The Revolutionary Movement of 1848-9 in Italy, Austria-Hungary, and Germany: With Some Examination of the Previous Thirty-three YearsMaurice, C. Edmund (Charles Edmund)
History
The Revolutionary Movement of 1848-9 in Italy, Austria-Hungary, and Germany: With Some Examination of the Previous Thirty-three Years
Maurice, C. Edmund (Charles Edmund)
Europe -- History -- 1848-1849; Revolutions -- Europe
But the summary of Metternich's difficulties in Germany is not yet
complete. The ruler of another small principality, the Duke of Weimar,
had taken advantage, like the King of Würtemberg, of the permission to
grant a Constitution to his people; and had been more prominent than
even the King of Würtemberg in encouraging freedom of discussion in
his dominions. This love of freedom, in Weimar as in most countries of
Europe, connected itself with University life, and thus found its
centre in the celebrated University of Jena; and on June 18th, 1816,
the students of the University met to celebrate the anniversary of the
Battle of Leipzig. There, to the great alarm of the authorities, they
publicly burnt the pamphlet of Schmalz, and another written by the
play-writer Kotzebue, who was believed to have turned away Alexander
of Russia from the cause of liberty, and now to be acting as his tool
and spy.
The head of the Rhine police, conscious, no doubt, of the ferment in
his own province, remonstrated with the Duke of Weimar on permitting
such disturbances.
This opposition increased the movement which it was designed to check.
Jahn, who had founded the gymnastic schools which had speedily become
places of military exercise for patriotic Germans during the war, now
came forward to organize a Burschenschaft, a society which was to
include all the patriotic students of Germany. Metternich and his
friends had become thoroughly alarmed at the progress of the opposition,
but again events seemed to work for him; and the enthusiasm of the
students, ill-regulated, and ill-guided, was soon to give an excuse for
the blow which would secure the victory for a time to the champions of
absolutism.
The desire for liberty seems always to connect itself with love of
symbolism; and the movement for reform, naturally led to the revival
of sympathy with earlier reformers. Actuated by these feelings, the
students of Leipzig and other German Universities gathered at the
Wartburg, in 1817, to revive the memory of Luther's testimony for
liberty of thought; and they seized the opportunity for protesting
against the tyranny of their own time.
Apparently the enthusiasm for the Emperor of Austria had not extended
to Saxony; for an Austrian corporal's staff was one of the first
objects cast into the bonfire, which was lighted by the students;
while the dislike to Prussia was symbolized by the burning of a pair
of Prussian military stays, and the hatred of the tyranny which
prevailed in the smaller States, found vent in the burning of a
Hessian pig-tail. The demonstration excited much disapproval among the
stricter followers of Metternich; but Stein and others protested
against any attempt to hinder the students in their meeting.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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