Prussian Militarism Research Articles

Evolution of the Concept of <i>Barbarism</i> within the Context of the Franco-German Confrontation in the 1870s–1910s

Intolerance, demonization and hate speech used to be an integral part of Franco-German relations in the 19th century. The paper is devoted to the analysis of the image of barbarians within the context of the confrontation between France and Germany in 1870s–1910s. Creation and transformation of political myths is viewed through the lens of cultural artefacts. The study is topical because it allows for the analysis of the universal development of cultural confrontation on a specific example. The prime goal of the article is to identify the patterns of mutual stigmatization and account for their seeming anomalies or exceptions to these patterns: the German simultaneously viewed as well-educated and barbarian; common origins of barbarian and classical antique cultures resulting in opposing identities, etc. The aims of the study include: 1) to systematize empirical sources; 2) to assess the impact of historical and cultural context on the formation of the conceptual images of barbaric and civilized; 3) to single out basic dichotomies of the barbaric vs civilized opposition. The study was based on various cultural texts of the period, ranging from speeches, essays, and memoirs to posters and monuments. Methods used included comparative, semiotic, and imagological approaches, corpus, discourse, and content analyses. French newspaper clichés are compared to the Europe-wide opinions about Prussian militarism. As it turns out, the German way of thinking about the heroes of the past contributed to political stigmatization of Germany. Another finding, based on French literature, is the unobvious correlation between decadent world perception and political turmoil in France. Modernist poetry, literature and journalism compared the fall of the French Empire to the collapse of the Roman Empire and thus contributed to the conceptualizing of the German as barbarians. At the same time German propaganda attempted to defend itself by finding barbarians on the east and ironically quoting French sources to speak about actual war crimes. The results of the study show that seemingly chaotic hate speech and confrontation are determined on the basis of the specific rules related to age-old non-political traditions and current political circumstances marking the dichotomy between oneself and the other, friend or foe.

Through Artillery from Thrust to Fire: How Prussian Military Thinking Anticipated Emergent Warfare in 1870

Reassessing the reasons for the German military success over France in War of 1870 up to the Battle of Sedan, we relate on publications of contemporary artillery generals, such as Kraft zu Hohenlohe-Ingelfingen and put the topic into the broader context of warfare since the 1866 German War. We reject the idea of success, being simply based on armament or a special ‘soldierly spirit’, but argue that the main reason for military success was based on reorganization of the Prussian artillery, which paved the way to the future ‘battle of combined arms’ and the dominance of fire over thrust.

Gertrude Atherton’s WWI Propaganda to the Home Front: Mrs. Balfame, The Living Present and The White Morning

Abstract Gertrude Atherton’s Mrs. Balfame (1916), The Living Present (1917) and The White Morning (1918) address the home front audience about the war front of World War I. Atherton chronicles American political transition from isolationism to new internationalism with her pro-Ally and pro-American agenda. In her novel Mrs. Balfame, Atherton reflects political polarization in American society during the U. S. neutrality and anti-German stance, referring to the impacts of war reports on public opinion. The Living Present underlines French women’s wartime services on the home front and transatlantic collaboration through Atherton’s recollections. In her novel The White Morning, German women’s suffering and sense of duty gradually carry them to the war front with women’s revolution that brings their war to an end with Prussian militarism and patriarchal oppression. Thus, Atherton’s propaganda literature encourages women’s political awareness and wartime mobilization for their postwar progress and demands as citizens.

Prussian Militarism and the German Wars of Unification

This paper explains how Prussian militarism gained a sense of supremacy and invisibility through the German Wars of Unification. Beginning with Prussia’s rule in defeating Napoleon from 1813, Prussia became in the center of German nationalism. After defeating Napoleon, Prussian militarism went into hibernation, as the monarchs abandoned the idea of nationalism and tried to put Europe back together. The prospect of German Unification became possible under Bismarck. The final step of German Unification was the war against France, as Prussia was portrayed as Germany's savior against French aggression.

