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The German Revolutionary Student Movement, 1819–1833

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 December 2008

Rolland Ray lutz
Rolland Ray lutz
Affiliation:
Newark State College
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Extract

The archetype of the modern student movement is the German Burschenschaft of the Restoration era. Some events in the history of the Burschenschaft are well known: the Wartburgfest of 1817; the national federation of Burschenschaften in 1818; the assassination of August von Kotzebue by Karl Sand; and the resultant Karlsbad Decrees of 1819. Relatively little attention, however, has been devoted to the post-Karlsbad history of the Burschenschaft, which is the concern of this article. Emphasis will be given to the role which a network of secret, inner circles played in both the survival of the Burschenschaft and its continued involvement in revolutionary conspiracy. These inner circles contained not merely representatives of the normal four-year student classes, but also permanently radicalized Burschenschafter. In some cases such “old boys” did not participate directly but maintained informal ties with key members of the inner circles. Since many of the radical alumni became secondary school teachers, they became the source of a continuous supply of indoctrinated recruits. The Burschenschaft of the Restoration era owed both its survival and the continuity of its traditions to an exclusive, self-perpetuating group of radicals dominated by veteran revolutionaries.

Type
Articles
Information
Central European History , Volume 4 , Issue 3 , September 1971 , pp. 215 - 241
Copyright
Copyright © Conference Group for Central European History of the American Historical Association 1971

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References

1. Wentzcke, Paul, Geschichte der deutschen Burschenschaft, Vol. I: Vor- und Frühzeit bis zu den Karlsbader Beschlüssen, pp. 117, 124, 153–55, 171–73, 206–209, hereafter cited as WentzckeGoogle Scholar. Published as Vol. VI (1919) in the series Quellen und Darstellungen zur Geschichte der Burschenschaft und der deutschen Einheitsbewegung, ed. Paul, Wentzcke et al. (17 vols., Heidlberg, 1910–1940). This series will hereafter be cited as Quellen und Darstellungen. The Jena chapter's reputation as the “Urburschenschaft” arose after the Wartburgfest of 1817 in which the chapter played such a prominent role.Google Scholar

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12. Follen, esp. pp. 9, 11–12, 15.

13. Leo, pp. 173, 175, 177, 194–95.

14. Ibid., pp. 177–79.

15. Ibid., p. 179.

16. Ibid., p. 152.

17. The original attendance document of the Wartburg fest of 1817 has been published verbatim by Steiger, Günter, together with editorial analyses and supplementary data, in “Die Teilnehmerliste des Wartburgfestes von 1817: Erste kritische Ausgabe der sog. ‘Präsenzliste,’” Darstellungen und Quellen zur Geschichte der deutschen Einheitsbewegung, ed. Paul, Wentzcke, Stephenson, Kurt et al. (Heidelberg, 1957ff.), IV (1963), 65–133.Google Scholar This series is, essentially, a revival of Wentzcke's Quellen und Darstellungen, after a lapse of 17 years, and is likewise commissioned by the Gesellschaft für burschenschaftliche Geschichtsforschung. It is fortunate that the series survived Wentzcke's death in 1960. Steiger identifies Wesselhöft as “the leading representative of the Burschenschaft” and reveals that he was speaker of the Jena chapter in 1819 (p. 69), doubtless one of the results of the election described by Leo, . In Darstellungen und Quellen, II (1959), 67–100, Walter Nissen has published a part of the diary of the Kiel Burschenschafter Wilhelm Olshausen, together with editorial comments, under the title, “Eine Wanderfahrt zum ersten Wartburgfest.” The diary reveals that Olshausen associated with Wesselhöft and regarded him as an important Burschenschafter; see p. 94. A facsimile of a handwritten document signed by Wesselhöft is reproduced on p. 73.Google Scholar

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19. For data on Wesselhöft's Burschenschaft career into the mid-1820's, see the index to Heer's Demagogenzeit; see esp. p. 127.

