Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of maps
- Chronological table
- Map 1 The German Confederation, 1815
- Map 2 The German Customs Union, 1834
- Introduction
- I Three weeks in March
- II The German nationalist movement's road to the creation of the Reich
- 2 The background: Europe's transformation from an agrarian society to a modern civilisation of the masses
- 3 The rise of a national culture
- 4 What has become of the German Fatherland?
- 5 The nationalist movement's passage from an elitist to a mass phenomenon
- 6 From Rhine Crisis to revolution
- 7 1848: the whole of Germany it shall be
- 8 On the road to a national economy
- 9 Speeches and majority decisions
- 10 Blood and Iron
- 11 Revolution from above and below
- III Documentary appendix
- Notes
- Bibliography and source material
- Notes to bibliography
- A critical bibliography of works in English
- Index
8 - On the road to a national economy
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 06 January 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of maps
- Chronological table
- Map 1 The German Confederation, 1815
- Map 2 The German Customs Union, 1834
- Introduction
- I Three weeks in March
- II The German nationalist movement's road to the creation of the Reich
- 2 The background: Europe's transformation from an agrarian society to a modern civilisation of the masses
- 3 The rise of a national culture
- 4 What has become of the German Fatherland?
- 5 The nationalist movement's passage from an elitist to a mass phenomenon
- 6 From Rhine Crisis to revolution
- 7 1848: the whole of Germany it shall be
- 8 On the road to a national economy
- 9 Speeches and majority decisions
- 10 Blood and Iron
- 11 Revolution from above and below
- III Documentary appendix
- Notes
- Bibliography and source material
- Notes to bibliography
- A critical bibliography of works in English
- Index
Summary
The revolution was over, great hopes had evaporated leaving only disenchantment and the rejection of unsuccessful ‘idealistic’ policies. A book appeared in 1853, which was written by a former Burschenschaft member and revolutionary called August Ludwig von Rochau and entitled Principles of Realpolitik, with reference to political conditions in Germany. Those radical democrats who had not chosen the path of emigration turned into sensible observers of the prevailing conditions; the Liberal middle classes came to terms with the state of affairs and settled down into commercial or learned professions or, as loyal servitors of both the people and the crown, got themselves elected to the second chambers of the various Parliaments (Landtage). One thing had however been achieved. In every German state, in Prussia especially, the rulers had committed themselves to constitutional norms and had come to share their legislative power with the parliamentary forces.
In any case, the liberalism of the propertied middle classes had also won, in so far as the economic revival benefited from the political doldrums of the fifties. After all, was not involvement in economic matters also a means of drawing closer to their nationalist goal? This is what Friedrich Motz, the Prussian Minister of Finance, had realised as early on as the twenties, when he attempted to remove the nuisance of an economically splintered Germany and the muddle of the different customs duties and currencies in the 39 states.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Course of German NationalismFrom Frederick the Great to Bismarck 1763–1867, pp. 77 - 81Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1991