Vormärz

The Vormärz period has a bad reputation. The years between 1815 and 1848 are considered an age of restoration and repression, a lost transitional period that followed the upheavals of the French Revolution and Napoleonic rule. However, during this time, the foundations for the rapid modernization that Germany underwent in the second half of the century were also laid in many fields. Wilhelm Bleek brings the Vormärz era out of its shadowy existence and allows it to come alive again in its fascinating diversity and contradictions. Culturally, the years of the Vormärz are seen as a time of Biedermeier, during which the German "Michel" retreated into the private sphere, donning a bathrobe and a nightcap, indulging in a comfortable bourgeois respectability. Yet at the same time, the bourgeoisie displayed a significant self-confidence, promoted innovations, and caused considerable headaches for the authorities through a vibrant association culture. Goethe wrote the second part of Faust, the first railway lines were established, the telegraph was invented, natural scientists organized and connected in new ways, singing societies provoked with national songs, universities emerged, and the Prussian king stirred national hopes with the resumption of work on Cologne Cathedral. The era culminated in the failed revolution of 1848/49. However, beyond this failure, it laid the groundwork for Germany's emergence into modernity.