Max Weber and the ‘Prussian “Geist”’

In ‘Wahlrecht und Demokratie in Deutschland’ (1917) Max Weber suddenly shifted from discussing voting rights in a democratic Germany to identifying four generals who he claimed embodied the genuine 'Prussian “Geist”': Gneisenau, Scharnhorst, Boyen, and Moltke. The first three were actively involved in making the reforms to the Prussian military during the early decades of the nineteenth century, but Helmuth Moltke was heavily involved in military matters and political issues from 1864 until his death in 1891. Hence, he made major impressions on the young Max Weber during the first three decades of Weber's life. In this essay, I argue that Weber considered Moltke an 'ideal type' of leader: a modest man who possessed a sense of judgment and who acted according to the ‘ethics of responsibility’. In contrast, another German general, Erich Ludendorff, embodied those traits that Weber warned against in his later lecture Politik als Beruf: vanity, the lack of judgment, and the lack of any sense of responsibility. By contrasting Moltke with Ludendorff we not only get a sense of what Max Weber meant by the genuine 'Prussian “Geist”', but we also get an idea of Max Weber's notion of the true political leader. There is no question that to understand what Weber meant by 'Prussian “Geist”' would mean investigating a full range of topics, including his opinions on the agrarian question, his view of Bismarck and his successors, and many more. However, by focusing on his opinions of Moltke and Ludendorff, we get a good sense of why Weber believed the 'Prussian “Geist”' was so important for Germany's future.

The King and His Army: A New Perspective on the Military in 18th Century Brandenburg-Prussia

Brandenburg-Prussia has always occupied a special place in the German-speaking historiography. However, this has not resulted in a particularly differentiated state of research. Rather, the Prussian military of the 18th century is still characterized by attributes such as ‘monarchic’ and ‘absolutist, which unreflectively continues the narratives of 19th-century historiography. This article is explicitly challenging this image by assuming a differentiated concept of rulership as well as of the military in the 18th century. Using the aristocratic elites, it will examine how Frederick William I (1713–1740) and Frederick II (1740–1786) ruled the army, and ruled using the army.

Scharnhorst’s Mentor: Count Wilhelm zu Schaumburg-Lippe and the Origins of the Modern National Army

Imperial count of the Holy Roman Empire and sovereign ruler Friedrich Wilhelm Ernst zu Schaumburg-Lippe (1724–1777) established in his small state of Schaumburg-Lippe the prototype of the nation in arms decades before the French levée en masse. Count Wilhelm also founded an educational institution designed to educate and train both civilian and military leaders in homeland defence. He was also the first German prince to condemn aggressive, offensive war. His most famous student was Gerhard von Scharnhorst. After Prussia’s catastrophic defeat in 1806, Scharnhorst was able to lay the foundations of a modern Prussian military along the lines of Count Wilhelm’s national army. Using primary and secondary source material, this article analyses the tremendous contribution of Count Wilhelm zu Schaumburg-Lippe to modern military history.

Cosmopolitan Outsiders: Imperial Inclusion, National Exclusion, and the Pan-European Idea, 1900–1930 by Katherine Sorrels

