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In the German states, interest in the Middle Ages emerged in direct reaction to war ZLWK)UDQFH2SHUDWLQJIURPDQRYHUVLPSOLÀHGDQGQRWFRPSOHWHO\DFFXUDWHSLFWXUH

that functioned well for propagandistic purposes, the French were envisioned as aggressive, arrogant, rational, materialistic, and Catholic, whereas Germans were

Figure 4.19

Félice de Fauveau, Christina of Sweden Refusing to Spare the Life of Her Equerry, Monaldeschi, 1827. Terra cotta.

Musée de Louviers.

considered passive, humble, pious, spiritual, and Protestant. The largest political units of the German-speaking world—Austria (Catholic), Bavaria (Catholic), and Prussia (Lutheran)—began the Napoleonic era as rivals, and the rest of Germany was divided into a confusing array of several hundred self-governing entities, from the independent cities of Hamburg and Lübeck, ruled by elected city councils, to feudal states such as Wied and independent monasteries like Elchingen. Napoleon consolidated these LQWRSROLWLFDOXQLWVDSURFHVVLQDGYHUWHQWO\IDFLOLWDWLQJXQLÀFDWLRQLQWRD*HUPDQ

Empire, formed in 1870 under the leadership of Prussia’s Wilhelm I.

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intellectuals turned to the Middle Ages, an era when Germans were politically united during the Holy Roman Empire (800–1648), spiritually united under the uncorrupted pre-Reformation Roman Catholic Church, and socially united under the guild system, a union-like structure promoting professional solidarity and uniform work standards.

Ignoring the actualities of famine, oppression, plague, and war, Germans viewed the Middle Ages with unrealistic optimism and nostalgia, motivated by a desperate desire to ÀQGDVROXWLRQIRUPRGHUQ*HUPDQV7KH0LGGOH$JHVSUHYDLOHGDVWKHPDMRUV\PERO

of a prosperous, harmonious, and German nation throughout the nineteenth century.

This perception emerged in contemporary writings, including Goethe’s 1773 essay “On German Architecture,” in which he proclaimed Strasbourg Cathedral (located in the contested region of Alsace, then under German control) a brilliant WUDQVODWLRQLQWRVWRQHRI WKHVRDULQJÀUVRI WKH*HUPDQIRUHVW6XEVHTXHQWO\1RYDOLV·V

Christendom or Europe called for a religious revival in Germany as a prerequisite for social and political change, and both Ludwig Tieck’s The Wanderings of Franz Sternbald:

An Old German Story (1798) and Wilhelm Wackenroder’s Outpourings from the Heart of an Art-Loving Monk (written in 1797, the year before his death at age 25) celebrated the German Middle Ages. Outpourings had an enormous impact on German artists and LQWHOOHFWXDOV6HWLQWKHHLJKWHHQWKFHQWXU\WKHÀFWLRQDODXWKRULVDPRQNZKRORRNV

nostalgically back to the Middle Ages, while articulating key Romantic ideas. The monk asserts that emotion is the most important content of art—“Art can be called WKHÁRZHURI KXPDQIHHOLQJµ³DQGWKDWFUHDWLYLW\LVDGLYLQHJLIWLQWKHIRUPRI JHQLXV

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Contrary to the Neoclassical principle that ancient art is superior, Wackenroder pleaded for tolerance, arguing that the production of one culture cannot be judged by the values of another: “To Him, the Gothic temple is as pleasing as the Greek temple, and the primitive war chants of the savages are as melodious as the artistic choruses and hymns of the church” (Wackenroder 1797: 44).

The narrator also regarded the Middle Ages as a refuge for Germans:

Nürenberg, you once world-famous city—how I love to stroll your winding lanes, with what child-like affection I looked at your old-fashioned houses and churches, which are impressed with clear traces of our old, native art! How dearly I love the works of those times that speak such a strong, honest language! How they take me back into that gray century when you, Nürenberg were the inspirational school of our national art and a fertile, productive spirit of art lived and created within your walls, when … Albrecht Dürer was alive!”

(Wackenroder 1797: 47)

Albrecht Dürer (1471–1528), a native of Nürenberg and the most revered of German artists, inspired a cult in the nineteenth century. Annual celebrations of his birthday began in 1856 under the sponsorship of the newly founded German Artists’ Guild.

For many, Dürer epitomized Germanness and originated a uniquely German style of DUWWKHIXOÀOOPHQWGXULQJWKH5HQDLVVDQFHF²RI WKHVSLULWXDODQGFXOWXUDO

development of art initiated during the Gothic era.

Karl Friedrich Schinkel (1781–1841) was an architect, painter, and set designer. He studied architecture at the Royal Academy in Berlin and because there were few architectural commissions during the Napoleonic era, Schinkel turned to set design. The fantastic scale Schinkel adopted in backdrops for operas like Mozart’s Magic Flute (1815–16) emerged in paintings such as A Medieval City on a River (Figure 4.20), a painting that looks like a simple historical landscape, but has several layers of meaning. While the botanical and architectural details suggest a real place, the scene is imaginary. There are many German towns along rivers and many Gothic FDWKHGUDOVEXWQRQHKDYHWKLVSDUWLFXODUFRQÀJXUDWLRQQRWWRPHQWLRQVFDOHDOWKRXJK

Schinkel created a convincing initial impression of reality. The disproportionately large cathedral becomes the focal point, despite its off-center placement. The miniature participants in the procession are dressed in medieval costumes, and the ambiguous narrative appears to have something to do with a royal or religious procession, an interpretation suggested by the presence of a red-caped, fur-collared dignitary riding beneath a blue canopy on an equally elaborately dressed horse. Illuminated by a seemingly divine light and encircled by a rainbow after a storm, Schinkel signaled the centrality of the church, as a place and an institution, in medieval life. Because of its date, 1815, the painting can also be interpreted as a symbol of the reemergence of the German people following Napoleonic domination. Like the cathedral, the forest of ancient, gnarled oaks in the right foreground has also survived the storm. In Medieval City, Schinkel anticipated the festival of German unity held in Wartburg in 1817 to celebrate the 300th anniversary of the Reformation.

Figure 4.20

Karl Friedrich Schinkel, A Medieval City on a River, 1815.

Oil on canvas, 90 × 140 cm (2 ft 11½ in × 4 ft 7 in).

Nationalgalerie, Berlin.