20. Some biographical data on the Bunsens may be found in Rudolf Bonnet, “Ausunveröffentlichten Briefen Georg Bunsens,” hereafter cited as Bonnet, “Briefe Georg Bunsens,” and in Therta Boettiger, “Unterhaltsames aus dem alten Frankfurt. Dem Gedenken einer liebenswerten, edlen Altfrankfurterin Christine Bunsen geb. Christel Ameis,” hereafter cited as Boettiger, , “Christine Bunsen,” consecutive articles in AltFrankfurt, III (03 1930), 33–36; copy in Stadtarchiv, Frankfurt.Google Scholar

21. Leo, p. 175, confuses the matter when he identifies the Bunsen brother at Göttingen as “the Dr. Bunsen of Frankfurt who later played such an important role in the Frankfurt uprising.” Wentzcke, p. 270, cites a contemporary letter in mentioning the Göttingen Bunsen but mistakes him for the founder of the Bunsen Institute. All three Bunsen brothers held the doctorate and all three were involved in the Burschenschaft plot of 1832–33. Gustav, the youngest, was the chief leader of the plot, and he was born in 1804; he was therefore only 13 years old at the time of the Wartburgfest in the heyday of the Schwarzen. By a process of elimination, the Bunsen brother who led the Göttingen Schwarzen had to be Karl, who was 21 years old in 1817. Georg was at Berlin, not Göttingen.

22. Wilhelm Nicolay, “Familie Bunsen: Georg Karl Adolf Bunsen nach seiner Abreise von Frankfurt und die Verbreitung des Pestalozzianismus in den Vereinigten Staaten von Nordamerika,” hereafter cited as Nicolay, , “Familie Bunsen,” in Arbeitsausschuss für die Pestalozzifeier 1927, ed., Pestalozzi und Frankfurt am Main (Frankfurt, 1927), p. 159; copy in Stadtarchiv, Frankfurt.Google Scholar

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26. Boettiger, “Christine Bunsen,” p. 35. Karl Bunsen's arrest is recorded in Frankfurt, Peinliches Verhörs-Amt, “Index über die Criminalia, 1801–1856,” Repertorium B 98 d, entry under “1834,” in Frankfurt Stadtarchiv. In addition to being a record of arrests, it is an index of dossiers relating to court cases.

27. See the indices to Wentzcke's and Heer's volumes on the Burschenschaft. Among the other families, besides the Bunsens, which contributed two or more sons to the Burschenschaft were the Wesselöfts and the Schmids of Jena, the Follens of Giessen, and the Feuerbachs of Ansbach.

28. See the numerous references to the Follen brothers in Wentzcke's index. August is listed under the first and middle names he later adopted: Adolf Ludwig. See also Leo, pp. 172–77.

29. “Follen, Aug. (später Adolf Ludw.),” Kleineres Brockhaus, 1854, II, 516.Google Scholar

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31. There is an interesting discussion of Karl Follen's role and significance in Feuer, Lewis S., The Conflict of Generations: The Character and Significance of Student Movements (New York, 1969), pp. 59–66.Google Scholar

32. Wentzcke, pp. 304–305.

33. Ruge, , Aus frührer Zeit, I, 341–42.Google Scholar

34. Ibid., p. 341.

35. Feuerbach, Ludwig to his mother, Ansbach, Oct. 22, 1820,Google Scholar in Grün, Karl, ed., Ludwig Feuerbach in seinem Briefwechsel und Nachlass (Leipzig, 1874), I. 163.Google Scholar

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37. Leo, pp. 189–90.

38. Heer, Demagogenzeit, p. 35.

39. See Ibid., p. 36, for a list of radical veterans associated with Wesselhöft.

40. Ibid., p. 15.

41. Leo, p. 190.

42. Ibid.; Heer, Demagogenzeit, pp. 16–18.

43. Leo, p. 190; Heer, Demagogenzeit, pp. 16–18.

44. Ibid., p. 16.

45. Ruge, , Aus frührer Zeit, II, 5.Google Scholar

46. Ibid., pp. 12–14.

47. Ibid., pp. 26–32.

48. Ibid., pp. 32–33.

49. Ibid., pp. 16–18.

50. Ibid., p. 166. Heer, Demagogenzeit, p. 46, places the date in December 1821.

51. Ruge, , Aus frührer Zeit, II, 167; Heer, Demagogenzeit, p. 46.Google Scholar

52. Ruge, , Aus frührer Zeit, II, 23–24; Heer, Demagogenzeit, p. 44.Google Scholar

53. Heer, Demagogenzeit, pp. 109–13.

54. Ibid., 110–12.

55. The Follen document is reproduced Ibid., pp. 110–11, and in Schmidgall, Georg, “Die alte Tübinger Burschenschaft 1816 bis 1828,” Quellen und Darstellungen, XVII (1940), 112.Google Scholar For Ruge's revelations about the origins, character, and development of the Jünglingsbund, see his Aus frührer Zeit, II, 175–386.Google Scholar

56. Heer, Demagogenzeit, p. 113; Schmidgall, p. 111.

57. Heer, Demagogenzeit, p. 113.

58. Ibid., pp. 113, 117–18.

59. Ibid., p. 118. Among the distinctions which Günter Steiger lists after Wesselhöft's name in “ Die Teilnehmerliste des Wartburgfestes,” p. 69, is “Vorsitzender Jünglings-bund.”