Reviewed by: Cosmopolitan Outsiders: Imperial Inclusion, National Exclusion, and the Pan-European Idea, 1900–1930 by Katherine Sorrels Laura A. Detre Katherine Sorrels, Cosmopolitan Outsiders: Imperial Inclusion, National Exclusion, and the Pan-European Idea, 1900–1930. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016. 258 pp. The future of European unity is a timely topic. As we watch the negotiations around Brexit and remember the Greek financial crisis of a few years ago, it is easy to think that the idea of the continent working in harmony is a new and faddish one. In reality, the idea of uniting Europe in order to ensure peace and stability is not a postwar invention but rather one that has its origins in the multicultural empires of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Katherine Sorrels’s book Cosmopolitan Outsiders is an interesting examination of the lives and work of two men who advocated for European integration in the early twentieth century, Alfred Fried and Count Richard Coudenhove-Kalergi. The two men had very different personal stories and do not seem to have known each other (although Coudenhove-Kalergi was certainly aware of Fried’s writings), but Sorrels makes a compelling argument for examining them together, as their ultimate goals were assuredly interconnected. Alfred Fried was a secular Viennese Jew and the founder of the German Peace Society. He had relocated to Berlin and was inspired by Bertha von Suttner and the Austrian Peace Society to create a similar institution in his new home. Fried was expelled from the organization within a year of its founding, and eventually he made his way back to Vienna. His experiences in Germany, specifically the highly militaristic nationalism that he encountered in his adopted home, left him even more convinced of the importance of pacifism and shaped his future writing. Count Richard Coudenhove-Kalergi, who created the Pan-European Union in the early twentieth century, was inspired by Fried’s ideas but conceived of European unity in different terms. [End Page 126] Coudenhove’s father, a Bohemian aristocrat and diplomat, had written at length about the problem of anti-Semitism specifically and about progressive causes more generally. Coudenhove’s mother was the daughter of a Japanese merchant, and his biracial identity reinforced his sense that crossing cultural boundaries was inherently valuable. The most important conclusion Sorrels draws is that earlier historians were incorrect to suggest that European unity was the exclusive project of elite insiders. She shows that marginalized people, particularly Jews like Fried, also understood the benefits of overcoming the nationalisms of the nineteenth century and advocated for greater international connections. Marginality could be the result of geography, but she also demonstrates that marginality can be defined by thinking and beliefs outside of the mainstream. This is what binds Fried to Coudenhove, a German-speaking aristocrat in interwar Czechoslovakia. Both men were not members of the cultural majority, and this afforded them the ability to see the issues of European unity in a different light. Perhaps the most compelling sections of Sorrels’s work are those where she links Coudenhove’s ideology of pan-Europeanism and the building of a new elite to the work of two of Austria’s most noteworthy Jewish writers, Stefan Zweig and Joseph Roth. She notes that Zweig was approximately half a generation older than both Coudenhove and Roth and confirmedly part of the Viennese intellectual elite; consequently he romanticized a form of liberalism that was essentially defunct by the time Roth became a public figure. Coudenhove, despite being younger, was more compatible intellectually with the older Zweig. Both men saw Prussian militarism as the essential impediment to a peaceful, united Europe, whereas Roth, who was born in Galicia and had a less privileged upbringing, leaned toward Socialism and identified many socioeconomic factors preventing Europe from achieving a lasting peace. Sorrels notes that, just as Fried and Coudenhove rejected the more northerly version of German nationalism as arrogant and dismissive of its southern neighbors, Roth saw the West-centrism of the Viennese elite as counterproductive and critiqued the older generation of liberal, assimilated Jews, like Zweig, who failed to include the Jews of Eastern Europe in their vision of European unity. She suggests that it was...

From Insurrectional Socialism to French National Socialism

In 1901 Gustave Hervé’s image of the tricolore planted in a dung pile made him notorious. His career became etched into French consciousness when he subsequently shifted from antimilitarism to chauvinism and, between 1914 and 1918, promoted “war to the bitter end” to create a democratic, federated Europe. Because depopulation, alcoholism, and materialism were perceived as threats before 1914, his national socialism shared values with his idealistic prewar socialism. Though Hervé remained a religious skeptic until 1935, the image of an expiatory war was telling. He assailed anyone refusing to support deliverance from Prussian militarism. Hervé’s wartime rhetoric soon included references to a new Bonaparte, a resurrected Committee of Public Safety, or a military dictatorship to save la patrie en danger, presaging his later authoritarian or dictatorial programs. Though he stressed legality and deplored both violence and anti-Semitism, much in Hervé’s interwar positions could be described as republican fascism

Leading from the Front: The ‘Service Members’ in Parliament, the Armed Forces, and British Politics during the Great War

Abstract The Great War was widely seen in Britain as a struggle for civilian and constitutional standards of government against the evils of ‘Prussian militarism’. Yet the British political class itself was by no means a purely ‘civilian’ caste. During the war 264 MPs—some 40 per cent of the membership of the House of Commons—volunteered to serve in the armed forces. These men occupied a unique and controversial position both within Parliament and in the forces. A shared experience of military service could provide a common identity, and even a basis for common action, for MPs from rival parties, and many of these men came to support an apparently ‘military’ agenda at Westminster. At the same time, fighting MPs could act as agents of parliamentary oversight and control over the military establishment. Yet the importance of these ‘Service Members’ was not only evident in the realm of civil–military relations, and this article explores the significance and consequences of attempts by Service Members to claim a special political authority as the ‘representatives’ of the armed forces in the House of Commons, to offer an important new perspective on wartime British debates about the workings of representative politics, the nature of political citizenship, and the authority of Parliament as an institution.

