Wolfgang Burgdorf. Ein Weltbild verliert seine Welt: Der Untergang des Alten Reichs und die Generation 1806. München: Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag, 2006. VIII + 390 S. EUR 39.80, paper, ISBN 978-3-486-58110-2.

Reviewed by Jonathan Sperber

Published on H-German (June, 2008)

Each year seems to bring with it yet another of less concern to him than a quarrel between his historical anniversary and the resulting commem‐ servant and a coachman. orations in the form of exhibitions, scholarly In recent decades, though, the once-despised monographs, and works of synthesis. This process regime has been getting an increasingly good has been particularly pronounced in central Eu‐ press. Starting with Karl von Aretin's Heiliges rope, which has, perhaps, rather more history to Römisches Reich 1776-1806 (1967), historians commemorate than some other parts of the have been toting up the empire's virtues. Far from world. 2006 was another year of commemoration, being rigid and archaic, they have argued, it was although the event commemorated, the end of the fexible and eminently capable of dealing with po‐ , may be a bit more obscure litical and socioeconomic change. Its elaborate in‐ than most. stitutions helped preserve the peace and the bal‐ For a long time, the dominant historical judg‐ ance of power in central Europe; its decentralized ment would have been that there was not a whole form of rule was not so much outdated when lot to commemorate. With a rigid, archaic form of compared to centralized monarchies, as it was government, unable to cope with the rise of abso‐ forward-looking, a precursor to a federalized Ger‐ lute monarchies, the Holy Roman Empire's struc‐ man government and a loosely united Europe. Of ture was badly shaken in the eighteenth century, course, if the empire was so successful, then one almost to the point of collapse, by the rivalry of has to wonder why nobody mourned its demise. Prussia and Austria; it disintegrated altogether Perhaps, one response might go, this common when forced to confront the French Revolution. assertion is untrue; the bicentenary of the end of Few in Germany mourned its demise, and histori‐ the empire would ofer a good opportunity to re‐ ans have enjoyed quoting Goethe's snarky obser‐ open the question. The books under discussion vation that the news of the empire's demise was here deal with precisely this issue, namely reac‐ tions to the empire's demise. They both stem from H-Net Reviews a working group at the University of Munich. Eric- Mader shows how the judges reacted to the Oliver Mader and Wolfgang Burgdorf both argue, news of Franz's abdication, debating whether the quite forcefully, that the end of the Holy Roman empire was still, legally, in existence after it. He Empire, far from being a matter of indiference, demonstrates the infuence on their thought of was a searing, traumatic event, with profound the older ideas of the Seventeenth-century legal consequences for political, cultural, and intellec‐ theorist Samuel Pufendorf, of newer ideas stem‐ tual life through at least the frst half of the nine‐ ming from Rousseau, and, above all, of the con‐ teenth century. While the works are based on a cepts of Göttingen law professor Johann Pütter, wide variety of primary sources, bringing to light the foremost constitutional theorist of the era. Al‐ hitherto unconsidered evidence and re-interpret‐ most all the judges had studied with Pütter or one ing previously known material, the conclusions of his students. they draw are not entirely convincing for three Most of Mader's book deals with the judges' somewhat diferent but interrelated reasons. One eforts to preserve their material circumstances, is that their research does not entirely overthrow in particular, their demands on the newly sover‐ the older picture of the empire as an inefective eign German states for a pension equal to their institution, unable to cope with the violent politi‐ previous salaries. From Mader's account, it seems cal changes of the late eighteenth century. A sec‐ that the main emphasis of the judges' actions was ond is that their view of the empire tends to to separate themselves from the vast majority of downplay one of its important characteristics, its other individuals associated with the Wetzlar intimate connections with the old regime society court--the attorneys admitted to practice before it, of orders. Finally, their leading concept of a vio‐ and the clerical and administrative personnel--in‐ lent and unexpected demise of the empire, and a sisting on their superior position in the old regime repression of the memory of this traumatic event, society of orders. It was the judge's good fortune does not always seem to be an adequate guide to that with the dissolution of the empire, the former the actual memories of the empire and their lin‐ Imperial Free City of Wetzlar fell under the rule of gering nineteenth-century political resonances. Karl Theodor von Dalberg, the prince-primate of Mader looks for the impact of the end of the the Confederation of the Rhine, one-time prince- empire among the personnel of one of the most archbishop of , who was a living link be‐ important imperial institutions, the judges of the tween the old empire and the new state of afairs Imperial Cameral Court in Wetzlar. He argues that in central Europe. Although the judges con‐ the news of the abdication of the last Emperor, demned Dalberg for not having the proper legal Franz II, in August 1806, came as a shock to these appreciation of their superior status, he worked judges, who had continued to accept the empire's hard at convincing Germany's now sovereign continued existence and their own relevance, princes to continue to pay their old regime contri‐ even after the founding, earlier that year, of the butions toward supporting the judges of the Cam‐ Confederation of the Rhine, and the resulting se‐ eral Court, with a surprising amount of success. cession of 's South German allies from This was a remarkable accomplishment, in view the empire. Mader regards their line of reasoning of the ever greater fscal pressures weighing on as a plausible one, suggesting that the South Ger‐ German states in the era of the Napoleonic Wars. man rulers had no intention of dissolving the em‐ In the end, most of the judges--except for pire, but had been compelled to do so by some of the older or more drunken ones--found Napoleon's pressure and diplomatic manipula‐ positions in the upper levels of the judiciary in the tion. empire's successor states, particularly Bavaria

