Germanistics as a subversive national discipline: Secret Societies on German Universities in the Report of the Imperial and Royal. High Police Authorities (1819-1830)

Abstract

Following 1808 a number of militant nationalistic societies were founded in Germany. Their ideology was inspired by contemporary literature and Germanistics as a young national discipline and was based upon Protestantism. The main nationalistic society was burschenschaftliche Vereine - a student organisation. The mistrust of the authorities reached its apex in 1819 when a student of Erlangen Karl Ludwig Sand killed August Kotzebue executing thereby the sentence pronounced by the secret organisation. These organisations were banned, the universities were controlled by curators and the press by censorship. Up to now it has been considered that these societies did not survive the ban. We now discover that they survived the ban and existed as secret societies with a firm vertical organisation and complete obedience among their members. The aim of these societies was the ousting of the government by violent means, and the unification of Germany as a Republic. The organisational principles were taken from the German Freemasons and the Sect of the Illuminaten in the 18lh century and given to the Communist Party. In these societies, due to comparation, all form of written communication was forbidden, so police reports are the only available source.These societies were in touch with other radical societies in Europe of the time: they might have sent agents to Croatia and Montenegro and might have had a role in the Greek insurgency of 1821.