Политические и национально – культурные аспекты прусского мифа в контексте российско – германских отношений XX в.

Referring to a large number of Soviet, Russian and German memoirs, fiction and journalistic texts, the author studies the main ways of formation and development of the Prussian myth that is connected with the German province of East Prussia and its people during World War II and the postwar period. The author explores the historical, national and psychological reasons that underlie the idea of Prussia and Prussians as the most vivid image of the Alien or the Enemy in Soviet people’s consciousness during the Great Patriotic War. Heavily relying on propaganda, the negative mythology of Prussia imposed that it be perceived as the den of the fascist beast, a place that generated antihuman theories and annexationist plans, and, secondly, a land that was originally Russian and then occupied by the Livonian Order. It is such ideas that formed the official state policy of the expulsion of the Prussian spirit that took place during the first three post-war decades in Kaliningrad Region. Additionally, Soviet and post-Soviet memoir or autobiographical literature (D. Shcheglov, A. Nevsky, P. Mikhin, Yu. Zhukova) formed the idea of a close connection of a number of nation-specific traits of the Germans with centuries-old Prussian militarism. This is how the Russia-Germany relations conflict was formed between Russian chaos and German cosmos, and was reflected not only in the Russian but also German egodocuments of the World War II. Among the main variations of the Prussian myth, there is one that consists in the idea of Prussia as of German Arcadia, an agricultural paradise (M. Muller, H. Rauschenbach, A. Surminski) lost as a result of the War. Another – German – variation of the Prussian myth is the idea of Prussia and its dwellers as the main loss Germany had to go through in the course of World War II. The authors of egodocuments that reflect this point of view (H. Gerlach, G. Kopp, M. Wieck) describe their lives as part of the historical tragedy of East Prussia and Germany as a whole. It is such memoirs that are most frequently used by Western European historians (M. Hastings, G. Boddeker, N. M. Naimark) to create an impression of the Soviet Army’s extremely violent behaviour in East Prussia. A third variation of the Prussian myth created by Germans may be called soteriological and depicts this eastern German land as a saviour bearing the brunt from the East and granting its inhabitants a chance to find a way out of the country and go to the West over the Baltic Sea. In these ideas formulated both by professional writers (G. Grass, E. Junger) and memoirists (E. Tannehill, G. Nitsch) the image of the Red Army and Russians often regarded as an uncontrollable force, the personification of chaos plays an important role. At the end of the article, referring to a vast number of egodocuments written by both Russians (Ya. Terentyev, E. F. Agapov, G. A. Melikhov, A. E. Kashpur, P. Kh. Kharitonov) and Germans (R. Klaussen), the author outlines ways out of the space of war and into the space of multicultural European consciousness that includes both Germany and Russia.

Alltag zwischen Konflikt und Toleranz. Beobachtungen zur Konfessionspolitik Brandenburg-Preußens im 18. Jahrhundert

