History UsefulNotes / AllTheLittleGermanies

* AmazingTechnicolorWorld: As an exhibition demonstrated a few years ago, people in the Biedermeier really liked bright colours, creating wallpapers and upholstery decorated in bright complementary colours (purple-yellow, red-green, blue-orange) as popularized by Creator/JohannWolfgangVonGoethe in his theory of colours. This was partially facilitated by the emergence of new artificial, industrially pigments. Some of these, most famously [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_Green Schweinfurt Green]] turned out to be highly toxic, however.

* MurderMystery: One of the new genres of the era, pioneered by E.T.A. Hoffmann's ''Das Fräulein von Scuderi'' (1819) and ''Die Judenbuche'' (1842) by Annette von Droste-Hülshoff.

* {{Oktoberfest}}: The first one was held in Munich in 1810 to celebrate the wedding of Crown Prince Ludwig of Bavaria and Princess Therese; [[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness the main event was a horse-race]]. After the Napoleonic Wars it became the annual popular fair we know today. The first ''Oktoberfest'' also for the first time created interest in traditional folk dress. However, these still looked rather different from the ones associated with Bavaria today; for instance the ''Dirndl'' dress only began to emerge in the 1880s and 1890s. During the early and mid-1800s, ''Lederhosen'' were almost exclusively worn by hunters, being too expensive for everyday wear (Bavarian peasants wore cloth trousers to work, which rather resembled the ones tailored by a Bavarian emigrant to America, Levi Strauss.

* {{Ruritania}}: The Hollywood version of this.

* SpareToTheThrone: If anyone had a princeling they couldn't figure out what to do with they dumped him here. If one of the royal families here had one of these they dumped them somewhere else. As a result, almost every monarchy in Europe had/has some minor German prince in the ancestry--if indeed the royal family wasn't already of German origin (such as the HouseOfHanover).

* TooGoodForThisSinfulEarth: Given the contemporary state of public medicine and occasional epidemics (e. g. typhoid during the Napoleonic Wars, cholera in the 1830s), it is not surprising that quite a number of famous creators died at a young age, for instance painter Philipp Otto Runge (1777-1810), composers Carl Maria von Weber (1786-1826), Music/FelixMendelssohn (1809-1847) and Music/FranzSchubert (1797-1828), and writers Heinrich von Kleist (1777-1811, suicide), Christian Dietrich Grabbe (1801-1836), Wilhelm Hauff (1802-1827), and Georg Büchner (1813-1837) did not reach 40.

* FunnyForeigner: Germany, especially the newly "discovered" Rhine valley and the Elbe valley south of Dresden, began to attract much larger numbers of foreign tourists than ever before, including e. g. Creator/VictorHugo, Creator/HansChristianAndersen, and painter J.M.W. Turner. This led to foreign tourists, especially excentric Englishmen with more money than sense to become popular comedy figures in various German media.

* {{Ruritania}}

* SpareToTheThrone: If anyone had a princeling they couldn't figure out what to do with they dumped him here. If one of the royal families here had one of these they dumped them somewhere else. As a result, almost every monarchy in Europe had/has some minor German prince in the ancestry--if indeed the royal family wasn't a cadet branch of some German state or other.
** Britain was particularly fond of marrying German princelings. From the accession of [[TheHouseOfHanover George I]] until quite recently, the British monarchs fairly consistently married only German consorts, with the occasional Dane for flavour--and the Danish monarchs come from a branch of German house of Oldenburg, namely that of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg.

* ''Film/TheEnigmaOfKasparHauser'': Based on the life of the real-life case, one of the great unsolved mysteries of the era.

* PrussiansInPickelhauben: The ''Pickelhaube'' helmet (in a much larger size than the models worn in 1870 or 1914) was introduced as the new standard headdress of the Prussian army shortly after Frederick William IV's accession to the throne in 1840. The 1840s also saw the introduction of the Dreyse needle-gun, one of the first standard breech-loading rifles.

* TooGoodForThisSinfulEarth: Given the contemporary state of public medicine and occasional epidemics (e. g. typhoid during the Napoleonic Wars, cholera in the 1830s), it is not surprising that quite a number of famous creators died at a young age, for instance painter Philipp Otto Runge, composers Music/FelixMendelssohnBartholdy and Music/FranzSchubert, writers Heinrich von Kleist (1777-1811, suicide).

* The ''Deutschlandlied'' by August Hoffman von Fallersleben, which went on to become the national anthem of Germany. It was sparked by the Rhine Crisis of 1840, when French sabre-rattling led to an upsurge in German nationalism that also spawned "The Watch on the Rhine".

* ''Deutschlandlied'', which went on to become the national anthem of Germany.

* ''Literature/TheNutcrackerAndTheMouseKing'' and many other works of Creator/ETAHoffmann.

