1848: 175 years revolution in Germany

[Georg Ebner]

Austria's deputies for the german National ConVent in Frankfurt 1848/9:









The austrian part of Silesia was obviously the leftest part (but still far away from communism/anarchism a la Paris). Generally there was a NorthSouth-divide. And also a clear corRelation with areas, where the Germans were threatened by the "Slavic flood" (the latter boycotted usually the election).

[Devil Wincarnate]

Fantastic. There will be some real gems in the other deputations as well, presumably?

[Georg Ebner]

Nowhere else than in once arch-Cath.&Cons. Bavaria the revolution began actually in Germany - but it was caused by king Ludwig I., who had fallen into love to a pseudoSpanish - realiter Scottish - artist ("Lola Montez"). Thus the Cath.&Cons. forced her to flee (He retired soon afterWards). When then the real revolutions broke out everywhere else, [Old]Bavaria ("Baiern") remained as the only area quiet. Reminds me of the era of CounterReformation. The fervent catholics&romanticists around GOERRES were the only ones, who behaved not clueless and became the backBone of "Cafe Milano" (the most rightish faction in 1848).

Bavaria's Franconia & Suebia were already less cath.&cons.:

Amusingly Palatine - which belonged as an exClave to Bavaria - was with Baden the most left-liberal region:

Württemberg was a little bit calmer, but still in the SW-corner of Germany, where republicanism & "radicalism" (= pro-democratic liberalism) was also popular among the masses:

Down the Rhine it were often not least poorer wooden areas away from the cities/towns upon the rivers (but close enough for being influenced by them). Hesse:

Prussian RhineLand (the medieval Lothringen), with (right)liberal industrialists in the North, but also a strong Left in the South (Trier, where MARX was from). Catholic disSatisfaction with Prussian rule must be taken into acCount:

Prussian WestPhalia, per se also very cons., but Cath. animosity towards Prussia played a role:

The 2 states of the Welfs, the relatives of the British "Windsors" (Hanover & Brunswick):

The rest in the North:

The NorthEast - EastElbia - had the infamous "Junker": AristoCrats, who felt - different to their equiValents in Austria and Bavaria - very much as a distinctive class with its own interEsts.
Pomerania & Polish Posen:

Prussia proper:

In Brandenburg Berlin played naturally a role:

The industrial MidEast of Germany was the second strongHold for the left, here less the "radicalism" of the rather rural SW, but more a (proto)industrial protest (albeit still not outright anarchistic, let alone communistic). Silesia:

An early apPearance of "Red Saxony" (in those days the only german state, where the majority did not work in agriCulture):

Prussian Saxony:

The microStates of Anhalt & Thuringia:

[Devil Wincarnate]

Fabulous.

My wife's ancestors were/are all from Wahlkreis Siegburg and Wahlkreis Budweis.

[Foggy]

Thanks for the info, Georg. There's very little acknowledgement in the current Paulskirche of the lands that don't make up modern Germany but which were invited to the Convention.

It says a lot about the state of education in this country that remember seeing a brown road sign in 2001 – already armed with A* German plus a proper pass at GCSE History from OCR, seen as the toughest exam board – which boasted that the next exit on the Autobahn led to a town which was heavily involved in "Die Revolutionen von 1848" and I had absolutely no idea what that referred to.

Then at AS level, we had one lesson (maybe even a whole week?) with nods to 1870-71 unification under Bismarck and the Drei-Kaiser-Jahr of 1888, then things basically skipped ahead to 1914. Oh, and somebody mentioned Friedrich Barbarossa at one point but the teacher didn't want to dwell on that era at all. I didn't actually find out about the events of 1848-49 until I took the Connaissance du pays allemand module in Mons of all places, almost a full decade after I first spotted that motorway sign.

I've since found English sources that fill in the gaps of that particular oversight but it's still shoddy that I was never taught it properly in school, FE college or at a British university. DW's other half may or may not be pleased to hear that when I gave a talk to Bath German Society just before pandemic restrictions came in, I did as an aside lament the loss of Budweis from German-speaking territory at one point.

