It is a history book in the style of English authors who have written significant works on Germany's past. Certainly, my readers are familiar with Christopher Clark and his bestseller The Sleepwalkers. Still, Roger Chickering has also written a definitive work on World War I with his book set in Freiburg, The Great War, and Urban Life in Germany. I also want to mention Peter H. Wilson's Europe's Tragedy, one of the most readable books on the Thirty Years' War.
For The Flame of Freedom, Bong used essentially primary sources, and yet it did not become an academic work but a book as exciting as a novel that I did not want to put down. And I learned some things about the 1848 Revolution that I hadn't thought of that way before. For example, the common rope the German revolutionaries initially pulled in March 1848 was soon unraveled. Eventually, everyone at their end pulled in a different direction; indeed, the constitutionalists and the radicals fought each other to the death.
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| Professor Wehner, Dr. Lange, and Jörg. Bong |
First, the author read the dramatic beginning of his book about the escape of the citizen king Louis-Philippe to England.
"At noon on February 24, he fled Paris after his forced abdication, lest he ends up like other royales before him in revolutions: on the guillotine."
"Poor Louis Philippe! To take up the walking stick again at such an advanced age! And to fog-cold England, where the jams of exile taste doubly bitter," notes perkily a German poet, the most famous of the era, Heinrich Heine, ironic consummate of Romanticism. Politically persecuted, wanted by all German states, in exile in Paris for a quarter of a century."
Then Jana Lang turned to the main course questioning the author.
According to Jörg Bong, there were four main reasons for the revolutionary movements throughout Europe, especially in Germany, where harsh political unfreedom had prevailed since the Carlsbad Resolutions. Metternich's surveillance system massively restricted freedom of assembly and of the press.
Still, Baden remained progressive. The Ständehaus in Karlsruhe was the first building in Germany dedicated to a parliament. The constitution was the most liberal in Germany but became increasingly constricted by federal laws implementing the Carlsbad Resolutions.
Many non-conformist Germans had to flee abroad. In Paris alone, 62,000 Germans lived on the eve of the 1848 Revolution.
The second reason, which often recedes into the background, was the catastrophic social conditions in Germany. This was a taboo subject then and still is today. Out of a population of 35 million, 10 to 15 million people lived in sometimes abject poverty. Robert Blum impressively reported about the impoverishment and called it the Black Hell.
A third reason was German fragmentation. On the eve of the revolution, the
German territory comprised 34 independent states and four free cities. Yet, the Germans had a sense of togetherness and an urge for unity.
The fourth reason was a general cultural unease among many Germans. While industrialization was already well advanced in England and France, Medieval social structures still prevailed extensively in German lands, i.e., imported steam locomotives and steamships met feudalism.
Alongside Friedrich Hecker and Gustav Struve, Joseph Fickler, the publisher of the progressive Seeblätter in Constance, is the driving force behind democracy. When the Baden Landtag deputy Karl Mathy arrests him personally and illegally, Struve and Hecker fear the same fate. They flee, and the latter starts his armed uprising in Constance and his march to Karlsruhe.
According to Bong's view, he starts too late. There was only a window of time from March 10 to March 29 in which democracy would have fallen like a ripe fruit. But Hecker and Struve hesitate, first founding Germany's first democratic party and wanting to hold a referendum on the form of the future government.
Indeed, from April 8, Interior Minister Johann Baptist Bekk sets the tone in Baden, "Hunt the democrats!" To this end, he deploys 40,000 troops from Baden, Württemberg, Hesse, and Prussia.
The fourth reason was a general cultural unease among many Germans. While industrialization was already well advanced in England and France, Medieval social structures still prevailed extensively in German lands, i.e., imported steam locomotives and steamships met feudalism.
Alongside Friedrich Hecker and Gustav Struve, Joseph Fickler, the publisher of the progressive Seeblätter in Constance, is the driving force behind democracy. When the Baden Landtag deputy Karl Mathy arrests him personally and illegally, Struve and Hecker fear the same fate. They flee, and the latter starts his armed uprising in Constance and his march to Karlsruhe.
According to Bong's view, he starts too late. There was only a window of time from March 10 to March 29 in which democracy would have fallen like a ripe fruit. But Hecker and Struve hesitate, first founding Germany's first democratic party and wanting to hold a referendum on the form of the future government.
Indeed, from April 8, Interior Minister Johann Baptist Bekk sets the tone in Baden, "Hunt the democrats!" To this end, he deploys 40,000 troops from Baden, Württemberg, Hesse, and Prussia.
One could sense and see Bong's ardent passion telling with all his knowledge how it all began in 1848. So Jana Lang had to remind him not to forget the role of women in the 1848 Revolution. Indeed, Amalie Struve, Emma Herwegh, Mathilde Franziska Anneke, Louise Aston, and Johanna Kinkel are just the tip of the iceberg. At that time, women at all levels fought for democracy and women's suffrage.
As with all other events commemorating the 175th anniversary of the 1848 Revolution, Bong's further remarks revolved around preserving democracy that can no longer be taken for granted today.
Democracy must not only be vigilant but also be defended, especially when democratic freedoms are once again being questioned in Europe and authoritarianism is rearing its head. Right-wing populists and extremists are gaining in popularity. In some states of the European Union, fundamental rights such as freedom of the press and independence of the judiciary are restricted.
The
failed revolution of 1848 is a source of inspiration, courage, and freedom. It is a message and a reminder to us.
The Flame of Freedom is the first volume of Bong's trilogy about the German Revolution of 1848/1849. The two subsequent books, Days of Decision and Freedom or Death, are scheduled for publication by 2024. Red Baron is looking forward.
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