Romantic Love or Material Interest: Choosing Partners in Nineteenth-Century Germany

Abstract

Influenced by the Enlightenment and the Romantic era, the "love-match" (Liebesheirat) became established as an ideology and norm at the beginning of the nineteenth century. Although "love" and the "love-match" initially figured more prominently in the lives of a small, elite minority, early nineteenth- century literature gives the impression that these had already become democratized. In reality, however, this publicly touted norm was not strongly followed. A comparison of each partner's financial contribution to the marriage, further substantiated by autobiographical and case file material, reveals the marriage still rested, as in previous centuries, on a search for partners of equal financial standing. The factor of "love" did not disrupt the order of selection criteria. Money remained central; social status and prestige determined choice ofpartner. "Cinderella" marriages happened only in fairy tales. The majority of the population endorsed the idea of love, but at the decisive moment of partner choice discarded it as a dream.