The Arts and Language: Creating a German Identity

            The formation of the German nation from the Holy Roman Empire to the birth on the nation state in 1871 came out of many challenges. Despite issues the nation faced, the strength of the people of German lead to the ultimate unification of the nation. Through the decades of war, peace, or revolution, the people remained resilient and were able to further the culture of Germany. Great philosophers and artists at the time were able to flourish in Germany and build a sense of nationalism needed to unify the people.

           

            The most important factor that ultimately unified the hundreds of small principalities throughout the Holy Roman Empire and other parts of Europe was the German language. In the 1600s and 1700s, “‘German’ still referred only to a language, nothing more” (86). While the nation as Germany had not yet formed, the culture and identity were beginning to form through the persistence of the language. 

The “educated German elite experienced a sense of national identify” while a standard language of Germany was developed from “the myriad regional dialects and local idioms” (89). From the forming of a standard and national language of German helped to create a sense of identify for the German-speaking people. The German elite had a large influence over the development of the language and enhancing it through the arts. Due to the outpour of books, journals, news, and paper from the educated elite, “the German nation was born in the minds of the intelligentsia” (91). Philosophers were important to the formation of the national identity at the time and places with Weimar were important for nurturing the forming culture of Germany.

Through out the conflicts with France and other powerful nations across Europe, the educated German elite of the time was responsible for creating the national identity of Germany. During the beginning of the nineteenth century, the philosopher Johann Gottlieb Fichte gave his “Addresses to the German Nation” in which he asserted that “nature of the German people was genuine and unspoiled, and that that by fighting for their own identity and freedom from French military and cultural domination, Germans were serving the cause of progress” (104-105). The philosophers, like Goethe, at the time played a pivotal in gaining the momentum to fight for the freedom of German.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe born in 1749 was a Germa writer and philosopher whose worked helped to create a national identity for Germany. 

The strength of the French nation inhibited the formation of the German nation for decades. However, when Napoleon suffered heavy losses against Russia, this prompted a wave of optimism for the German people. Through a “flood of nationalistic, anti-French propaganda and verse” (106), the identity of the German nation was continuing to form. By uniting against the French forces, the German writers of the time were able to unite the fragmented German principalities through their work. It was through the power of art that created nationalism for the forming German nation.

 

Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821) was the powerful ruler of France who  controlled many german-speaking regions of Europe.

After the strengthening of the German identity, the German-speaking people began asking for rights during the Congress of Vienna in 1815. “Citizens began loudly demanding fulfillment of the promises for greater liberty, anchored in the new constitutions, that their government made” (110). Now the people were strong enough to demand for their rights and wanted a German nation were their rights were protected and ensured. The small liberal delegates of German states were able to “speak and publish freely without the fear of punishment” (118). Therefore, it was extremely difficult to silence the requests of the people or prevent the further development of the German nationalism. During this time the arts continued to flourish with the works of composers like Ludwig van Beethoven or architects like Karl Friedrich Schinkel. Overall, the eventual formation of the German nation in 1871 was party due to the sense of nationalism that was created in the German-speaking people by the philosophers and artists of the time.

The Congress of Vienna in 1815 were the German people demanded greater liberties and rights.

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) was a famous composer from Germany  during the nation;'s formative years.

[Word Count = 632]