Colloquium: No King Asleep in the Mountain. Love and Hatred for the German Monarchy since 1918

  • Datum: 14.12.2021
  • Uhrzeit: 17:00
  • Vortragende(r): Stefan Malinowski, University of Edinburgh
  • Ort: online
  • Gastgeber: Forschungsbereich Geschichte der Gefühle

The Center for the History of Emotions at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin, led by Prof. Ute Frevert, cordially presents its winter semester 2021/2022 colloquium:

Stephan Malinowski, University of Edinburgh

No King Asleep Inside the Mountain. Love and Hatred for the German Monarchy after 1918

For as long as they have existed, monarchies have had constitutional, symbolic and emotional components. While revolutions might abolish the constitutional and ritual components in the blink of an eye, the emotional parts are difficult or even impossible to abolish. Monarchies tend to continue to exist for decades or even centuries in collective memory, in counter-revolutionary movements and in the emotions of even those born after their fall. The sudden breakdown of the German monarchy in November 1918, the flight of the emperor and his oldest son across the Dutch border, tied in with one of the deepest cuts in modern German history. As history tends to be written by the victors, the history of the anti-republican right, of hatred for the republic, of longing for the Führer has been written by the victors within the German right, i.e. National Socialism. The monarchy is treated by much of the literature as if it had "disappeared" in November 1918. The emotional ties to the Kaiser and his family present in all classes, the everyday struggles over flags, marches, buildings, rituals, objects, castles, and the immense wealth of the German princes seem to prove the opposite. From the flood of letters to the emperor's Dutch exile, the tabloid press, the annual meetings of the powerful Deutscher Herrenklub, the republican blend of mockery, anger and fear, to the general blossoming of the desire for a leader figure, the monarchist milieu has been largely neglected and forgotten. The talk is based on a new study of the Hohenzollerns from 1918 to the present, which sees itself as a contribution to the cultural history of the German right. The talk will attempt to discuss the significance of the history of emotions for the analysis of a milieu that has only outwardly 'perished'.​​​​​

Stephan Malinowski, born and raised in West Berlin, has studied and taught at universities in Berlin (HU/FU/TU), France (Montpellier), Italy (EUI Florence), the US (Harvard), and Ireland (Dublin). He teaches Modern European History at the University of Edinburgh. He works on the history of the German right, particularly of the German nobility in the 20th century and on European colonialism and its 'modernizing missions'.

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Meeting number: 2744 128 1753
Meeting password: awA3YbMJG34

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