Moral Integrity in Costumed Identity: Negotiating "National Costume" in 19th-Century Bavaria

Abstract

Maximilian II of Bavaria's wedding plans for 1842 illustrate the layers of moral and political intent that dress was made to carry. The administrative correspondence on folk costumes and their wearers reveals how locals and royals collaborated in the creation of regional types. Instead of a clear-cut nationalist or royalist agenda, the discourse reflects divergent political and economic allegiances within a monarchy struggling to appropriate national icons. RUSTIC LEDERHOSEN, THE BEER-HAPPY Oktoberfest in Munich, and the exploits of Mad King Ludwig are among the likely images associated with Bavaria abroad. Surprisingly, these three present-day representations are deeply interrelated. It was the Mad King's grandfather Ludwig I whose wedding initiated the Oktoberfest, and it was his father who began an overt politics of costume of which the lederhosen are the most lasting remnant. Both initiatives attempted to transform the nationalistic upsurge in the wake of French revolutionary wars into a tool to bolster a faltering monarchy. The success of their cultural initiatives, coupled with the failure of their politics, forged the Swan king Ludwig's demise. It was under his reign that Bavaria, at the high point of celebrating its national uniqueness, lost its independence to Prussia-a paradoxical situation that might have driven people of lesser descent into madness as well. The monarchs invested excessively in a politics of cultural representation, not least in the hope to divert the political revolution transforming the face of Europe throughout the 19th century. Their investment neglected the population's overt needs both financially and administratively. The case examined here illustrates the ambiguity that emerges whenever expressive culture-from song to dress-is made to carry ideological weight, as ideological intent diversifies when migrates from one broker to the next, acquiring new meanings and monetary value along the way. The politics of culture may ultimately detract from their goal-empowerment and selfdetermination-and instead undermine rather than strengthen the polity.