Heroism and the Defence of the Volk
Heroism and the Defence of the Volk
Representations of war changed between 1792 and 1815, as the nature of warfare altered and as a succession of conflicts, waged by seven separate coalitions, affected all the German lands. Most notably, long-established critiques of absolutism and hopes of a long-lasting or perpetual peace were eclipsed by new conceptions of ‘revolutionary’ conflict and wars of the ‘Volk’. Much of the historiographical debate about contemporaries’ attitudes to war rests less on contested interpretations of press reports and literary depictions than on disputed assessments of the significance of such representations. The chapter examines the relationship between patriotism, nationalism, and belligerence in newspapers, literature, and paintings. It argues that a reading ‘public’ in the German lands did have access to an increasing number of such accounts, as the wars succeeded one another, censorship was relaxed, public spheres developed, and the possibility—or, even, need—of a coordinated national campaign against Napoleonic France arose.
Keywords: public sphere, representations of war, peace, literature, paintings, patriotism, nationalism, belligerence
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