Karen Hagemann
War, History, and Memory: The Anti-Napoleonic Wars in Nineteenth Century German Historiography
The question whether the wars of 1813–15 were “Wars of Liberation” or “Wars of Liberty” was already debated heatedly in the press when the hostilities started. These two contending interpretations also informed the recollection of these wars during the long nineteenth century. The monarchic-conservative Prussian narrative spoke of “Wars of Liberation” fought by “subjects” who followed the king’s call to resist; the liberal German-national interpretation, in contrast, of “Wars of Liberty,” conducted by “the German people” as a “free, autonomous movement” and a “struggle for liberty” against external and internal forces. This debate was politically vital because the legacy of the wars of 1813–15 would help legitimize the German-national call for unification, as well as the liberal and democratic demands for more political rights, particularly the granting of a constitution. The paper will analyze the development of this dispute in the popular and academic historiography until World War I and place it in the context of the contested construction of the collective memories of the Anti-Napoleonic Wars in German Central Europe.
Karen Hagemann is the James G. Kenan Distinguished Professor of History at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She has published widely in Modern German and European history. Her recent books include: ”Mannlicher Mut und Teutsche Ehre”: Nation, Militär und Geschlecht zur Zeit der Antinapoleonischen Kriege Preußens (2002); Masculinities in Politics and War: Rewritings of Modern History (ed. with Stefan Dudink and John Tosh, 2004); Gendering Modern German History: Rewriting Historiography (ed. with Jean Quataert, 2007, in German 2008);Representing Masculinity: Citizenship in Modern Western Culture (ed. with Stefan Dudink and Anna Clark, 2007/2012); Gender, War, and Politics: Transatlantic Perspectives, 1775–1830 (ed. with Gisela Mettele and Jane Rendall, 2010); War Memories: The Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars in Modern European Cultur (ed. with Alan Forrest and Etienne François, 2012). Currently she is writing a monograph titledRevisiting Prussia’s Wars Against Napoleon: History, Culture, Memory (Cambridge University Press) and preparing as the general editor theOxford Handbook on Gender, War and the Western World since 1650 (Oxford University Press).
