The Nation as a Local Metaphor. Wurttemberg, Imperial Germany, and National Memory, 1871-1918

Abstract

Confino, Alon. The Nation as a Local Metaphor. Wurttemberg, Imperial Germany, and National Memory, 1871-1918. Chapel Hill: The U of North Carolina P, 1997.280 pp. $55.00 hardcover, $19.95 paperback. In The Nation as a Local Metaphor, Alon Confino aims to provide German scholarship with a culturally and anthropologically based historical study of German nationalism that carefully delineates how people on geographical peripheries of unified Germany after 1871 internalized idea of a nation. Confino sets out to explore the negotiations between local and national and how multitude of local memories in Germany constructed a local-national memory (8). More specifically, Confino studies Sedan Day and Heimat celebrations, both of which he sees as promotions of German nation through memory. In fascinating detail, book's two parts, each consisting of three chapters, review how Wurttemberg bourgeoisie promoted first annual celebrations of victory over French at Sedan (part I) and then Heimat (part II) in order to invent and shape a unified German identity. Confino begins by showing us how Wirttemberg's Honoratiorengesellschaft, or society of notables, of 1870s and 1880s ultimately failed to turn Sedan Day celebrations into defining events of German nation. He convincingly argues that exclusion of undesired segments of society (especially of petite bourgeoisie), close connection of Honoratiorengesellschaft to political interests of mostly Protestant liberal party (Deutsche Partei in Wirttemberg), and widespread distrust ofa Prussianized Germany in Wurttemberg became fatal liabilities for Sedan Day celebrations during 1890s. Sedan Day celebrations were unsuccessful because they reproduced conflicts existing within German society. Promotions of German nation through Heimat, however, were successful precisely because bourgeoisie's use of of Heimat toward end of nineteenth century was inclusive and did not take sides in conflicts within German society. In addition, Heimat was highly selective and forgiving. It hardly remembered, according to Confino, that Wirttemberg in 1866 had still fought on side of Austria against Prussia; and it forgot that in 1813 Wurttemberg had fought on side of Napoleon against Belle Alliance and Prussia. Despite a well-conceived overall argument, Confino is not an easy author to agree with. He has a weakness for provocatively absolute pronouncements: he declares, for instance, Generally, Heimat was used in first half of nineteenth century as a legal concept (127). …