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“Modifying the Traditional for the Good of the Whole”: Commentary on State-Building and Bureaucracy in Nassau, Baden, and Saxony in the Early Nineteenth Century

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 December 2008

Marion W. Gray
Marion W. Gray
Affiliation:
Kansas State University Manhattan, Kansas
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Extract

The three articles of this symposium contribute to a vital debate about the nature of modern German politics. The works by Barbara Anderson, Loyd Lee, and Lawrence Flockerzie discuss the political culture upon which the post-Napoleonic reconstruction of Germany rested. This political culture transcended the conventional concepts “liberal” and “conservative.” It was based on bourgeois ideals.

Type
Symposium State-Building in the “Third Germany”
Information
Central European History , Volume 24 , Issue 2-3 , June 1991 , pp. 293 - 303
Copyright
Copyright © Conference Group for Central European History of the American Historical Association 1991

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References

1. This historiographical tradition is summarized in two recent works whose authors do not accept it. Blackbourn, David and Eley, Geoff, The Peculiarities of German History: Bourgeois Society and Politics in Nineteenth-Century Germany (Oxford, 1984), 2–10.CrossRefGoogle ScholarSheehan, James J., German History 1770–1866 (Oxford, 1989), 793–94.Google Scholar A familiar and sophisticated example of the argument itself is contained in Wehler, Hans-Ulrich, The German Empire 1871–1918, trans. Traynor, Kim (Oxford, 1985), 9–31.Google Scholar

2. Blackbourn, David, “Economy and Society: A Silent Bourgeois Revolution,” in Balackbourn and Eley, Peculiarities, 176–205Google Scholar; quotation from 204. These historians developed their thesis in the 1970s and published the first German edition of their book in 1980.

3. An exception is Rürup, Reinhard, Deutschland im 19. Jahrhundert 1815–1871, Deutsche Geschichte, vol. 8 (Göttingen, 1984)Google Scholar whose interpretation of the early part of the century is in many ways compatible with that of Blackbourn and Eley. From a different perspective, Hans-Ulrich Wehler has suggested that the Sonderweg thesis does belong to the early part of the century: Deutsche Gesellschaftsgeschichte, vol. 1, Vom Feudalismus des alten Reiches bis zur defensiven Modernisierung der Reformära 1700–1815 (Munich, 1987), 362–485.Google Scholar

4. Koselleck, Reinhard, Preussen zwischen Reform und Revolution: Allgemeines Landrecht, Verwaltung und soziale Bewegung von 1791 bis 1848 (Stuttgart, 1989), 87–115.Google ScholarBleek, Wilhelm, Von der Kameralausbildung zum Juristenprivileg: Studium, Prüfung und Ausbildung der höheren Beamten des allgemeinen Verwaltungsdienstes in Deutschland im 18. und 19. Jahrhundert, Historische und Pädagogische Studien, vol. 3 (Berlin, 1972).Google ScholarWunder, Bernd, Privilegierung und Disziplinierung: Die Entstehung des Berufsbeamtentums in Bayern und Württemberg (1780–1825), Studien zur modernen Geschichte, vol. 21 (Munich, 1978).Google ScholarWehler, , Deutsche Gesellschafisgeschichte, 1:202–17.Google Scholar Sheehan, German History, 90–143. On the shift in the political vocabulary see Conze, Werner, “Mittelstand,” in Brunner, Otto, Conze, Werner, Koselleck, Reinhard, eds., Geschichtliche Grundbegriffe: Historisches Lexikon zur politisch-sozialen Sprache in Deutschland (1973–1990), 1: 49–92.Google Scholar

5. Lee, Loyd E., The Politics of Harmony: Civil Service, Liberalism, and Social Reform in Baden, 1800–1850 (Newark, 1980), 11.Google Scholar

6. Blackbourn and Eley, Peculiarities, 176–205. They stress capitalism, law, and citizenship as the foundations of the silent bourgeois revolution, rather than bureaucracy. Wunder provides an excellent case study of civil service and bureaucracy: Privilegierung und Disziplinierung.

7. Riedel, Manfred, “Bürger, Staatsbürger, Bügertum,” in Geschichtliche Grundbegriffe, 1: 672–725, esp. 700–706.Google Scholar

8. Groh, Dieter, “Cäserismus, Napoleonismus, Bonapartismus, Führer, Chef, Imperialismus,” in Geschichtliche Grundbeqriffe, 1:726–71.Google Scholar

9. Gray, Marion W., Prussia in Transition: Society and Politics under the Stein Reform Ministry of 1808. Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, vol. 76 (Philadelphia, 1986).Google ScholarVogel, Barbara, Allgemeine Gewerbefreiheit: Die Reformpolitik des preussischen Staatskanzlers Hardenberg (1810–1820). Kritische Studien zur Geschichtswissenschaft, vol. 57 (Göttingen, 1983)CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Barbara Anderson argues that Stein and Marschall held different ideologies. This conclusion is based, however, on conflicts in which Stein engaged as a mediatized prince of Nassau and as leader of a planned all-German response to Napoleon, rather than as reform minister of Prussia. In the latter role his goals were parallel to those of Marschall. Likewise, the disagreement between Saxony's leaders and Baron vom Stein's Zentralverwaltung revolved around diplomatic, not constitutional issues.

10. Weis, Eberhard and Müller-Luckner, Elisabeth, eds., Reformen im Rheinbündischen Deutschland, Schriften des Historischen Kollegs, Kolloquien 4, (Munich, 1984).CrossRefGoogle ScholarBerding, Helmut and Ullmann, Peter, eds., Deutschland zwischen Revolution und Restauration, Athenäum-Droste Taschenbücher Geschichte 7240 (Königstein-Taunus, 1981).Google ScholarWeis, Eberhard, Montgelas (Munich, 1988–1989), especially vol. 2, 1799–1838: Der Architekt des modernen bayerischen Staates.Google Scholar

11. As early as 1909 Otto Hintze, in a comparative study of several states, identified the Napoleonic era as profoundly transitional: “Der Commissarius und seine Bedeutung in der allgemeinen Verwaltungsgeschichte,” in Hintze, , Staat und Verfassung: Gesammelte Abhandlungen zur allqemeinen Verfassungsgeschichte, ed. Oestreich, Gerhard (Göttingen, 1962; the article was first published in 1910), 242–74; see especially 247.Google Scholar

12. On the middle-class ideology see, for example, Schlumbohm, Jürgen, Freiheit: Die Anfänge der bürgerlichen Emanzipationsbewegung in Deutschland im Spieqel ihres Leitworts (ca. 1760–ca. 1800) (Düsseldorf, 1975).Google Scholar

13. Wehler, , Deutsche Gesellschaftsgeschichte, 1:362–485.Google Scholar