the
enormous territorial expansion. Baden, Wiirttemberg, Bavaria, Hesse-Darmstadt and
the Nassau principalities were the big winners in this reorganisation. Both the princes
and the chief ministers of these states seized the opportunity for expansion with both
hands, guided by an almost undiluted pragmatism, and allowing no legitimistic, patriotic
or nationalist scruples to deter them.
The medium-sized states now found themselves squeezed between the major
German powers of Prussia and Austria, and they became fierce opponents of the old
imperial structure. This was their first taste of genuine sovereignty, and no Kaiser or
Empire was going to get in their way. Individual states which had aspired to full
sovereignty during the early modern era in the development of the German state
now attained their goal. This new sovereignty, however, was not viable in itself. It relied
on France for its political legitimacy and power, and it was in the interests ofN apoleonic
France to uphold them, thereby making impossible any other form of national
organisation of Germany, whether of the older or the newer variety. In this respect,
the medium-sized states were not simply a result of German history, but, first and
foremost, the product of the policies through which Napoleon had sought to
establish his hegemony. Thus, the pragmatism of the princes and ministers was
inevitably linked to a need to fall into line with French policies.
Last-ditch attempts to reform the Reich either remained futile or came to grief —
like that of the Imperial Chancellor and sole remaining ecclesiastical Elector, Dalberg.
It was he who tried to consolidate the imperial church and the Empire by means of a
Reich Concordat — with the Kaiser, the new sovereigns or the Pope. The Reich was on
the brink of bankruptcy, with only a shadow existence. When Napoleon crowned
himself Emperor of the French in 1804, the German Kaiser Franz II renounced his
imperial title and became Emperor of Austria,s eeing this as the only office which would
grant him a semblance of parity.
Yet the issue of France's supremacy in Europe remained unresolved. Austria and
Prussia appeared powerless, but by 1803 England was again at war with Napoleon. He
wasted no time in taking possession of Hanover, which was bound by personal union to
England. This signalled the end of north German neutrality, which had been main
tained under Prussia's protection. A new alliance was formed between the Netherlands,
Switzerland and Italy, the powers on the flanks of England and Russia. This "Third
Coalition' aimed at resisting Napoleon's galloping expansionism, ending the economic
war and putting a stop to his despotism (exemplified in the kidnapping and subsequent
shooting of Due d'Enghien in Baden in 1804). The objectives of the Third Coalition
were to contain France, reverse her military conquest and to re-establish the balance of
power in Europe. Austria, though still seriously weakened after its earlier revolutionary