[Georg Ebner]

Jun 12, 2023 21:55:50 GMT Devil Wincarnate said:

Fabulous.

My wife's ancestors were/are all from Wahlkreis Siegburg and Wahlkreis Budweis.

The hilarious thing with Czechia is, that - despite their disLike for each other* - the Czech & german partySystems were quasi identical.

*probably rather because of the hate: The hater transforms into a copy of the beHated! (What explains, why many sons are so similar to their fathers...)

[Georg Ebner]

Jun 13, 2023 13:54:15 GMT Foggy said:

Thanks for the info, Georg. There's very little acknowledgement in the current Paulskirche of the lands that don't make up modern Germany but which were invited to the Convention.

It says a lot about the state of education in this country that remember seeing a brown road sign in 2001 – already armed with A* German plus a proper pass at GCSE History from OCR, seen as the toughest exam board – which boasted that the next exit on the Autobahn led to a town which was heavily involved in "Die Revolutionen von 1848" and I had absolutely no idea what that referred to.

Then at AS level, we had one lesson (maybe even a whole week?) with nods to 1870-71 unification under Bismarck and the Drei-Kaiser-Jahr of 1888, then things basically skipped ahead to 1914. Oh, and somebody mentioned Friedrich Barbarossa at one point but the teacher didn't want to dwell on that era at all. I didn't actually find out about the events of 1848-49 until I took the Connaissance du pays allemand module in Mons of all places, almost a full decade after I first spotted that motorway sign.

I've since found English sources that fill in the gaps of that particular oversight but it's still shoddy that I was never taught it properly in school, FE college or at a British university. DW's other half may or may not be pleased to hear that when I gave a talk to Bath German Society just before pandemic restrictions came in, I did as an aside lament the loss of Budweis from German-speaking territory at one point.

SomeTimes less is more: In present-day democratic Germany 1848 is praised as the foundation of good Germany and its "failure" 1849 as the begin of the evil "SonderWeg" resulting in Hitler.
So not realising, that realiter the gross of deputies were antidemocratic Liberals (and exactly these RightLib., who were a minority in the pro-democratic SW, established the unitary parliament for the whole nation not least in the hope, that we reTards in the east [Prussia, Bavaria & Austria] would outnumber their Radicals, what was finally also the case - a bonMot was: "Austria should rise into Germany - and now Germany sinks into Austria" ["Ö sollte in D aufgehen - und jetzt geht D in Ö unter"]...).

[Foggy]

Yes, the Sonderweg was mentioned at A-level but not how far back the concept went, at least as far as I recall.

In order to find out the Austrian side of the story following the 1849 'failure', I had to wait another semester again after Mons, when I took the classes of the 'A Survey of Austrian Culture' module at the "Alpen-Adria" University in Klagenfurt.

[Georg Ebner]

Jun 13, 2023 23:32:25 GMT Foggy said:

Yes, the Sonderweg was mentioned at A-level but not how far back the concept went, at least as far as I recall.

In order to find out the Austrian side of the story following the 1849 'failure', I had to wait another semester again after Mons, when I took the classes of the 'A Survey of Austrian Culture' module at the "Alpen-Adria" University in Klagenfurt.

2 relatives are lecturing at the univ. of Klagenfurt. But i can - to be honest - not be too confident, that You were correctly taught. Apart from very few specialists, who know it better, there is the consensus omnium dummium, that the "prince of Midnight" ("Fürst von Mitternacht") would have been a romantical&reactionary Catholic trying to reerect new middleAges (when realiter He was only an "enlightened" conservative) and a PrimeMinister (realiter He was responsible only for diplomacy (incl. censorship)). Or the omni-present&potent police & secretService (realiter there existed no riotPolice at all and the police were just few (night)guardians (usually without uniforms); the acts of the secretService were burnt in 1927, but we know at least, that not more than 27 (!) applied for pensions (by the way: they had also observed the emperor, when He was meeting in parks young woMen...)). Basically everything is totally wrong rubbish You have to hear in media, public and semiserious science.