Carlsbad Decrees

Context

German liberalism, which the Carlsbad Decrees were designed in part to suppress, had its roots in the liberalism of the Enlightenment. The classic formulation of liberalism in the Age of Enlightenment, John Locke's Two Treatises of Government (1690), argues that legitimate authority depends upon the consent of the governed. In economics, Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations rejected state interventionism in favor of laissez-faire and free-market economics. Coming out of the Enlightenment, liberalism emphasized individual rights and equality of opportunity. As liberalism developed during the first half of the nineteenth century, it stressed various aspects of the creed depending upon time and place. Political liberalism encompassed support for freedom of thought and speech, freedom of religious worship, limitations on the power of government via written constitutions that contained checks and balances, the rule of law, and the right of the individual to possess private property. Most German liberals favored a united Germany; they believed that a united Germany would provide a freer social and political order. German liberals looked to either Prussia or Austria to lead that national unification and, as a result, were more tolerant of a strong state or monarchical power.

Perhaps even more than liberalism, the Carlsbad Decrees were designed to address nationalism, which conservative German leaders viewed as destructive to their particularistic interests. Modern nationalism is largely a product of the intensity of feeling aroused during the French Revolution, which began in 1789. German nationalism was fueled by the ideas of such German philosophers as Johann Gottfried Herder, who called for the territorial unification of Germany, and Johann Gottlieb Fichte, who called for German self-sufficiency. Also fueling German nationalism was the humiliation the Austrian and Prussian armies had suffered at the hands of the French army during the Napoleonic Wars, which spanned the years 1803–1815 and were led by French emperor Napoléon Bonaparte. Napoléon's greatest victory in these wars, fought to bring Europe under one rule and to eliminate hereditary monarchies, was at the Battle of Austerlitz in 1805, when he defeated the Austrians (and Russians). At the Battle of Jena in 1806, he defeated the Prussian army.

Napoléon's victories over Austria allowed him to impose his will on the German states. He created the Confederation of the Rhine (initially comprising sixteen German states) in July 1806 and then forced the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire on August 1, 1806. His victories also permitted him to occupy Berlin on October 27, 1806, and in July 1807 he signed a treaty with Prussia that forced the Prussians to surrender about half the country's territory, reduce its standing army to forty thousand, and compelled them to pay a substantial indemnity and ally with France. The French victories and Napoléon's heavy-handed treatment of the occupied and allied German states stimulated in many a desire to be free of French influence and to be united in one state. The humiliation of Prussia began the reform of Prussia, which led to the modernization of the state under the prime ministers Heinrich Friedrich Karl vom und zum Stein (Baron Stein) and Karl August Hardenberg. Prussian modernization took advantage of a growing German nationalism directed against the French and their occupation of Prussia and other German states.

Napoléon's grip on Europe and the German states began to loosen as a result of his invasion of Russia in 1812, which ended in disaster. The defection of a number of the German states forced him to mount a campaign in 1813 to bring them back into the French sphere. The War of Liberation (Befreiungskriege), the German name for what is also called the War of the Sixth Coalition, culminated in the Battle of Leipzig, also known as the Battle of the Nations, on October 16–19, 1813. French forces were forced to withdraw from east of the Rhine, and the defeat eventually led to Napoléon's abdication on April 6, 1814.

The leaders of the European nations came together in November 1814 in Vienna to settle the many issues arising from this series of wars and the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire. Peace meant the creation of a balance of power and an international framework that would ensure the future peace. The participants at Vienna sought to create a solution that the European states would accept. By embracing the forces of stability—conservatism, legitimacy, and the balance of power—the leaders at the Congress of Vienna wanted to suppress those forces that could disrupt the future status quo, forces such as nationalism and liberalism.

For the German states, the political result of the Congress of Vienna was the creation of the German Confederation. Signed on June 8, 1815, the Act of Confederation created an association of thirty-nine German states to replace the old Holy Roman Empire, which had encompassed more than three hundred. As part of the new confederation, a permanent diet (the Bundesversammlung, or Federal Convention) was established at Frankfurt. Under the presidency of Austria, this general assembly represented the sovereigns of each of the thirty-nine German states, not the people of those states. Under the constitution of the German Confederation, each state was to be independent in internal affairs, but war between the individual states was forbidden, and the consent of the confederacy was necessary for foreign war. The German Confederation had roughly the same boundaries as the Holy Roman Empire at the time of the French Revolution. The creation of the confederation frustrated the expressed desires of German nationalists.

German nationalism had blossomed during the Napoleonic Wars. The combination of nationalistic ideals, Romantic influences, and a hatred of the French and their occupation spurred support for the war against Napoléon. With the victory over the French, German students saw an opportunity to advance the nationalist cause. They founded the first of the student Burschenschaften (student fraternities) at Jena in June 1815; more were soon established at other German universities. The Burschenschaften, whose motto was “Honor, Liberty, Fatherland,” fostered liberal and nationalistic ideals. The conservative leadership of the Germanic states offered no progress toward the students' goal of a united Germany. Therefore, students staged the Wartburg Festival in October 1817; it gave the nationalist students an opportunity to express their frustration with the leaders of the Germanic states for the lack of progress in the creation of a German nation. Over five hundred people celebrated the three hundredth anniversary of Martin Luther's posting of his Ninety-five Theses and the victory over Napoléon at the Battle of Leipzig. At the bonfire that marked the high point of the celebration, students consigned various symbols of the old order to the flames, including Kotzebue's Geschichte des deutschen Reichs (History of the German Empires). The festival was attended by Karl Ludwig Sand, who was a member of several of the Burschenschaften. This festival has been characterized as the first public protest against the decisions of the Congress of Vienna.

Two years later, in March 1819, Sand murdered Kotzebue, who was reputed to have ridiculed the Burschenschaften and whom Sand considered a traitor. Metternich used Kotzebue's murder to pressure the members of the German Confederation into acting against what were perceived to be threats against the conservative order established at the Congress of Vienna and to issue the Carlsbad Decrees. The Carlsbad Decrees proved to be Metternich's most effective weapon against the students and the press in the fight against liberalism and nationalism.