<bold>Everyday Life between Conflict and Tolerance. Observations concerning the Confessional Policy of Brandenburg-Prussia in the 18th Century</bold> Since the 19th century, the idea that Prussia is a benchmark for confessional freedom has been a major narrative in Prussian historiography. After World War II it became even more important because of its use in counterbalancing the negative narrative of Prussian militarism. Only recently has historiography challenged these all-to-easy stereotypes and unveiled Prussian tolerance as a specific variant of confessionalization. Both friends and foes of the tolerance-topos, however, lay the focus of their argument on the role of the Hohenzollern dynasty for the confessional destiny of their subjects. Other historical agents, such as the intermediate church bureaucracy, pastors and preachers, as well as the subjects themselves are hardly taken into consideration. By looking at records produced by the Evangelical-reformed church directory, the article argues that church bureaucracy indeed fostered the idea of mutual tolerance, for reasons of confessional peace. In cases of conflict, clerks and subjects frequently accused their contraries of violating the principles of tolerance, thereby threatening peaceful interaction on a local level. Moreover, such cases of conflict and the way they were managed by members of the church bureaucracy clarify that subjects in Brandenburg villages and small towns took a rather pragmatic approach towards confessional difference. The church bureaucracy, however, engaged in avoiding ambiguity and dividing subjects along clearly defined confessional lines thereby perpetuating social constellations that produced confessional conflict. The article argues that in the light of recent discussion of transconfessional conviviality in Europe, the essentialist question whether Prussia was tolerant or not is no longer appropriate. Instead, more efforts should be made in investigating the pluralism and conviviality of confessional life in Brandenburg-Prussia without neglecting the multifaceted policy of church bureaucracy.

Pořadový krok jako disciplinační technika těla

This text inquires into the problem of cadenced step as the disciplinary technique of the body, according to theories of Marcel Mauss and Michel Foucault. Author explores historical core of military body techniques in social context, developed by Dutch army reformers Counts of Nassau during 1590s and refined by the Prussian military in 1740s. Author interprets cadenced step inside framework of shifting paradigm of power, as Foucault analyses the sequence of three stages of power emerging during european Early modernity.

Repressive Politics and Satire in E. T. A. Hoffmann’s Fairy-tales, “Little Zaches Acclaimed as Zinnober” and “Master Flea”

This article sets two of Hoffmann’s satiric fairy-tales, “Little Zaches acclaimed as Zinnober” (1819) and “Master Flea” (1822), in their socio-political context of post-Napoleonic Europe. It identifies them as political allegories through which Hoffmann comments on the instability of western European politics in the early nineteenth century. We demonstrate how Hoffmann’s position as a Prussian state judge informed his propensity for satirical observation couched in the genre of fairy-tale and variations thereof. We explore his scrutiny of hypocrisy, pride and nepotism, together with his particular focus on received ideas, such as Enlightenment rationalist principles. Concomitantly, we examine how he reworks familiar fairy-tale motifs in order to expose the effects of political repression. We compare the lampoon of his contemporary, Friedrich Ludwig Jahn (founder of the Open Air Gymnasium Movement) in “Little Zaches”, with his satirization of Privy Councillor von Kamptz (Director of Prussian Military Police) as Councillor Knarrpanti in “Master Flea”, the first fairy-tale causing wry amusement, but the second leading to a high profile libel case. We align with Zipes’s argument that Hoffmann’s fairy-tales demonstrate connections between history, politics and the fairy-tale, and we show how Hoffmann’s revisioning of fairy-tale motifs mediates political satire. We extend Zipes by emphasizing Hoffmann’s use of the increasingly popular Oriental, and especially Arabian, tale. This article concludes that Hoffmann contributed significantly to the critical acclaim of the satiric fairy-tale, and that his loss of literary judgement in “Master Flea” accounts for the legal consequences which he suffered.

Fighting for Another Fatherland: The Polish Minority in the German Army, 1914-1918

This article examines the Polish-speaking soldiers who served in the German Army during the First World War in order to resolve a longstanding interdisciplinary debate on the importance of patriotic ideology for performance in combat. Current research is divided on whether patriotic commitment is essential to motivate men in mass conscript armies, or whether purely military factors, especially so-called ‘primary group’ solidarity, can suffice. While most work has been hindered by its focus on soldiers who served in their own national armies, and who therefore possessed both ‘primary group’ and patriotic allegiances, this article overcomes the problem by investigating a minority fighting for a foreign Fatherland. Drawing on Prussian military and civil documentation, soldiers’ personal testimony and Allied intelligence records, it investigates Polish-speaking troops’ loyalties, their treatment by the German Army and their consequent conduct in battle. The article demonstrates, through comparison of the behaviour in 1914-15 of three distinct groups within the minority, the Polish nationalists of Posen and West Prussia, nationally-neutral Upper Silesians and the ‘Polish-speaking Germans’ of Masuria, that a close correlation exists between soldiers’ identification with the nation they defend and their willingness to fight. Yet by analysing the effect of military reforms in 1916-18 on the conduct of the most alienated group, Posen and West Prussian Poles, it also shows that such identification is not indispensible. The article argues that while patriotic ideology is a powerful motivator, a judicious mix of coercion, assimilation and military-identity building can induce from even reluctant minorities operationally acceptable performance.