2 H-Net Reviews and Württemberg. In this respect, their responses Albert von Kamptz. A Mecklenburg nobleman to the end of the empire might be compared with presented to the court by the king of Prussia in his another of the empire's privileged orders, whose capacity as elector of Brandenburg in 1805, positions were destroyed by the Napoleonic re‐ Kamptz undertook the long journey from structuring of Europe, the imperial knights.[1] Güstrow to Wetzlar in the following year (just af‐ William Godsey has recently studied this group ter his wife had given birth to their third child) and found two distinct patterns of behavior: one only to discover on his arrival that in the interval, was a move to enter Austrian state service. This the empire had been dissolved and the court no work continued an afliation with a central Euro‐ longer existed. This traumatic event arguably pean polity--albeit no longer exactly a German shaped the rest of his public life. In the years after one--whose leaders continued to uphold the ideals 1806, he was the most active and ferocious publi‐ and practices of the society of orders. The other cist among the judges; he argued strongly for pattern was an afliation with a nascent German their rights to a pension. Fixed on entering Prus‐ nationalism that was generally accompanied by a sian state service, he rejected ofers from Würt‐ pro-Prussian political orientation. These perspec‐ temberg, and even worked in Prussia for a time tives were completely lacking among the judges. without a salary. (Following its defeat by None found a position in the Habsburg realm, Napoleon, the Prussian monarchy rather lacked which was quite unwelcoming to them; only one the funds to ofer him employment.) Eventually ended up in Prussian service. It was the mid-sized he became a high Prussian ofcial, and one of the German states to which the former judges had to most prominent reactionaries of the Vormärz. As look for their post-imperial possibilities. director of the police, he was a determined oppo‐ In a fnal section, the most interesting part of nent of nationalists, leading the persecution of the the book, but, unfortunately, not all that well con‐ gymnasts and the student fraternities after 1815. nected to the preceding material in it, Mader in‐ As minister of justice in the 1830s, he directed a vestigates the post-1806 career of one of the long and ultimately unsuccessful efort to abolish judges, Friedrich Karl von Reigersberg, who be‐ the Napoleonic Code in the Prussian Rhine Prov‐ came a leading liberal government ofcial in ince and replace it with a Prussian legal system Bavaria during and after the tenure in ofce of that recognized the prerogatives of the nobility. the reforming prime minister Count Montgelas. Kamptz's career demonstrates another path Mader argues that it was Reigersberg's experi‐ leading from the empire to the political world of ences on the Imperial Cameral Court that made the nineteenth century. He worked hard to uphold him such an efective proponent of liberal re‐ the old regime society of orders, as was the case forms. This seems to me a questionable argument, with the institutions of the old empire, but he did since the judicial reforms Reigersberg was so through the instruments of an absolutist bu‐ proposing were the introduction into Bavaria of reaucratic state, one that the political institutions the legal system of the Napoleonic Code. Its tenets of the Holy Roman Empire, including the Wetzlar of public and oral judicial proceedings, abolition court, had tried to keep in check. This possibility of seigneurialism, and equality under the law is one that Mader is less inclined to emphasize, were worlds removed from the procedures and even though Kamptz's life and career, more than legal thinking of the Cameral Court. that of any of the other individuals he studied, Mader mentions more briefy the career of demonstrates the traumatic efects of the end of the best known of the one-time Wetzlar judges, the Holy Roman Empire. the only one to enter Prussian state service, Karl

