Assignment 4: Chapters 3 - 5

            This reading was interesting because it’s the beginning of the German people beginning to recognize themselves as the German people. Perhaps because I don’t live in a time when countries are still forming, but I never really understood the concept of not “belonging” to a country. One of the things I found particularly interesting about this chapter was how the German nation was, as Hagen Schulze states, “…born in the minds of the intelligentsia…” (Schulze, 91).

Klopstock and Möser, two of the

middle-class intellectuals of the period

            Due to the fragmented nature of the German principalities, the German princes wanted to have complete control of their subjects. As a result, they needed a multitude of high-ranking officials who would be able to report back to them about their subject’s life. This phenomenon made it so “aristocratic birth no longer sufficed; what was needed were ability and qualifications…” (Schulze, 89). To ensure that they received the support they so desperately sought, the princes began to construct secondary schools, universities, and other areas of academics. The growth and increasing importance of the middle class allowed for there to be a shift in the balance of power. Aristocrats were quickly becoming less significant as this middle class gained both size and clot. It’s no small wonder that this class began to conceptualize the idea of “Germany” – not only were they highly educated, they were also given power for the first time. As history has shown, once an individual is given power, they are unlikely to give it up without a fight.

            When attempting to establish the identity of Germany, one of the first things the intellectual set out to do was establish a standard German language. Once this was established, individuals began to write in this language. Writing in the standard German language allowed writers to, “…identify themselves with the modern spirit being embraced by middle-class Germans throughout many regions…” (Schulze, 89). The creation of this universal language not only allowed the German middle-class to form an identity of what it meant to be German, but also stood to set them apart from the French. This was a time period when France was very influential in Europe. It was a small thing, but a universal German language not only allowed individuals to communicate with each other more effectively, but also gave them a solid idea to cling to. Germany was no longer this ephemeral idea in the ether; it was a solid, unified language that individuals could point to and indicate as the factor that tied everything together.

A representation of peasants working in a leather shop

            While it was well and good that the German middle-class were beginning to identify as German, Germany was not unified or recognized as a “country” at this point in time. Historians, such a Justus Möser, may have been writing for the German people, and poets, such as Klopstock, may have been writing for the German people, but in actuality, they were only reaching the aforementioned middle-class. While the middle-class and the growth of culture certainly helped to begin the growth of the German nation, it also placed a limit on who exactly was the German nation. The intellectual class was the important people, they were after all the ones who had begun to envision the idea of “Germany”, and so if an individual wanted to write to the German people, they were going to write to this middle class. Compare the images of intellectuals presented and peasants presented. These images represent two groups that seem to have little or nothing in common. The peasants are one group and the intellectual middle-class are another. As the Schulze notes, “…four out of five Germans were rooted in peasant traditions, and experienced their only connection with the larger realm of politics when they prayed for the ruling class on Sunday…” (90). “Four out of five” is a staggering figure and really gives one cause for pause. A large portion of the supposedly “German” people weren’t being spoken to. They had no notion of the concept of “Germany. The conception of Germany needed to move beyond the minds of the intelligentsia and be embraced by the common individual. It is only at this point that the German nation can start to emerge and forge its own identity.

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