Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Epigraph
- Contents
- List of Figures and Maps
- List of Abbreviations
- Acknowledgments
- Revisiting Prussia’s Wars against Napoleon
- Part One A History of Defeat, Crisis and Victory
- 1 The Defeat of 1806 and Its Aftermath
- 2 Reform and Revenge
- 3 Liberation and Restoration
- Conclusion
- Part Two Discourses on the Nation, War and Gender
- Part Three Collective Practices of De/Mobilization and Commemoration
- Part Four Literary Market, History and War Memories
- Part Five Novels, Memory and Politics
- Epilogue Historicizing War and Memory, 2013–1813–1913
- Bibliography
- Name Index
- Subject Index
- Plate section
- References
2 - Reform and Revenge
Political Responses
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 March 2015
- Frontmatter
- Epigraph
- Contents
- List of Figures and Maps
- List of Abbreviations
- Acknowledgments
- Revisiting Prussia’s Wars against Napoleon
- Part One A History of Defeat, Crisis and Victory
- 1 The Defeat of 1806 and Its Aftermath
- 2 Reform and Revenge
- 3 Liberation and Restoration
- Conclusion
- Part Two Discourses on the Nation, War and Gender
- Part Three Collective Practices of De/Mobilization and Commemoration
- Part Four Literary Market, History and War Memories
- Part Five Novels, Memory and Politics
- Epilogue Historicizing War and Memory, 2013–1813–1913
- Bibliography
- Name Index
- Subject Index
- Plate section
- References
Summary
Looking back at the aims of Prussian reformers and patriots between 1807 and 1813, to whom he had belonged, the Prussian statesmen Baron vom Stein wrote:
Our chief idea was to rouse a moral, religious, patriotic spirit in the nation, to inspire it anew with courage, self-confidence, a readiness to make any sacrifice for independence from foreigners and national honor, and to seize the first opportunity to begin the bloody and hazardous struggle for both.
As he had before, Stein emphasized in his reminiscences written in 1823 that, after the devastating defeat in the 1806–07 war, all aims of Prussian policy were subordinated to one “universal objective” – military liberation from Napoleonic domination. All Prussian reform initiatives were dedicated to the “chief idea” of a “national rising” (Erhebung). In his view, this applied not just to policies for which he was responsible as Prussian Minister of State between October 1807 and November 1808; the governments under Baron vom Stein zum Altenstein and Burggrave zu Dohna-Schlobitten (1808–10) as well as Baron von Hardenberg (1810–22), who followed him in this leading position, set similar priorities.
Some historians share this assessment, stressing that Prussia “had to rebuild a state which had been defeated and sliced in two, and which was still bleeding from its wounds,” and that, until 1813, the three governments differed only in their specific responses to this challenge.
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- Information
- Revisiting Prussia's Wars against NapoleonHistory, Culture, and Memory, pp. 47 - 60Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2015