Jonathan Strom on Zentralprovinz Im Absolutismus: Brandenburg Im

Wolfgang Neugebauer. Zentralprovinz im Absolutismus: Brandenburg im 17. und 18. Jahrhundert. Berlin: Berlin Verlag Arno Spitz, 2001. 222 S. EUR 30.00, gebunden, ISBN 978-3-8305-0157-2. Reviewed by Jonathan Strom Published on H-German (June, 2004) Wolfgang Neugebauer presents an erudite, events. For instance, he recognizes the ascendan‐ thoughtful, and occasionally obtuse survey of cy of the Hohenzollerns in the Kurmark in the Brandenburg history during the critical period of early ffteenth century but pointedly declines to the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The ascribe to it any "epochal" significance in the de‐ transformation of Brandenburg from a relatively velopment of the territory's governance. More im‐ inconsequential territory to the central province portant for Neugebauer in the ffteenth century within the burgeoning Prussian state was, as was the growing role of the estates in the manage‐ Neugebauer describes it, anything but straightfor‐ ment of the electorate's fnances. Other presum‐ ward, and throughout he emphasizes the ftful ably epochal events, such as the Protestant Refor‐ and remarkably regional character of change. mation, are put in the larger context of growing Consistently, he challenges any easy assumptions territorial authority in church governance in about the nature of absolutism and its effects on Brandenburg, a trend that Neugebauer dates back the political and economic development of the to the middle of the ffteenth century. Nor did the Mark. Reformation create an internal cohesiveness with Neugebauer divides the book into fve chap‐ the territory, as some have argued. Indeed, ters: a prologue on the ffteenth and sixteenth through the late-eighteenth century Neugebauer centuries followed by two chapters each on the repeatedly cites the regional distinctiveness of seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Already in Brandenburg, in particular the differences be‐ the opening chapter, Neugebauer's structural ap‐ tween the Neumark and the Kurmark, but also proach to Brandenburg's history becomes appar‐ among the smaller regions that made up the Kur‐ ent. Drawing heavily on administrative, political, mark including the Altmark, Mittelmark, Prignitz, and economic historical approaches, Neugebauer Ruppin, and Uckermark. stresses long-term structural changes rather than Neugebauer's discussion of Brandenburg dur‐ any immediate impact of individual decisions or ing the frst half of the seventeenth century opens H-Net Reviews with an analysis of the broader European crisis in With the crowning of Elector Friedrich III as Brandenburg. The electorate was poorly poised to King Friedrich I in 1701, the Electorate of Bran‐ deal with the economic, military, and political denburg was effectively subsumed into the new challenges of the time, and Neugebauer focuses Prussian state, but it remained the central prov‐ on the administrative responses of the electoral ince from which Prussia was ruled. Consequently, government to these challenges. He downplays the regions of the Mark retained a special status. the significance of the Hohenzollern embrace of Its position within Prussia shaped Brandenburg's Reformed Protestantism. In place of a straightfor‐ governmental structures and economy in ways ward account of Brandenburg's shifting alliances that gradually distinguished it from other central and tumultuous experiences in the Thirty Years European territories. Berlin--as the governmental War, Neugebauer discusses these tangentially in headquarters of the state--became the fastest terms of the development of privy council, rela‐ growing major European city in the eighteenth tionship to the estates, taxation, and attempts to century and exerted a powerful influence on out‐ re-organize the military. Many of these efforts lying cities and towns, reshaping Brandenburg's were less than successful, but for Neugebauer traditional trade routes and urban economies to they reflect "structural characteristics" that point meet its needs. toward a process of state building that clearly pre‐ Neugebauer describes the effect of absolutist ceded the ascension of Friedrich Wilhelm I in policies on Brandenburg during the eighteenth 1640 and prefigured coming absolutist policies. century, which were most successful in remaking The heart of his analysis really begins with its military, reforming the judicial system, and the state-building process after 1648. Neugebauer promoting resettlement and agricultural reclama‐ prefaces this discussion with a number of obser‐ tion projects. Even in these areas of profound vations on Brandenburg's central European eco‐ change, however, Neugebauer cautions repeated‐ nomic context, the effects of the Thirty Year War, ly against assumptions that these resulted solely and the