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Wolfgang Burgdorf's study is a more expan‐ shock and horror, but, more typically, stunned si‐ sive and sophisticated work than Mader's, a lence and self-repression. He suggests that the un‐ broader account of the "generation of 1806," the usual heat of the summer weakened resolve and cohort that directly experienced the dissolution of sapped energy; correspondence on the topic the empire, and for whom, the author argues, this ceased, both out of fear of the interception of criti‐ experience was a profound, life-changing and cal letters by Napoleon's police and also due to the traumatic occurrence. Burgdorf approaches his disruptions of postal service as a result of the war subject from a variety of diferent angles, giving between France and Prussia. More generally, the the book an intriguingly nonlinear cast. Each of outbreak of that war and its disastrous outcome the many perspectives on the topic he deploys for Prussia became part of a broader disaster of contains bold and dramatic assertions. Unfortu‐ the German nation, so that the specifc impact of nately, the drastic abridgement of the original text the end of the empire was lost in retrospect. of this Habilitationsschrift for publication--half These are ingenious assertions, but one the material was cut out--works against this way would like to see the few expressions of shock and of proceeding, since evidence for the assertions horror at the end of the empire to strengthen the often seems to be missing. idea that the silence was not just one of indifer‐ Burgdorf begins with a lengthy narrative sec‐ ence, as most past historiography asserts. Howev‐ tion on the experiences of Johann Friedrich Hach, er, the examples Burgdorf provides in this version a Lübeck jurist who was the last delegate accredit‐ of his work show little of this assertion. There ed to the Regensburg Reichstag before its dissolu‐ were practical concerns: some people were wor‐ tion. The author describes Hach's two-week-long ried about their immediate economic future--the coach journey from Lübeck to Regensburg in the ofcials of the dissolved Imperial Aulic Council, late winter of 1806, a picturesque account of the the inhabitants of Regensburg who earned their delegate's encounters with horrible roads, greedy living from the Reichstag. Rulers of small states innkeepers, threats of banditry, and war-zone worried about their future, particularly the troop deployments. On his arrival in Regensburg, Thuringian princes, who feared being swallowed Hach found that the Reichstag was not actually up by Prussia. In Berlin, war spirit was mounting, meeting because of disputes about the proper although the author must concede that the anti- composition of one of its curia, following the terri‐ French sentiments expressed there had little to do torial rearrangements of the Main Recess of 1803. with the end of the empire. The cool commentary Hach spent his time in Regensburg attending tea of the Hamburg Politisches Journal, one of Ger‐ parties, and taking extended trips around south‐ many's leading newspapers, spoke of "the Gothic ern Germany. Then it was time for the Reichstag's structure" of the empire that resembled "in recent yearly summer vacation and he returned to years a paralyzed old man, whose essential limbs Lübeck. During this vacation, the empire was dis‐ have refused their service" (pp. 186-187). It also solved. pointed to the long term eforts of Germany's This extended portrait rather supports the princes to undermine the empire's institutions conventional notion of the Holy Roman Empire as and the steadily more disruptive results of the a cumbersome, inefective, and out-of-date politi‐ peace treaties that ended diferent phases of the cal institution. But Burgdorf employs it for a spe‐ French Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars (p. cifc reason, to argue that the end of the empire in 219). This suggests a view far more like the con‐ the summer of 1806 was sudden and unexpected, ventional picture than Burgdorf's criticism of it. creating a trauma that led to a few expressions of

