After the Uprising: Obrigkeit Regained

Abstract

Two features of Lindavian politics after the uprising stand out in particular. First, the institutional presence and political significance of Lindau’s eight guilds is remarkable. After all, these guilds had ceased to exist, officially, nearly 70 years earlier.¹ Second, the period of postuprising politics was characterized by exaggerated expressions of ‘constitutionalism’. On the one hand, Lindau’s rulers strove to reestablish the integrity of their sovereign authority (Obrigkeit). On the other hand, strong bourgeois republican expression continued, especially in the form of demands for consultative government which was both open to public scrutiny and responsible, ultimately, to the citizenry.