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Georg Gottfried Gervinus: The Tribulations of a Liberal Federalist

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 December 2008

Jonathan F. Wagner
Jonathan F. Wagner
Affiliation:
University of Winnipeg
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Extract

In the final years of his life, the Heidelberg historian and political journalist Georg Gottfried Gervinus (1805–71) was an unpopular figure in Germany. During the 1860's, the formerly prominent intellectual and revered partriot lost the respect of the German nation. His refusal to applaud the newly created German Empire and his denunciations of Bismarck's policies made him the object of scorn or pity to many of his contemporaries. Some thought the Gervinus of the 1860's had simply been “overtaken by events.” Others considered his opposition to Bismarck's unification proof of personal pettiness or political irresponsibility. Still others used Gervinus's failure to accept the glorious new age as cause to denounce everything he had done both before and after Bismarck as the work of a “writer without style, a savant without method, a thinker without depth, a politician without foresight, and a man without charm or personality.”The

Type
Articles
Information
Central European History , Volume 4 , Issue 4 , December 1971 , pp. 354 - 370
Copyright
Copyright © Conference Group for Central European History of the American Historical Association 1971

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References

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13. Gervinus to Georg Beseler, Mar. 8, 1860; Nachlass Gervinus, Bundesarchiv, Frankfurt (hereafter cited as B.A. Frankfurt).

14. Gervinus to Baron von Rutenberg, Feb. 26, 1861; Nachlass Gervinus, Heidelberg University Manuscript (hereafter cited as Heid. Hs.) 2560.

15. Gervinus to Georg Beseler, Mar. 2, 1862; B.A. Frankfurt.

16. Gervinus to Georg Beseler, Sept. 23, 1863; B.A. Frankfurt.

17. Quoted in Ziegler, Theobald, Die geistigen und sozialen Strömungen Deutschlands im neunzehnten Jahrhundert (Berlin, 1911), p. 378.Google Scholar

18. Gervinus to Georg Beseler, Aug. 8, 1865; B.A. Frankfurt.

19. Gervinus to J. F. Minssen, May 6, 1867; Heid. Hs. 2558.

20. Gervinus to Carl Hegel, June 2, 1866; Heid. Hs. 2545.

21. Gervinus to Sophie Osterley, Aug. 7, 1869; Heid. Hs. 2562.

22. Gervinus to J. F. Minssen, June 28, 1866; Heid. Hs. 2558.

23. Gervinus to Heinrich Ewald, Apr. 30, 1869; Heid. Hs. 2549.

24. Gervinus to J. F. Minssen, May 6, 1867; Heid. Hs. 2558.

25. Ibid.

26. Gervinus, G. G., Geschichte des neunzehnten Jahrhunderts (Leipzig, 1866), VIII, 368.Google Scholar

27. Gervinus to J. F. Minssen, Apr. 1, 1868; Heid. Hs. 2558.

28. Gervinus to Heinrich Ewald, Apr. 28, 1867; Heid. Hs. 2549.

29. Gervinus to Heinrich Ewald, Dec. 29, 1867; Heid. Hs. 2549.

30. A. Schluter to Victorie Gervinus, Mar. 23, 1871; Heid. Hs. 2565.

31. Gervinus to P. Pfeiffer, Jan. 31, 1867; Heid. Hs. 2520.

32. Reichlin-Meldegg, Karl Alexander, Das Leben eines ehemaligen römisch-katholischen Priesters (Heidelberg, 1874), p. 127.Google Scholar

33. Gervinus to A. Wunderlich, June 11, 1870; Heid. Hs. 2587.

34. See Karl Braun's pamphlet Gegen G. G. Gervinus (Leipzig, 1871), for a typical attack on Gervinus.

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36. Ibid., p. 13.

37. Ibid., p. 13.

38. Ibid., p. 15.

39. Ibid., pp. 22–23.

40. Ibid., p. 23.

41. Ibid., p. 17.

42. Ibid., p. 22.

43. Ibid., p. 23.

44. Ibid., p. 24.