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Following this survey of opinion in 1806, tionalism founded on a recognition of the virtues Burgdorf proceeds to a discussion of the historiog‐ of the Holy Roman Empire as an embodiment of raphy of the empire's end, arguing that dominant the German nation is an interesting counterfactu‐ historical interpretations suppressed its traumatic al speculation, and like most counterfactuals, im‐ impact. Not surprisingly, he is extremely critical possible to prove or disprove. The closest to the of the Borussian school, which saw Prussia as the actual articulation of such a nationalism occurred leader of German national resistance to Napoleon. in 1809 as part of the Austrian war against Burgdorf points out that from 1795 to 1806, the Napoleon, but the nationalism expressed then Prussians had come to terms with the French was every bit as xenophobic and Francophobic as quite nicely, at the cost of the territory and institu‐ the post-1815 versions; this information tends to tions of the empire. In this respect, he goes along tell against Burgdorf's suggestions. with a well-established tradition of criticism, but Burgdorf's description of a repression of the Burgdorf is also quite critical of the historiogra‐ past and a silence about the Holy Roman Empire phy of the south German states, indeed of the and the responsibility for its demise quite inten‐ states themselves, describing them as "newly cre‐ tionally echoes the post-1945 unbewältigte Ver‐ ated, artifcial German territorial states" ("die gangenheit. His talk of the "catastrophe" of 1806, neugeschafenen künstlichen deutschen Flächen‐ of the "inner emigration" of German artists and staaten," p. 229). He asserts that they could only intellectuals, and even of the question of whether legitimate their own existence by repressing their poetry was possible after the end of the empire, role in the destruction of the Holy Roman Empire all suggest a parallel national trauma. When one and presenting themselves as Napoleon's victims. compares the extent of destructive warfare, the For a study originating at the University of Mu‐ loss of life, the movements of refugees and the po‐ nich, the book is surprisingly anti-Bavarian, but litical discontinuities after 1806 and 1945 respec‐ this viewpoint also contradicts the assertion, tively, one would have to say that such a parallel which Burgdorf shares with Mader, that the south is rather overstated. German monarchs did not want to dissolve the In the fnal section of the book, Burgdorf con‐ Holy Roman Empire, but were forced to do so by siders the impact of empire's end on a wide vari‐ Napoleon. In this survey of historiographical tra‐ ety of intellectual and cultural trends in the frst ditions, Burgdorf does rather neglect the nine‐ three decades of the nineteenth century: the for‐ teenth-century großdeutsch Catholic historians-- mation of historical societies; the growing interest admittedly, a distinct minority--who had a difer‐ in and scholarly study of the ; Roman‐ ent and more positive picture of the Holy Roman ticism; the Historical School of Law, the creation Empire. of art museums; and the development of the Burgdorf takes his line of argument a good scholarly study of and litera‐ deal further, asserting that nineteenth-century ture. In many ways, this is the most interesting perceptions of the past involved repressing the part of the work, but it is also the most fragmen‐ positive memory of the empire altogether. This in‐ tary, as the abridgements necessary for publica‐ ability to come to terms with the empire as a pre‐ tion rob the argument of the examples necessary vious form of the German nation, a national past to develop it in depth. From the examples in efect, led to a nationalism centered on the Burgdorf does provide, it is not always clear if the wars of liberation in 1813-14 dominated by an ex‐ demise of the empire itself had quite the domi‐ aggerated and malignant Francophobia, with per‐ nant role he suggests in the intellectual and cul‐ nicious consequences. The author's suggestion of tural trends he outlines. the possibility of a more benevolent German na‐

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Considering both these books, and the broad‐ the Holy Roman Empire, since nineteenth-century er line of argument common to them and to the nationalism emerged from this society's dissolu‐ scholarly enterprise to which they belong--namely tion and generally involved a rejection of the old the continued relevance and vigor of the Holy Ro‐ regime society of orders. man Empire down to its very end, and the trau‐ Second, the efort to establish the empire as matic ramifcations of its unexpected demise--I an efective, functioning political institution, would make four more general observations. whose end in 1806 was sudden and unexpected, First, the authors downplay the extent to seems rather less convincing. The eighteenth-cen‐ which the Holy Roman Empire was closely con‐ tury Austro-Prussian dualism was already threat‐ nected to the old regime society of orders. The ening the institutions of the empire. With each of preservation of this society was a central purpose the successive peace treaties of the French Revo‐ of the empire. Such a society of chartered privi‐ lutionary and Napoleonic wars--from Basel in leges and of status derived from birth was one 1795, to Campo Formio in 1797, to Lunéville in that justifed many forms of inequality and op‐ 1801, through Pressburg in 1805--the empire lost pression, whether noble extraction of labor ser‐ territory, substance, and authority. If there were vices and seigneurial dues from the peasants, the some people, such as the judges Mader studied, dominant and economically stifing position of for whom the end of the empire in 1806 came as a master craftsmen in the guild system, the inferior shock, it was because they were hiding from status of members of the minority Christian con‐ themselves its imminent demise by burying them‐ fession, or the humiliation and oppression of the selves in its institutions and pretending that they Jews.[2] This point appears in a number of in‐ were still functioning as they had in the past. This stances in Burgdorf's work, although he tends to efort to hide oneself from the broader outlines of pass it by. He notes, for instance, that the the future by burying oneself in one's work was a post-1815 insistence of the former high nobility of characteristic feature of German public opinion in the Empire, the Standesherren, on their tax ex‐ the last years of the Second World War, and if emptions and their right to collect seigneurial comparisons are to be made between 1806 and dues from the peasants was regrettable, because 1945, this one might be more to the point. it led Vormärz liberals to have a negative picture Neither author discusses a nineteenth-centu‐ of the empire (p. 279). But the privileges on which ry political movement that was shaped by memo‐ these nobles insisted were an integral part of the ries of the empire, and owed its origins to the em‐ empire, something its institutions were designed pire's demise: political Catholicism. This omission to protect and validate. This is not to argue that is not entirely surprising in Burgdorf's work, the successor states of the empire were regimes of since in Bavaria political Catholicism developed liberation--besides their reluctance to abolish the in symbiosis with a territorial state that emerged privileges and oppressions of the society of or‐ from the destruction of the empire, and even ders, they added new burdens in the form of high‐ helped provide a basis for that state's legitimacy-- er taxes, military conscription, and a large and in‐ sometimes rather against the wishes of leading trusive state bureaucracy. But if we contemplate Bavarian statesmen. However, elsewhere in cen‐ the empire without considering its close connec‐ tral Europe, in Prussia, especially, but also in tions to the inequalities and privileges of the soci‐ Baden, Württemberg, the Hessian states, and ety of orders, we leave out a fundamental element sometimes even in the Habsburg Monarchy, the of its existence. This point seems particularly rele‐ Catholic political movement was both shaped by vant to Burgdorf's counterfactual imagination of the memories of the empire and the privileged a German nationalism founded on the memory of

