The German revolution of 1848–1849 — new perspectives

Abstract

The article examines the special character of the revolution of 1848/49 in Germany. The focus lies on the perspective of contemporaries to the events. The French Revolution and the Napoleonic Period were the defining, mostly negative, experiences for the generations who were active in 1848. The ideas of 1848 arose in a pre-industrial, harmony-oriented civil society. The constitution demanded in 1848 was therefore not aimed at the legalization of a modern division of state and society, but it wanted a state-formation at the national level based on the idea of the Aristotelian societas civilis. The numerous conflicts of the revolution, social and national conflicts, and even the political division into democrats and liberals, were not weaknesses of the revolution. It was rather the lack of readiness for conflict which led to the failure of the revolution. From the point of view of the contemporaries the revolution failed, but the modernizing impulses of the revolution went on to shape further development. Refs 25.