In the aftermath of the failed revolution of 1848, which had been sparked by demands for democracy and constitutional reform, Germany’s princes reluctantly introduced new freedoms regarding print and the right to assembly. However, reactionary forces in governments unwilling to cede power quickly repressed these freedoms, leading to tighter controls on public and private life. Consequently, dispirited citizens clutched at the old Biedermeier ways, withdrawing to an “ill-remembered social order of bygone days” (Shorter 169). It was against this backdrop that the illustrated works of Wilhelm Busch (1832–1908) appeared in the popular Bilderbogen (“picture broadsheets”) of the day, and later as stand-alone Bildergeschichten (“picture stories”), using satire and symbolic inversion to mock German society by skewering assorted political, social, and cultural sacred cows. The aim of my dissertation is as follows. I will start by examining Busch’s use of symbolic inversion as a way of implying a shift in power between figures of authority and the disgruntled “second-class” citizens of Biedermeier society: women and children. Next, I will examine how Busch’s animal characters, particularly apes with their close resemblance to mankind, mock human pretensions of biological superiority. Finally, I will show how objects meant to serve their human “masters” overpower them, even in their homes, suggesting that there was no refuge from the vagaries of a rapidly changing world. Key to my analysis will be an exploration of the mechanism of “inside out” and “upside down,” described by Mikhail Bakhtin with regards to the carnival scenes of Gargantua et Pantagruel, as a sanctioned and mocking way of questioning the power of the state and its institutions. Along the way, I will compare and contrast Busch’s picture stories with similar strips in the Fliegende Blätter, in order to prove how groundbreaking the author’s exposé of nineteenth-century German society truly was. As I explore the synergy between image and word, I will demonstrate how Busch’s use of symbolic inversion is slyly subversive, undermining established authority in the political, social, and cultural arenas, and providing a safety valve in the form of humour that transcends the boundaries of class, education, and gender. / Thesis (Ph.D, German) -- Queen's University, 2013-04-19 14:01:35.498

Zugl.: Freiburg (Breisgau), Univ., Diss., 2007

Carlo Cattaneo (1801-1869) would have been a remarkable man in any time period. He was interested in everything, and as a man of ideas was involved in the astonishing technological and stimulating political events of the nineteenth century. He encouraged the building of railways as a way to unite the Italian peninsula, and he was involved in connecting Italy to the rest of Europe through the St. Gothard Tunnel. An innovator of gas lighting in his native Milan, the great Lombard thinker was a prolific writer, and kept prodigious notes and copies of his correspondence. His economic and scientific involvement in the latest technology was emblematic of the intellectual strides he made. For example, he logically and rationally argued for racial and religious tolerance of the Jews over one hundred years before the enactment of the infamous Racial Laws in Fascist Italy. Today most know Carlo Cattaneo as the father of Italian federalism. During the Cinque Giornate insurrection in Milan in 1848, Carlo Cattaneo was an integral part of the war committee, and its spokesman. Although he had many liberal ideas about government and the rights of men, Carlo Cattaneo was a reluctant revolutionary, preferring exile in Switzerland over pledging allegiance to the Savoyard monarchy during the Risorgimento. Historians have almost unanimously declared that Carlo Cattaneo was anticlerical and irreligious. This was not true. CARLO CATTANEO: THE RELIGIOSITY OF A RELUCTANT REVOLUTIONARY examines the writings and the correspondence of Carlo Cattaneo, and concludes that the Cattanean opus is replete with Biblical references and allusions, Christian traditions and ideas. Historians have not taken the religiosity found in the writings of Carlo Cattaneo seriously. This thesis does.

This thesis traces the intellectual trajectory of Lorenz Stein (1815-1890), a German legal scholar and political thinker who, despite being a significant theorist during his lifetime, is an obscure figure today, especially in Anglophone scholarship. It focuses on Stein's writings on socialism and argues that they provide crucial insights into the changing nature of socialist thought in the mid-nineteenth century. It contributes to the project of departing from a Marxist interpretation of the history of socialism that has long been predominant, and uses Stein's intellectual biography to illustrate how contingent political, cultural and personal factors have shaped both the creation and reception of socialist ideas.

“What in a Good Cause Men May Both Dare and Venture” is a historical short story that features schoolteachers in Munich, Bavaria, during the revolutionary period of 1848. The principle character, Franz Schuler, must decide whether or not to join an illegal teachers union. Simultaneously, he must choose whether or not to stand up against his emotionally abusive father. King Ludwig I, Lola Montez, Karl von Abel, and the revolutionary fervor that bubbled up in several European regions, all function as part of the backdrop of this story. Paired with current struggles educators face in the United States and around the world, “Cause” demonstrates that some social justice issues continually resurface. Every generation, whatever the location, must decide how it will respond to institutionalized injustice—whether in 19th-century Germany or modern America.

Name of the author: Jiří Smetana Name of the MA thesis: Utopia in the Works of Adalbert Stifter University: Charles University in Prague Faculty: Faculty of Arts Department: Institute of the Germanic Studies Supervisor: Doc. PhDr. Milan Tvrdík, CSc. Place and date of publishing: Prague, March 2011 The subject of the present work is Adalbert Stifter's utopia. The aim is to outline its main essence and in part describe the motives that had led Stifter to his utopia. The work describes the artistic, political and social background of the Biedermeier era and approximates Stifter as its principal representative in Austrian literature. Adalbert Stifter's talent was versatile; he had affection for nature and art. Art was one of his most faithful friends. Stifter's Biedermeier literary works are original and in a certain sense possess great depth. For every opinion in these works is put down rationally. In this regard we would be hard pressed to find selfcontent in Stifter's late work. This opinion is also shared by the Austrian writer Peter Rosegger, who regards Adalbert Stifter higher than Johann Wolfgang Goethe for this very reason. As Rosegger rightly states, Stifter's style is also very original.1 This work takes note of the utopian features in some of Stifter's short stories and in his educational...

No description available.