Defeat and Foreign Rule as a Narrative of National Rebirth — The German Memory of the Napoleonic Period in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries

Abstract

The Napoleonic period has played a crucial role in Germany’s cultural memory1 since the end of the anti-Napoleonic Wars. Between 1795 and 1805, Prussia had preserved its neutrality in the succeeding coalition wars. In 1806, it entered war against France, and on the 14 October its army experienced a disastrous defeat in the double battle of Jena and Auerstedt. About 20,000 Prussian and Saxon soldiers were killed or wounded, 13,000 were captured. The double battle proved that the Prussian army was outdated, poorly trained and inflexibly led. On the 27 October, Napoleon and his troops entered Berlin, while the Prussian king and his family fled eastwards. This disaster caused an enormous shock.2 In the treaty of Tilsit in July 1807, Prussia remained an autonomous state, but it lost half of its territories. It was occupied by French troops and charged with heavy contributions. In the following years, the leading ministers Stein and Hardenberg enacted a wide-ranging modernization programme that included reforms of government, administration, agriculture, trade, taxation, military and education.3