decline of orthodox Christianity among from absolutist policies; rather--as for instance the rural populace. Neugebauer repeatedly re‐ the case of judicial reform shows--he argues that minds the reader that these factors equally influ‐ they were also the product of internal changes enced Brandenburg's development alongside any within the traditional institutions of the province. individual measures undertaken by the Elector. Neugebauer further warns against confusing ab‐ To be sure, Neugebauer describes the process by solutist decrees with actual practices in Branden‐ which the Elector strengthened his authority burg, especially in the area of education or guild within the territory by developing a standing reform where the results were far more mixed army, extending the reach of existing territorial than official edicts would suggest. In religion, bodies, establishing new administrative authori‐ Neugebauer discounts absolutist influence almost ties such as the Kriegs-Kommissariat, and impos‐ entirely and sees it as an area where the state was ing taxes that were beyond the control of the es‐ able to have little effect. Consequently, absolutism tates. Neugebauer allows that the constitutional in Brandenburg emerges not as a monolithic force position of the estates weakened considerably but as a set of policies working in tension with during the last half of the seventeenth century as traditional institutions in Brandenburg, such as Friedrich Wilhelm I and Friedrich III consolidated the estates, whose authority may have waxed and power, but he qualifies this carefully by pointing waned throughout the eighteenth century but out the uneven success and limits of electoral au‐ never became irrelevant. thority. 2 H-Net Reviews At the end of the eighteenth century, Neuge‐ cations, he provides little clarity about the histori‐ bauer affirms the profound influence of Prussian cal construct of absolutism in German or Euro‐ state-building and the increasing gravitational pean history. Neugebauer is not just a regional pull of Berlin and other residence cities on Bran‐ historian, and indeed one wonders what he denburg's development. He argues that Branden‐ makes of absolutism in Brandenburg-Prussia in burg's administrative structures often became the context of other absolutist regimes elsewhere models for other Prussian provinces. In addition, in Germany and Europe. the rural and urban populations were growing Neugebauer's explicit methodological focus rapidly by the end of the century. In the country‐ on the structural dimensions of Brandenburg his‐ side, the increase of the population undermined tory leaves relatively little room in this compact the existing social structures and encouraged mo‐ book for narrative that would orient the reader to bility, often leading to a de facto if not de jure the broad outlines of major fgures or events in elimination of serfdom. At the same time, many of Brandenburg history. In places, his approach Brandenburg's rural estates passed from noble to seems particularly ill-suited to the topic at hand. bourgeois control. These demographic changes His observations on religion lack the depth and challenged tradition and led to pockets of unrest insight he brings to other topics and are among in Brandenburg--symptoms of coming crises in the least helpful in the book. For instance, his the nineteenth century. Furthermore Neugebauer broad claim of the decline in monotheism in the identifies proto-reforms, as he terms them, which wake of the Thirty Years War warrants more con‐ prefigure agrarian reforms in Prussia in the nine‐ vincing evidence than the contemporary anecdo‐ teenth century. tal accounts he cites. Elsewhere he seems to mis‐ Neugebauer offers no formal conclusion to apprehend the controversies between the Luther‐ the book. Certainly his main themes on the persis‐ an and Reformed on church ritual. More surpris‐ tence of traditional structures, the limits of abso‐ ing is Neugebauer's failure to engage the question lutism, and its uneven if nevertheless profound of Pietism and the rise of absolutism in Branden‐ effects on Brandenburg are clear throughout the burg-Prussia, a topic pursued in detail in the liter‐ book. But he leaves many questions open at the ature on Brandenburg-Prussia during this period. end of his discussion. One is the nature of Bran‐ [1] denburg itself. After it was dissolved as a sover‐ While generally unsuitable as an introductory eign entity with the formation of the Prussian text, Neugebauer's extensive knowledge of Bran‐ state was it really a cohesive "central province"? denburg historiography and its source material In almost all examples from the eighteenth centu‐ provide readers with rich veins of material to ry, Neugebauer carefully distinguishes the Kur‐ mine. Anyone exploring the regional

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