The Romantic movement, which never really had a coherent political philosophy and which always had a huge interest in the past, indulged its nostalgic tendencies during the Biedermeier, often encouraged by monarchs who themselves felt that way, like Ludwig I of Bavaria and Frederick William IV of Prussia. The time of [[TheHighMiddleAges the Hohenstaufen]] was exalted as Germany's [[YeGoodeOldeDays Golden Age]], the exploration of traditional culture in the form of folk-lore and folk-music was encouraged as the proper expression of national sentiments, and religion took on the style, if not the substance, of [[ChristianityIsCatholic Roman Catholicism]], even among Protestants such as the painter Caspar David Friedrich. (A particular embodiment of this impulse was the recommencement, with the warm approval of Frederick William IV, of construction on the Catholic cathedral of Köln, abandoned in the sixteenth century.) However, at the same time the German states did make significant progress in other fields, notably in science, education, and industry. On the economic front, Prussia took the lead in replacing the outmoded forms (guilds, privileged enterprises etc.) with capitalist free enterprise and the removal of inner-Prussian and inner-German customs barriers. By 1854 most of the territories that would form the German Empire of 1871 (with the exception of Schleswig-Holstein, Mecklenburg and the Hanseatic cities) had joined the Prussian-led Deutsche Zollverein (customs union). Thus the economic union preceded the political one. However, industrialization and the introduction of a free market was accompanied by economic hardship in many places, which e. g. led to revolts by impoverished hand-weavers in Silesia in the 1830s and which became an important "push" factor that made Germans the most numerous group of immigrants to the United States during the mid-19th century, just ahead of the Irish.

The flip side of ''Restauration'' during the Biedermeier period is called ''Vormärz'', "Before-March", referring to the European Revolution that broke out in Germany in March 1848. ''Vormärz'' refers to the diverse oppositional movements of the time: liberals, democrats, nationalists, early socialists etc., often associated with student societies (''Burschenschaften''). Discontent with the stagnation of the political development at home, many of them went to exile in Paris or Brussels after the Revolutions of 1830 and 1831. A wind of change did sweep through Germany in 1848 and 1849, and for the first time Germans (well, German men at any rate) elected a National Assembly, which convened in Frankfurt and framed a constitution. However, the attempt to set up a German national state failed, as Prussia, Austria and many other states the old monarchs, who never had entirely lost the hold over their armies, regained control of the situation. The last remnants of the more radical revolutionaries were put down with harsh military force, and many of them went into exile. Many of them ended up in the United States, where they became known as "Forty-Eighters", associated with the radical abolitionist wing of the nascent Republican party and went on to fight [[AmericanCivilWar another war for freedom]] some years later. Others ended up in Switzerland, like Music/RichardWagner, or in London, like Creator/KarlMarx. Nevertheless, the dream of a united Germany lived on.

In popular culture, the unrest of this time period is all but ignored. AllTheLittleGermanies, so far as fiction is concerned, is pure ''Gemüthlichkeit'', with lots of diplomats waltzing in embroidered tailcoats and silk stockings, ''Burschen'' dueling (as often with large Steins of Pilsner as with sabres), mob-capped grandmothers telling fairy tales, blue-eyed peasant maidens singing folk songs (especially [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZdOUWbYnsFA Die Lorelei]] [[note]]Although that one is NOT a folk song. The Lorelay as a fair maiden dooming passing boats was a contemporary invention which afterwards got [[NewerThanTheyThink misrepresented as folklore]][[/note]]), and dozens of aristocratic Uhlans and Hussars in multi-colored uniforms to woo them.

* ChewToy: Germany isn't really the country you think of as a ChewToy. But because of its disunity and its unpleasant position right in the middle of Europe between-well-everyone, it ended up as the traditional battleground of Europe. This spurred along the desire to create ImperialGermany.
** Interestingly, during that time German soldiers tended to be respected greatly but most German states, because of their small size were despised and wars between great powers often centered on making [[PuppetState puppets]] out of them.

The flip side of ''Restauration'' during the Biedermeier period is called ''Vormärz'', "Before-March", referring to the European Revolution that broke out in Germany in March 1848. ''Vormärz'' refers to the diverse oppositional movements of the time: liberals, democrats, nationalists, early socialists etc. However, an intense desire for political unity remained, coupled with an increasingly passionate rebelliousness against the despotism, not only of the German princes, but of the growing class of wealthy industrialists. The year 1848 would see wide-spread Revolution throughout Germany, spearheaded by the numerous student societies (''Burschenschaften'') followed by widespread and brutal repression. Nevertheless, the dream of a united Germany lived on.

The Romantic impulse, which in the Revolutionary and Napoleonic periods had encouraged innovation, was channeled in AllTheLittleGermanies into a powerful nostalgia for the past. The time of [[TheHighMiddleAges the Hohenstaufen]] was exalted as Germany's [[YeGoodeOldeDays Golden Age]], the exploration of traditional culture in the form of folk-lore and folk-music was encouraged as the proper expression of nationalist sentiments, and religion took on the style, if not the substance, of [[ChristianityIsCatholic Roman Catholicism]], even among Protestants such as the painter Caspar David Friedrich. (A particular embodiment of this impulse was the recommencement, with the warm approval of Frederick William IV of {{Prussia}}, of construction on the Catholic cathedral of Köln, abandoned in the sixteenth century.) However, at the same time the German states did make significant progress in other fields, notably in science, education, and industry. On the economic front, Prussia took the lead in replacing the outmoded forms (guilds, privileged enterprises etc.) with capitalist free enterprise and the removal of inner-Prussian and inner-German customs barriers. By 1854 most of the territories that would form the German Empire of 1871 (with the exception of Schleswig-Holstein, Mecklenburg and the Hanseatic cities) had joined the Prussian-led Deutsche Zollverein (customs union). Thus the economic union preceded the political one.

