The Beginnings of a New Germany

In 1806 a new nation was formed and although it was the beginning of a snowball effect that had been building for years that was put in motion on October 14, 1806 when the Prussian army was defeated and reduced at Jena and Auerstedt (Hagen-Schulze 101).  The shell or buffer zone that was Germany was gone in 1806 and with it the idea that Germany could never exists although it was hard to say what Germany actually was.  It may appear that at this point in history Germany could not and would not ever exists, but this was the very beginning of the German nation.  

 

Napoleon Bonaparte

It is hard to imagine how the country of Germany ever came together to be united but even after the years of civil wars and the many different kingdoms scattered throughout the land a nation was formed.  A myriad of things, such as financial burdens, defeat, the devastation caused by the French living off the land and destroying it, and the rise in the cost of living, all contributed to “the administrative reform of the German states along French lines, and the discovery of Germany as a nation” (102).  French ‘satellite governments’ were put into place and all the states joined except for Prussia and Austria, but even they set up governments that followed the model of government set up by France as they remained threatened by Napoleon (103).  Through the years that followed the governments grew, changed and evolved until in 1809 “where the governments appeared immovable” so “bands of patriotic activists mounted small local insurrections” (105).   During the year many different rebellions through Europe took place until Napoleon started taking “heavy losses during his retreat from Russia” which prompted a great amount of patriotic feelings throughout the nation and changed the mood in Germany (105).  

Offenburg Rathaus in 1840

The years that followed were inflicted by wars and changing power and the years that followed “1840 saw a rebirth of German nationalism and strong growth in the organizations promoting it” (119).   A movement that spread throughout the land was the gymnastics movements “with an accompanying ideology that linked the goal of physical fitness with the ideas of patriotism and national defense” (119).  There was also a choral society that sponsored national choral festivals that spread and “promoted patriotic songs” and “also made inflammatory speeches” (120).  During this time it became obvious that both nationhood and the liberal opposition that was involved were both on the same side (121).  All this led to leaders meeting in Offenburg on October 10, 1847 to work towards finishing the movement that was set in place around 1830 to make Germany a “single unified republic” (121).  Other reformist called for more action to be taken and in the years that followed, revolutionaries kept working towards their goal of turning Germany into just that, Germany: a single, free standing, unified republic (121).  

After all the turmoil and warfare that occurred it truly is hard to believe that the states and countries worked and came to agreements and the nation of Germany was formed as a self-sustaining nation that governed its own people. Even though the events in 1806 started the snowball effect that would eventually turn Germany into its own nation, it took 65 years for it to actually happen and achieve its end goal.  In 1806 it would be hard to imagine that they would succeed in their efforts in uniting the states, especially in the years that followed but somehow, between the changing governments and shifts in power, the states of Germany were able to find a way to come together and form a country on January 18, 1871.