60. Ruge, , Aus frührer Zeit, II, 63–163.Google Scholar

61. Ibid., pp. 154–55.

62. Schmidgall, p. 112.

63. Ruge, , Aus frührer Zeit, II, 188–202.Google Scholar

64. Ibid., p. 197; Heer, Demagogenzeit, pp. 116–17.

65. Ibid., pp. 117–18.

66. Ruge, , Aus frührer Zeit, II, 252.Google Scholar Heer, Demagogenzeit, pp. 37–38, gives the details on the joint offensive against the Jena Burschenschaft conducted during the summer of 1822 by the Zentraluntersuchungskommission, the Weimar state authorities, and the Academic Senate. The Jena Burschenschaft performed one of its many formal dissolutions Aug. 17, 1822.

67. Ruge, , Aus frührer Zeit, II, 252–60.Google Scholar Heer does not discuss the revival of the Jena Burschenschaft, but he indicates, in connection with a November 1822 incident, that it was again functioning; see Demagogenzeit, p. 38.

68. Ruge, , Aus frührer Zeit, II, 260.Google Scholar

69. Ibid., pp. 261–86. For the secession, see above, p. 217. Heer, Demagogenzeit, p. 39, says that duels between the members of the two rival Burschenschaften were frequent and that the secessionists were not brought back into the original organization till the summer of 1823.

70. Ruge, , Aus frührer Zeit, II, 340;Google Scholar Heer, Demagogenzeit, p. 38. Heer puts the incident in the autumn of 1822, but Ruge's placing it in the autumn of 1823 has to be right, since the demonstration led to his expulsion and immediately preceded his arrest and imprisonment.

71. Ruge, , Aus frührer Zeit, II, 352.Google Scholar

72. Ibid., pp. 353–62.

73. Ibid., pp. 373–74.

74. Ibid., pp. 385–86.

75. Ruge, covers the Köpenick inquest in Aus frührer Zeit, II, 29–100;Google Scholar cf. Heer, Demagogenzeit, pp. 121–28.

76. Heer, Demagogenzeit, pp. 123, 128–29.

77. Ruge, , Aus frührer Zeit, II, 44–45.Google Scholar

78. Ibid., pp. 45, 100. On the 17 Tübingen students, see Schmidgall, pp. 114–15.

79. Heer, Demagogenzeit, p. 121. Ruge, , Aus frührer Zeit, III, 79,Google Scholar questions the belief among several Burschenschafter that Sprewitz betrayed the movement. He says that Sprewitz's confession was not any more incriminating than that eventually signed by most Jünglingsbündler and that what got him his pardon was proof that he had become alienated from the Jünglingsbund well before the Köpenick investigation.

80. Ruge, , Aus frührer Zeit, III, 47; Heer, Demagogenzeit, p. 121.Google Scholar

81. Ibid., p. 128.

82. Nissen, “ Eine Wanderfahrt zum ersten Warburgfest,” p. 94.

83. Ruge, , Aus frührer Zeit, III, 99–100.Google Scholar

84. On Karl Feuerbach's arrest, see Grün, in Feuerbach, L., Briefwechsel, I, 8Google Scholar. On the arrest of the 42 Bavarian students, see Kaufmann, Georg, Geschichte Deutschlands im 19. Jahrhundert (Berlin, 1912), p. 127.Google Scholar

85. Fritz Feuerbach to Ludwig Feuerbach, Ansbach, Feb. 3, 1825, in Feuerbach, L., Briefwechsel, I, 187–88Google Scholar. Fritz reveals that two attempts were made, three or four weeks apart, one involving the severing of a vein.

86. Rüder, Maximillian Heinrich, “Erinnerungen,” ed. Walter, Barton, Darstellungen und Quellen, II (1959), 103.Google Scholar

87. Ibid.

88. Ruge, , Aus frührer Zeit, II, 84.Google Scholar

89. Barton, in Rüder, p. 102.

90. Rüder, p. 110.

91. Ibid., p. 118.

92. Heer, Demagogenzeit, p. 162.

93. Rüder, p. 118.

94. Ibid.; Barton, in Rüder, pp. 118–19.

95. Rüder, p. 118.

96. Ibid., pp. 119–20.

97. Ibid. Heer, Demagogenzeit, p. 160, says that the members of the outer circle were “völlig rechtlos,” and that the only part of the uniform they were permitted to wear was the cap.

