A Celebration “With the Right Message”: The Formation of German Identity on the 300th Anniversary of the Reformation (1817)

Abstract

The article analyzes the reception of the Reformation in 1817, the year of its 300th anniversary celebration. Based on the achievements of memory studies, the author considers the jubilee celebration as a way of constructing the general historical memory of Germany. The selection of sources taken as the basis of the study takes into account the conflict of interpretations of the holiday, which has developed in the public sphere. This includes the analysis of orders on the organization of celebrations and reports on their holding in Catholic and Protestant states, documented anniversary speeches of the Bursches in Wartburg, publications of individuals not belonging to Protestant denominations, supra-regional and local narratives, academic speeches and church sermons. Additional sources of personal origin have been drawn upon, confirming precedents of the conscious design of commemorative dates in order to bridge social divides. The analysis of the texts reveals common patterns, laying the basis for the formation of national consciousness, which gradually displaces confessional identity. This process can also be seen in the transformation of the image of Martin Luther, who from a religious figure turns into a national hero, placed on a par with the winners of the Battle of Nations and the legendary Arminius. Thus, the study of examples of such construction makes it possible to clarify the specificity of the ideological consolidation of the German nation, characteristic for the first half of the 19th century.