Turning Germans into Texans: World War I and the Assimilation and Survival of German Culture in Texas, 1900-1930 (review)

Reviewed by: Turning Germans into Texans: World War I and the Assimilation and Survival of German Culture in Texas, 1900-1930 S. M. Duffy Turning Germans into Texans: World War I and the Assimilation and Survival of German Culture in Texas, 1900-1930. By Matthew D. Tippens. (Austin: Kleingarten Press, Pp. 266. Illustrations, map, tables, bibliography, index. ISBN 9780984357208, $17.95 paper.) Matthew Tippens's Turning Germans into Texans investigates how and why German communities in Texas changed from distinct, proud, and vibrant pockets of old world culture to groups of Americans with little connection to their linguistic heritage and family roots. It also gives the reader insight into the nature of "nativist" demands for Americanization (equated with patriotism) and the arguments circling the concept of "hyphenated" citizenship. The key to this issue, as the book's full title indicates, is the United States's experience in World War I and its repercussions throughout the 1920s, especially with the introduction of Prohibition and the second incarnation of the Ku Klux Klan. Tippens states that despite 20 percect of Americans claiming "full or partial German heritage" (3), Germany's role in the World Wars prevents them waving their ethnic banner in this multicultural age. This is a direct result of the federal government's campaign to mobilize the population in support of the war effort in 1917-18, which turned suspicion of non-English speaking foreigners into anti-German "hysteria." This antagonism became especially acute in Texas, where ruling elites were less entrenched than in the East, where "Anglo" settlement was no older (or even more recent) than non-English speaking Texans, and where there already existed concerns about the loyalties of Hispanics to the United States. Nineteenth-century Texas welcomed and encouraged German settlers who often arrived through arrangements by transatlantic organizations such as the Adelsverein. These settlers served several purposes: they settled large tracts of often inhospitable land, they were regarded as sturdy, hard-working farmers, and they were white and non-Spanish-speaking. The German immigrants' commitment to retaining their native language, through newspapers, schools, and churches, however, led many Anglos to distrust them. This factor was compounded in the eyes of many "nativists" by the Germans' Catholic or Lutheran affiliations (as opposed to the Baptist faith) and their stalwart condemnation of prohibition. The consumption of beer was, for most German Texans, crucial to their social lives and a basic human right. As a definable group, Germans had no distinct political affiliations and tended to band together more in social organizations (vereine) such as the Sons of Hermann. When war broke out in Europe in 1914, these organizations and related newspapers most often favored the Central Powers (the German and Austrian Empires), but more out of cultural and familial ties than out of loyalty to the Kaiser. After all, many German immigrants came to the United States to escape Prussian militarism. Nevertheless, they were at odds with the majority of U.S. citizens, and when the United States entered the Great War in 1917, there was no way to take back their past support for the present enemy. Even the litmus tests of buying [End Page 459] Liberty Bonds, prominently displaying the Stars and Stripes, or having sons serving in the army did little to alleviate the often violent backlash against those of German birth or ancestry. After the war German names, the German language, and political association with German American interests became liabilities in the United States. The horrific results of Nazism ensured that this continued throughout the twentieth century. Therefore, many German Texans Anglicized themselves, and their heritage now continues mostly in the form of tourist fests. Matthew Tippins has done an admirable job in demonstrating how this situation came to pass. His book is both a readable and engaging study of European immigration to Texas. It left this reviewer hoping for a follow-up volume that would go beyond the scope of this work into an investigation of such organizations as the German American Bund in Texas during the 1940s and 1950s. [End Page 460] S. M. Duffy Texas A&M International University Copyright © 2011 The Texas State Historical Association