98. Rüder, p. 120.

99. Ibid.

100. Ibid., p. 121.

101. Ibid.

102. Heer, Demagogenzeit, pp. 200–201, 207, 221–22.

103. Rüder, p. 127.

104. Ibid., pp. 124–25; cf. Ruge, , Aus frührer Zeit, III, 326–27.Google Scholar

105. Rüder, p. 126; Barton supporta the recollection with one of Rüder's letters, dated Jan. 21, 1831, which describes the incident in detail.

106. Heer, Demagogenzeit, pp. 177–78, 195, 250, 252–54; Rüder, p. 127.

107. Ruge, , Aus frührer Zeit, III, 284.Google Scholar

108. Ibid., p. 328. Ruge's recollection seems to be inaccurate here. He says that he and Schmid conferred the recognition on a reunified Jena Burschenschaft. But Jena Burschenschaft remained divided, and Heer is probably right when he says in Demagogenzeit, p. 198, “A number of old Burschenschafter who were living in Jena sided with the Arminians and made and conferred upon them the Burschenfahne of 1822.”

109. Rüder, p. 127.

110. Ibid.

111. On Köhler's capture, see Barton, in Rüder, p. 127; on Bunsen's capture, see Körner, Gustav, Das deutsche Element den Vereinigten Staaten Staaten von Nordamerika, 1818–1848 (New York, 1884), p. 252.Google Scholar

112. Barton, in Rüder, p. 127.

113. See the packet of correspondence between Gustav Bunsen and Poles, in Frankfurt, Peinliches Verhörs-Amt, “1833 Acta Criminalia Nr. 38 des peinlichen Verhörs-Amtes der freien Stadt Frankfurt de Anno 1833 in Untersuchungs-Sachen gegen Dr. med. Gustav Bunsen aus Frankfurt a/u fasc.: hft: 37 betreffend den am 3ten April 1833 zur Frankfurt im Stadt gehaltene Aufruhr,” in Stadtarchiv, Frankfurt. The letters and notes are written mostly in French. One signed “Louis” reads, “Nous ferrons [sic] un grand plaisir en s'occupant de cette affaire à votre [sic].”

114. Heer, Demagogenzeit, pp. 243, 292.

115. Ibid., pp. 247–48.

116. Ibid., p. 292; Eimer, Heinrich, “Memoirs,” in Heinrich von Treitschke, History of Germany in the Nineteenth Century, trans. Eden, and Paul, Cedar (New York, 1919), v, 632.Google Scholar

117. Heer, Demagogenzeit, p. 245.

118. Ibid., p. 297; Eimer, in Treischke, v, 632–33.

119. Heer, Demagogenzeit, pp. 275, 278.

120. Ibid., p. 279.

121. Ibid., pp. 244–45.

122. Ruge, , Aus frührer Zeit, III, 367–71.Google Scholar

123. Ibid., p. 374.

124. Ibid., pp. 376–78.

125. Ibid., p. 377.

126. Eimer, in Treitschke, V, 632; Treitschke, v, 363.

127. Eimer, in Treitschke, v, 632.

128. Ibid.

129. Heer, Demagogenzeit, pp. 291–92.

130. Heer, Demagogenzeit, pp. 296–97; Eimer, in Treitschke, v, 633–34. Heer furnishes the names and Burschenschaft affiliation of 24 students; the names and former Burschenschaft affiliation of nine adults; and the names of six adults not connected with the Burschenschaft. Among the latter are two Poles. Treitschke, v, 366, notes the presence of Poles and speculates that the Polish revolutionaries may have been the instigators of the uprising.

131. Eimer, in Treitschke, v, 634; Heer, Demagogenzeit, pp. 299–300; Treitschke, v, 363–66.

132. Heer, Demagogenzeit, p. 301; Tretischke, v, 366, VI, 142.

133. Eimer, in Treitschke, v, 636–37.

134. Körner, p. 252. Treitschke, VI, 142, notes that Körner and two Bunsen brothers fled to the United States.

135. Treitschke, VI, 145.

136. Heer, Demagogenzeit, p. 324.

137. Ibid., p. 330.

138. Rüder, pp. 130–31.