Old Germany

It is not without significance that after 1945 the founding fathers of the movement for European Union looked to the supra-national federative structures and institutions of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation for inspiration as a role model or precursor. This module will examine the constitutional, political and cultural natures of the Empire and the historiographical debates concerning its viability. Within this context, the module will analyse the rise of ‘imperial patriotism’ and early German national consciousness, the emergence of the ‘balance of power‘ in International Relations after 1648, the German Enlightenment and Cultural Renaissance in the princely courts, the rise of Brandenburg-Prussia, the evolution of Austro-Prussian Dualism and the bi-polarisation of the German world between Vienna and Berlin.