6 H-Net Reviews place of the Catholic Church within it. It was also educated elites, these popular attitudes, nostalgic a response of the clergy and the lay faithful to a and anachronistic as they were, might be better post-imperial world in which the church no evidence of feelings about the Holy Roman Em‐ longer had the protection of the empire's institu‐ pire and its demise. tions. The massive secularization of the Church's Notes lands in Napoleonic Germany really was a trau‐ [1]. William D. Godsey, Jr., Nobles and Nation matic event, one that was not suppressed in mem‐ in Central Europe: Free Imperial Knights in the ory but remained a raw and open wound and a Age of Revolution, 1750-1850 (Cambridge: Cam‐ constant spur for political action, albeit generally bridge University Press, 2004). not of a nationalist nature. [2]. The extent to which the inferior position This point about political Catholicism sug‐ of the Jews was closely tied into the social and gests, fnally, that Mader and Burgdorf are looking conceptual world of the society of orders is very for evidence of the impact of the destruction of well explained in the admirable study of Cilli the empire in the wrong places. Their search Kasper-Holtkotte, Juden im Aufbruch: Zur among diplomats, state ofcials and the educated Sozialgeschichte einer Minderheit im Saar-Mosel- classes more generally--groups whose members Raum um 1800 (Hannover: Hahnsche Buchhand‐ had a good knowledge of the broader develop‐ lung, 1996). ments in high politics, and whose interests were often closely tied to the newly created sovereign [3]. The excellent recent work of Ute Planert, states--has not turned up very many or very con‐ Der Mythos vom Befreiungskrieg: Frankreichs vincing examples of a feeling of sudden traumatic Kriege und der deutsche Süden. Allt‐ loss. By contrast, one might be better served to ag‹Wahrnehmung--Deutung 1792-1841 (Pader‐ search for the shock of the end of the empire in born: Schöningh, 2007) shows what can be accom‐ the attitudes of the lower classes. These groups' plished in this way, although her specifc conclu‐ members did not have good access to reliable in‐ sion that the years 1792-1818 were perceived as formation about political and diplomatic trends, one long, undiferentiated traumatic period of had no claims to pensions equal to their previous war and privation go against assertions about the salaries, and were forced to confront the higher specifc impact of the end of the empire. taxes and military services of the post-1806 regimes.[3] We might fnd examples of these atti‐ tudes in the anti-tax and anti-conscription riots of the Napoleonic era; in the naïve but widespread hopes that the Congress of would restore pre-1789 political institutions; in the admiration for the archduke Johann, youngest brother of the last , as imperial regent dur‐ ing the revolution of 1848; in the secessionist ten‐ dencies that year among the populations of terri‐ tories annexed during the Napoleonic Era; or in the Hep Hep riots of 1819, with their demands that Jews retreat into the ghetto and resume the degraded place allocated to them under the soci‐ ety of orders. Although perhaps not quite so artic‐ ulate or appealing as the opinions of Germany's

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Citation: Jonathan Sperber. Review of Burgdorf, Wolfgang. Ein Weltbild verliert seine Welt: Der Untergang des Alten Reichs und die Generation 1806. H-German, H-Net Reviews. June, 2008.

URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=14640

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