State and Civil Society in Prussia: Thoughts on a New Edition of Reinhart Koselleck's "Preussen zwischen Reform und Revolution"

Abstract

Reinhart Koselleck's Preussen zwischen Reform und Revolution spans two periods of German historiography. The book's emphasis on the role of the Prussian bureaucracy in promoting economic development and social change takes up, albeit in a novel and sophisticated way, a theme first proposed in the classic accounts of Gustav Schmoller and Otto Hintze around the turn of the century, while its discussion of the social consequences of bureaucratic action was one of the first examples of a renewed interest in the study of social history in the Federal Republic of Germany. Since the work's first publication in 1967, this interest has produced an ever-increasing body of scholarly literature, and the appearance of a third edition of Koselleck's book in 1981, a remarkable feat for a lengthy scholarly monograph, provides an opportunity to compare his account with the conclusions of more recent work. Briefly stated-and such a statement can hardly do justice to all the intricacies of a lengthy and complex study-Koselleck argues that the Prussian bureaucracy, a socially homogeneous and intellectually closely aligned group, possessing through its collegial organization a strong sense of collective identity, realized toward the end of the eighteenth century that the continued existence of the Prussian state required a series of deep-reaching reforms. Prussia would have to adopt by peaceful means many of the violent accomplishments of the French Revolution: more liberal, self-governing political institutions, a more flexible and open social structure, and a growth-oriented capitalist economy. Following a not overly successful dry run in this direction, dominated by the judicial bureaucracy and culminating in the Allgemeines Landrecht of 1794, the crisis of the Prussian state after its defeat at the hands of Napoleon's armies in 1806 allowed reform-minded officials, this time primarily from the administrative bureaucracy, to carry out their program.