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This paper discusses the process of state-and nation-building in Germany. Throughout history Germany has undergone many changes to come to the nation-state that it is today and these changes have had a significant influence in the shaping of modern-day Europe. Germany consists of 16 states and is a federal parliamentary republic located in Western Europe, with Berlin as its capital city. It has several neighbors, such as the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Poland. Continuing this paper, it is important to define what is meant by terms ‘nation’ and ‘state’. There is not a set definition of the state, but the one this paper uses is given by Roberts:
“…the presence of a supreme authority, ruling over a defined territory, who is recognized as having power to make decision in matters of government and is able to enforce such decisions and generally maintain order within the state. Thus capacity to exercise coercive authority is an essential ingredient: the ultimate test of a ruler’s authority is whether he possesses the power of life and death over his subjects.” (Hall, 1984, p.1)
This paper examines the process of state-and nation-building in Germany, beginning in the early middle ages up to the start of the First World War in 1914. The main question this paper answers is what changes Germany underwent to become the modern-day nation-state as we know today.
This paper firstly discusses the process of state-and nation-building of Germany during the middle ages and the period right after the middle ages, meaning that it gives the reader an insight in the development of the earliest forms of nations and states. Hereafter, this paper discusses the rise of Absolutism and Enlightenment in Germany in the seventeenth and eighteenth century. The third section discusses the impact of the French Revolution on German politics from the end of the eighteenth century to the beginning of the nineteenth century. The fourth section discusses the influence of the Revolution of 1848. The fifth section discusses the Unification of Germany and the Rise of Mass Democracy in Germany starting after the Revolution of 1848 to the outbreak of the First World War. This paper ends with a conclusion of what has been discussed throughout the paper.
1. The Germany of the Middle Ages
After the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 AD several Germanic kingdoms rose. Over time, these small kingdoms splintered, because they were split up in many small counties and these counties were then again split up in several even smaller counties. Charlemagne’s Empire broke up in 840 due to internal affairs and was split up into three kingdoms according to the Treaty of Verdun in 843. These three new kingdoms were East Francia (Germany), West Francia (France) and the Middle Kingdom (Lotharingia). The system used in these kingdoms was called feudalism.
According to Opello & Rosow (2004) feudalism had a hierarchical structure with the king on top. The king’s direct vassals or dukes provided him with military power, counsel and financial help. The direct vassals had their own vassals etc. etc .etc. As a reward for the services the king granted some vassals an estate, called a fief. The vassals gathered income from this, which was used for food and clothes. The king could also gave vassals the right to collect tolls and taxes, called immunities. The financial help, which meant giving the king money when he needed it, would later evolve into the modern taxation system. Normally the fief was given for life to the vassal although the higher positioned vassal could take back a fief for no reason and after the vassal’s death the fief was returned to the king. The vassals, who wanted to guarantee their fiefs for their offspring, tried to strengthen inheritance rights and succeeded when the fiefs became hereditary from father to son. Fiefs were subdivided into manors that were under the control of free men. The feudal obligations these men owed to the king caused economic and political life to be fully intertwined. The peasants working on the fiefs received protection from the lord of manor as long as they paid annual rent in the form of food and labor. The main principle that held these feudal societies together was called vassalage. This meant that a free man would bind himself to a lord by offering his services to this lord in return for the use of his land and his protection. This feudal system, however, could not yet be seen as a state, since it missed some of the main features of a state, such as permanent structures for decision making (Opello & Rosow, 2004, pp. 34-36).
