Latest / The History of Germany: Kingdoms, War, and Rebuilding Europe — Fexingo History / Vormärz Censorship: How Germany Tried to Silence Its Writers
Transcript
- Lucas: So we've talked a lot about the Burschenschaften and the Wartburg Festival in previous episodes — how students were pushing for a unified Germany and liberal reforms. But what often gets overlooked is the backlash that followed, especially the censorship regime that the German Confederation put in place after 1819. Luna: Right, the Carlsbad Decrees. I remember that came after Kotzebue's assassination. Lucas: Exactly. August von Kotzebue was a conservative playwright and Russian agent, and when a Burschenschaft student named Karl Ludwig Sand murdered him in 1819, it gave Metternich the perfect excuse to crack down. The Carlsbad Decrees, issued that August, dissolved the Burschenschaften, imposed strict censorship on newspapers and books, and created a central investigation commission in Mainz to hunt down 'demagogues' — anyone suspected of liberal or nationalist ideas. Lucas: And this censorship wasn't just about newspapers. It covered everything — pamphlets, books, even songs. Publishers had to submit everything to pre-publication review. If something slipped through, they could lose their license or face imprisonment. Luna: So basically, the state was trying to control what people could even read or think. Lucas: That's exactly it. And it's a fascinating period because it shows how hard it is to suppress ideas. The censorship actually had the opposite effect — it radicalised people. Writers like Heinrich Heine and Georg Büchner had to publish abroad or use veiled language, which made their work even more biting. Heine's 'Germany: A Winter's Tale' was written in Paris and smuggled into the German states. Lucas: But first — and I'll keep this brief — if today's episode felt worth a coffee to you, there's a link at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. It's the smallest way to keep the show ad-free and independent. No pressure, just if it feels right. Luna: Yeah, honestly, if you get something out of these conversations, that's the place. Lucas: So back to the censorship. The Mainz Central Investigation Commission ran for nearly thirty years, from 1819 to 1848. It collected files on thousands of suspected demagogues. But the system had a fatal flaw — it was too broad. It targeted anyone who seemed even mildly critical, from professors to booksellers to students. And that created a lot of resentment. Luna: Did any famous writers get caught up in it? Lucas: Absolutely. Heinrich Heine was under constant surveillance. His books were banned in many German states. He moved to Paris in 1831 and never really came back. Georg Büchner, who wrote 'Woyzeck' and 'The Hessian Courier', was forced to flee after publishing a revolutionary pamphlet. He died in exile in Switzerland at just 23. Lucas: The censorship also affected the language of the time. Writers developed what you might call a coded vocabulary. They'd write about ancient Greece or medieval knights when they really meant modern Germany. Or they'd use irony and satire to slip past the censors. It's one reason why German literature from the Vormärz period is so rich in double meanings. Luna: So the censors actually made the writing more creative? Lucas: In a way, yes. But it also crushed a lot of voices. Not everyone could afford to publish abroad or had the connections. And the threat was real — people were imprisoned. The poet Hoffmann von Fallersleben, who wrote 'Das Lied der Deutschen', lost his professorship and was exiled for years. Lucas: By the 1840s, the censorship was breaking down. The states couldn't agree on enforcement, smugglers brought banned books in from France and Switzerland, and the public was hungry for news. When the revolutions broke out in 1848, one of the first demands everywhere was freedom of the press. Luna: So the system that was supposed to prevent revolution actually helped cause one. Lucas: Exactly. It's a classic lesson in how repression can backfire. The Carlsbad Decrees were renewed in 1824 and 1834, but by the 1840s they were widely ignored. Still, they left a mark — the idea of a police state watching over intellectuals became a lasting trope in German culture. Luna: It's strange to think that something like book-burning at the Wartburg Festival in 1817 was a student protest, but then the state used that as an excuse to ban books entirely. Lucas: Right — the Wartburg book-burning was against conservative and reactionary texts, but the authorities lumped all independent thought together. And that's the tragedy of the Vormärz: the German Confederation, which was supposed to maintain order, ended up alienating the very people who might have worked within the system. By 1848, the moderate liberals had become revolutionaries alongside the radicals. Luna: So what happened to the Mainz Commission after the revolution? Lucas: It was dissolved in 1848, along with the Carlsbad Decrees. The Frankfurt Parliament guaranteed press freedom in its constitution, though that constitution never took effect. But the censorship never fully returned in the same form. By the time Bismarck came to power, the approach was different — more targeted, though still repressive. Lucas: The whole episode is a reminder that controlling information is never as easy as it seems. Every banned book becomes more desirable. Every silenced voice finds a way to speak. Luna: And it shaped German literature for decades to come. Lucas: Absolutely. The Vormärz writers — Heine, Büchner, Freiligrath, Herwegh — they became symbols of resistance. And their works are still read today, partly because they had to fight so hard to get them out.