The Cartographic Emergence of Modern Borders and Capital Cities

Abstract

The process of nationalization in the five medium-sized German states required a specific attention to the capital city and the state borders, the ‘heart’ and ‘skin’ of the emerging Geo-Body. The strengthening of the capital city was an inseparable part of the symbolic unification of the population around the center of power and territory, yet it encountered strong opposition from rival centers. Capital cities competed against both inner state and outer state centers. Similarly, states were required to define their borders and distinguish between their state territory and ‘outside world.’ Nonetheless, nineteenth-century borders did not only consist of external state borders, but also inner borders between districts. The new post-1815 German states had to deal with new inner as well as outer borders, and the stabilization of the states depended on the naturalization of those borders. This chapter demonstrates that from the late 1830s, and especially the 1840s, states became the focus of spatial identification and inner divisions lost their importance. This was reflected cartographically in the gradual disappearance of inner boundaries and the highlighting of capital cities. However, this was not uniformly exhibited since some states, such as Hanover, remained visually depicted as fragmented, and others, such as Baden, were never drawn with an accentuated capital city.