particularly in connection with economic and military affairs.
In 1807, serfdom was abolished. Since peasants frequently could not meet
the compensation payments, their formal freedom in practice meant little. The
main beneficiaries were in fact the nobles (and the legislation was in any case
later modified by regulations unfavourable to the peasantry). Restrictions
imposed by the notion of ‘estates’ as status groups defined by birth, rather than
social classes, were lifted, so that nobles could now engage in middle-class
occupations, while peasants and burghers could (at least in theory) buy noble
lands. This transformation from a status to a class society created a potential
mobility of labour, which formed a precondition for later capitalist economic
development. Also important in relation to later economic growth were the
abolition of the restrictive powers of the guilds, and of certain internal barriers to
trade, including the urban excise tax. However, economic reforms were at this
time only partial, and some measures were later reversed; noble tax exemption,
for example, was abolished in 1810 but restored in 1819. Moreover, Prussian
nobles retained civil jurisdiction over their former serfs until 1848, their police
powers until 1872, and certain administrative powers until 1891. In the political
arena, there was a certain modernisation of Prussian government, with a more
streamlined system of ministries and cabinet, but as yet neither a constitution nor
an all-Prussian parliament. Municipal self-government for towns was introduced,
but not rural self-government. Army reforms, associated with the names of
Scharnhorst, Gneisenau and Clausewitz, were carried out largely in response to
the shock of French military success. In 1813 conscription was introduced, and a
militia (
Landwehr
) established; and in 1814 an Army Law was passed. Again,
reforms were not necessarily complete; after 1815, conscription was in practice
not universal. In the sphere of education, the spread of compulsory basic
schooling in the eighteenth century (which had accompanied the expansion of
technically orientated secondary schools as well as aristocratic
Ritterakadamien
) was supplemented by the introduction of elite secondary schools –
Gymnasia
–
across Prussia, and the establishment, under Humboldt, of a university in Berlin.
The Prussian education system was to produce major achievements in the course
of the nineteenth century, ranging from advances at the forefront of research
through to the efficient training of one of the best-educated work-forces in
industrialising Europe. Whatever the limitations, patchiness, and lack of overall
coherence of the Prussian reforms of this period, Prussia in general certainly
emerged somewhat better equipped to meet the challenges of the nineteenth
century.
Meanwhile, the Napoleonic Wars continued. An Austrian attempt to
challenge Napoleon was defeated in 1809. But in 1812 an overstretched and ill-
equipped France was in turn defeated in Russia. In 1813 Germany’s fortunes
began to turn. A coalition of Austria, Prussia and Russia was able to defeat
Napoleon at Leipzig. The Confederation of the Rhine was dissolved, as were the
Napoleonic states in northern Germany. South German states signed treaties with
Austria. The Wars of Liberation finally came to an end in April 1814. From
October 1814 to June 1815 a Congress was held in Vienna, under the dominant
influence of Metternich, foreign minister of Austria from 1809 to 1848 and also
Austria’s chancellor from 1821. The Congress of Vienna was briefly interrupted
by Napoleon’s escape from captivity on the island of Elba, but soon returned to
its business of determining the future order of European affairs.
After twenty-two years of European warfare, the Congress of Vienna was
held in festive mood, with much dancing and luxurious dinners. Its purpose
however was rather serious: it had to resolve the problem of achieving a strong,
stable Germany which would provide a bulwark against potential future French
expansionism, while at the same time recognising that the system of a
multiplicity of petty princes within a loose and ineffective imperial framework
could not be restored. In the end, much of the Napoleonic reorganisation of
Germany remained in place or was extended.
A German Confederation (
Dostları ilə paylaş: |