”Changes in warfare, together with centralizing administration and the invention of a new language of politics, marked the transformation of feudalism into rule by the centralized medieval states.” (Opello & Rosow, 2004, p. 47)
In the period from 1300 to 1600, three revolutionary inventions changed medieval warfare. This change in military strategy is referred to as the Military Revolution. The inventions were the longbow, the pike and the introduction of gunpowder. The most significant of the three was the gunpowder, since it could be used to fire cannons. Although the cannons were inaccurate at first, they gradually became very accurate and powerful. The traditional castles were no match for the new cannons and this led to the creation of fortifications with low walls, called the trace italienne. The armies became larger and more complex as a result of the emergence of the trace italienne, the artillery and the infantry. As opposed to the individualistic attitude in medieval warfare, armies now had to act as a unified body. They wore the same uniforms and became a professional army representing the state. The fragmented, indirect rule of feudalism was replaced by a direct, concentrated rule (Opello & Rosow, 2004, pp. 47-50).
1. The rise of Absolutism and the Enlightenment
The period that followed after the Middle Ages is called the ‘Age of Absolutism’. In the Absolutistic system there is a monarch that has all the power for himself and is not checked by others on this power. The monarch has a civil service which totally dependent on him. The assembly of estates lost its function, because the king no longer asked them for advice. Usually the absolute monarchies are seen as the opposite of parliamentary monarchies. Whereas the monarch in an absolute state the monarch has all the power, in a parliamentary state his power has been reduced. However, Otello & Rosow (2004) state that both absolutist and parliamentary monarchies are absolutism, although one evolved into an absolutist state ruled by a monarch or an absolutist state by the estates (Opello & Rosow, 2004, pp. 76-77).
The Peace of Westphalia did not end conflicts within the Empire, although religion ceased to be the most important factor in these conflicts. The increasing importance of courts and princes marked a new age. Rulers tried to gain more power for themselves, which led to the developing of an absolutist state. The best example is that of Brandenburg-Prussia. The Hohenzollern dynasty, which had gained the power over Brandenburg and East Prussia over the centuries, was able to create a strong centralized state with a large standing army in the period from 1640-1786. During his reign, Frederick William, elector of Brandenburg, was able to set up and maintain a small standing army and centralized the administration. His son, Frederick I, crowned himself King of Prussia in 1701, marking the start of the Kingdom of Prussia. Frederick I did not neglect the army but it was under the leadership of his son, Frederick William I, that the Prussian army greatly increased in size and power. Prussia had acquired a lot of power by 1740, but compared to other European States such as France and England, it was still relatively weak. Frederick II, the son of Frederick William I, made Prussia a major power in Europe during his reign. When the Seven Years War (1756-1763) ended, Silesia became Prussian possession and Frederick II later managed to annex Polish Prussia, uniting the territories of Brandenburg and East Prussia. Despite the amazing rise of Prussia, there was still no sign of an absolute nation state and other territories in the Empire did not experience the same development as Prussia did (Fulbrook, 1990, pp. 73-85).
The eighteenth century is commonly known as the Age of Enlightenment in European history. The Enlightenment encompassed a change in thought throughout Europe and is characterized by revolutions in the areas of science and politics.
During the Age of Enlightenment critical reason was the only way for scientists to answer questions and analyze things. Enlighted thinkers distanced themselves from the old medieval world-view and focus on reason, logic and science (Palmer & Colton, 2006, p.297). The Prussian variant of the Enlightenment was called the Aufklärung. The Aufkläring grew for the most part out of the Protestant clergy, the universities and the bureaucracies of the several territorial states, all closely linked to the monarchical state. This institutional connection between the Aufklärung and absolutism has led to the term ‘’enlightened absolutism’’ (Van Horn Melton, 1979, pp. 103-104).
Frederick II was influenced a lot by the ideas of the Enlightenment and even invited Voiltaire, the foremost French thinker of the Enlightenment, to his court. Frederick II implemented several measures to improve territorial government, such as the “Generallandschulregelement in 1763, the Landratsreform of 1766, the administrative reform of 1770, the customs and excise reform of 1776, the limited agrarian reform of 1765-70 and the codification of general Prussian Law in 1780” (Fulbrook, 1990, p. 95). However, the real incentive to change the political framework came from the impact of the French Revolution (Fulbrook, 1990, pp. 91-95).