Pluralism in Heaven : Religion in Prussian Military of 18th Century

Pluralism in Heaven : Religion in Prussian Military of 18th Century

Between Colonial Violence and Socialist Worldview: The Conversions of Ernst Daumig

In 1900, Ernst Däumig (1866–1922) wrote to Karl Kautsky of his ‘bitter experiences’ of violence in the French Foreign Legion and then in the Prussian military that had led to his recent ‘conversion’ to the socialist worldview. This article takes up Däumig's letters, articles and travelogues, and a drama, to explore how he recast his experiences of colonial and military violence twice, first as a writer for a German soldiers’ journal and then as an aspiring socialist journalist. As well as a burden that pushed him to critique his past, Däumig's military and colonial experiences are shown to have been his starting capital in the world of journalism and politics. The article gives particular attention to the process of conversion, through which Däumig forged a new life narrative out of the moral tales offered by the adopted worldview and the events of his own past. In addition to providing a case study of worldview conversion, this article demonstrates how biographical research can challenge assumptions about the impact of colonial violence on German metropolitan culture. At the same time, this biographical analysis sheds light on the early career of one of the key figures in the German Revolution of 1918 to 1921. As co-chairman of the Independent Social Democratic Party (USPD), Däumig led the USPD into union with the Communist Party in 1920.

Billeting Prussian Military in the Houses of Berlin Jews: An Unknown Chapter in Early Modern Jewish-Christian Interactions

During the Thirty Years’ War, both Christians and Jews were obliged to accommodate soldiers in their homes. Billeting was common practice and posed a difficult situation for both the civilians and the military personnel.1 Billeting was initially a direct result from being close to an ongoing war, but when after 1648 the troops stayed and the concept of army changed from an army of mercenaries into a standing army, adequate accommodation needed to be provided for the growing number of soldiers. Thus billeting became institutionalized. In Prussia, the Interims-Verpflegungs-Ordonnanz of 1655 identified arrangements for provisions and billeting, adopting the arrangements of the Ordonnanz von Verpflegung der Soldaten in 1635.2 Provisioning the army was part of the Magistrate’s jurisdiction, and the Ordonnanz lists in detail how much money every rank was entitled to, with officers receiving cash and lower ranks the equivalent in accommodation and wood for burning, salt etc.3 The list not only states the rights of the

Brunnhilde's Act

It is popular to assert that there are two Germanies, the ascetic-military “Prussian” Germany, focused on ruthless discipline and dedicated service to the State, and the more friendly, southern Austrian-Bavarian-Schwabian Germany focused on Kultur, on art, and spiritualized joie de vivre. When, in his late years, Goethe witnessed the retreat in Germany of Kultur and the rise of German political nationalism, he was horrified by the prospect of dangers that this engendered. (One can claim that the very duality of the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic in the second half of the twentieth century expresses this opposition. The “Prussian” character of the GDR was often noted.) From this perspective, Nazism predictably appears as the climactic point of “Prussian” Germany. Might Goethe have presciently perceived the shadow of the Nazi threat at its very source? One should reject this conclusion. It is not an accident that in the finale of his Meistersinger, Wagner, whom the Nazis perceived as their predecessor, celebrated the survival of German art following the decline of the German Reich; it is no accident that Hitler was Austrian, fanatically devoted to Wagner, and in thrall to German Kultur much more than to Prussian militarism; and it is no accident that the dominant motif of the conservative defense of Germany in World War I (starting with Thomas Mann's “Reflections of an Unpolitical Man” in 1918) was the defense of German Kultur against French and Anglo-Saxon civilization. (This, incidentally, allows us to propose a succinct definition of barbarism which covers Nazism as well as today's Islamic and Christian fundamentalisms: barbarism is not the opposite of culture, but rather, it is pure culture—culture without civilization.) Nazism was not “Prussian.” Rather, it enacted the synthesis of two Germanies: the full appropriation of the “Prussian” Germany by the Germany of Kultur. Here, one might follow Phillip Lacoue-Labarthe, who detected the source of Nazism in the post-Kantian aestheticization of the political, which began with Schiller and the conservative Romantics.