However, an intense desire for political unity remained, coupled with an increasingly passionate rebelliousness against the despotism, not only of the German princes, but of the growing class of wealthy industrialists. The year 1848 would see wide-spread Revolution throughout Germany, spearheaded by the numerous student societies (''Burschenschaften'') followed by widespread and brutal repression. Nevertheless, the dream of a united Germany lived on.

Instead of a national state the Germans got the fairly loose German Confederation (''Deutscher Bund''), which consisted of 42 states (38 monarchies and four free cities), or more correctly, states and parts of states, as e. g. big chunks of Prussia and Austria lay outside its borders. The Confederation's legislative debating forum, the ''Bundestag'', unlike its [[PoliticalSystemOfGermany modern namesake]], was a no more than a permanent conference of ambassadors. It soon enabled Metternich to institute repressive measures to protect the ''[[StatusQuoIsGod status quo]] in Germany and Europe and to combat revolutionary and nationalist movements. This was institutionalized in the Karlsbad decrees of 1819, which most notably involved a tightening of the screws in the censorship of newspapers, periodicals and books. This aspect of the ''Biedermeier'' period goes under the headline of "Restoration" (''Restauration''), and some of the smaller states took it to ludicrous extreme. For instance in Electoral Hesse (''Kurhessen'', capital Kassel) it was even attempted for a time to restore the pre-1806 pigtails and to forbid state officials from wearing "seditious" moustaches.

Instead of a national state the Germans got the fairly loose German Confederation (''Deutscher Bund''), which consisted of 42 states. Metternich, to maintain the [[StatusQuoIsGod ''status quo'']] in Germany and Europe, [[TheUnfettered would not hesitate]] to [[ManipulativeBastard encourage the use of trickery and repression.]]

The powerful nineteenth century impulse toward Nationalism spurred efforts to secure the establishment of a single German nation. Nevertheless, the desire for peace of Germans exhausted by a quarter century of war, the fears of German Catholics of a too dominant Protestant Prussia and of German Protestants of a too dominant Catholic Austria, and the unwillingness of foreign powers such as England, Russia, and France to see the emergence of a powerful Central European empire, were exploited by [[SmugSnake unscrupulous ministers]] (such as the Anglo-Irish Castlereagh, the Russian Nesselrode, the [[ManipulativeBastard wily Frenchman Talleyrand]], the Prussian Hardenberg, and the [[TheChessmaster influential Austrian Metternich]]) to promote the interests of their own sovereigns. Metternich, to maintain the [[StatusQuoIsGod ''status quo'']] in Germany and Europe, [[TheUnfettered would not hesitate]] to [[ManipulativeBastard encourage the use of trickery and repression.]]

* Any version of the story of the ''[[Creator/TheBrothersGrimm Brüder Grimm]]'' (e.g., ''The Brothers Grimm'' and ''The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm'')

* ''Les Contes d'Hoffmann''

* The Viennese comedies of Ferdinand Raimund and Johann Nestroy (until 1866 Vienna still belonged to the German Confederation)

* The ''Literature/SixteenThirtyTwo'' series drops, via AlienSpaceBats screwing around with the space-time continuum as art, a West Virginia coal mining town from the 20th century into the middle of the Germanies during the UsefulNotes/ThirtyYearsWar. In various places it's discussed how the "Germany" that the West Virginians know is nowhere near as singular in the 17th century, with one of the goals of their leader, Michael Stearns, being to head off the history that lead to the formation of a Germany that would eventually evolve into UsefulNotes/NaziGermany.

* ArrangedMarriage: Still very much the standard for members of ruling houses, but also for the upper and middle classes, despite the idea of marrying for love gaining ground thanks to its fictional portrayals.

* ArrangedMarriage: Royalty would give away ''whole countries'' as dowries here. Of course, sometimes the country was smaller than a city...but it's the status that counts.

** When new thrones were created or old ones became vacant, people would often look for a German prince to sit on it. Thus in 1831 newly-independent UsefulNotes/{{Belgium}} selected Leopold of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha as its new king, and a year later the [[UsefulNotes/{{Greece}} Greeks]] did the same with Otto of Bavaria. Later they became discontented with him, deposed him and in 1862 chose the Prince George of Denmark as his successor. Later that decade the possibility that a prince from a Catholic side-branch of the House of Hohenzollern might become king of Spain was one of the factors that led to the [[UsefulNotes/FrancoPrussianWar Franco-German War]] in 1870.