Latest / The History of Germany: Kingdoms, War, and Rebuilding Europe — Fexingo History / The Wartburg Festival: Germany's Forgotten Birth of Nationalism
Transcript
- Lucas: So we've talked a lot about the big political moves — Bismarck, the Zollverein, the 1848 parliament. But I think there's a moment that really captures the raw emotion behind German unification, and it happens decades before any of that. Luna: You mean the Wartburg Festival? I've heard the name, but I don't actually know what happened there. Lucas: Exactly. October 1817. Five hundred students from across the German states gather at Wartburg Castle near Eisenach. They're there to celebrate two anniversaries: the tercentenary of Luther's 95 Theses and the fourth anniversary of the Battle of Leipzig, where the German states helped defeat Napoleon. So it's a double celebration — religious freedom and national liberation. Luna: And these students were part of the Burschenschaften, right? The student fraternities we talked about in episode 42. Lucas: Right. The Burschenschaften were founded in Jena in 1815. They were explicitly political — they wanted a unified German nation-state with a constitution, freedom of speech, and civil rights. And the Wartburg Festival was their first big public statement. They marched to the castle, sang hymns, listened to speeches, and then — at night — they held a bonfire where they burned symbols of the old order. Luna: What did they burn? I've heard about book burnings, but this was before the Nazis. Lucas: Very different context. They burned a corporal's stick — symbolizing military discipline — a military corset, a wig, and a book. The book was 'History of the German Empire' by a conservative historian named August von Kotzebue. They saw him as a reactionary and a spy for the Russian Tsar. But the key thing is: they weren't burning books for being 'un-German' like the Nazis would later. They were burning symbols of authoritarianism and foreign influence. Luna: Still, burning books feels ominous. Even if the intentions were different. Lucas: Absolutely. And it's worth noting that the festival itself was mostly peaceful and idealistic. The main speech was given by Heinrich von Gagern — a student leader who would later become president of the Frankfurt Parliament in 1848. He called for a 'free, united Germany' and invoked Luther as a symbol of German spirit. The whole thing was deeply Protestant, too. Wartburg was where Luther had hidden after the Diet of Worms. So the students were framing nationalism as a kind of secular Reformation. Luna: How did the authorities react? I can't imagine Metternich was thrilled. Lucas: He wasn't. The festival terrified conservative rulers across Europe. Metternich, the Austrian chancellor, saw it as the first spark of revolution. And two years later, in 1819, when a Burschenschaft member named Karl Ludwig Sand assassinated August von Kotzebue — the same writer whose book they'd burned — Metternich had his excuse. He pushed through the Carlsbad Decrees, which banned the Burschenschaften, censored the press, and put universities under strict surveillance. Luna: So the backlash killed the movement. But the idea survived? Lucas: It went underground, but it never died. The Burschenschaften continued in secret, and their ideas about national unity and constitutionalism fed directly into the 1848 revolutions. Many of the men who led the Frankfurt Parliament — including Gagern — were former Burschenschaft members. So the Wartburg Festival is this strange, contradictory event: idealistic and naive, but also powerful enough to shape German politics for a generation. Luna: It's interesting how a single bonfire could have such a long shadow. Lucas: Exactly. And it's one of those moments where you can see the emotional core of nationalism — the desire for a people to be recognized, to have a voice. And speaking of voices that matter, I want to mention something about how we keep this show going. We deliberately don't run ads on these episodes. No sponsors, no commercials. If that kind of independence matters to you, there's a simple way to support it — buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. No pressure, just a way to keep the history ad-free. Luna: Yeah, I think that's part of why these conversations feel so genuine. We're not selling anything. Just sharing what we find fascinating. Lucas: So back to Wartburg. After the Carlsbad Decrees, many Burschenschaft members were arrested or driven into exile. But the festival itself became a kind of founding myth for German nationalism. Later in the 19th century, it was remembered as the moment when the people first spoke. And even today, the black red gold flag — which the students carried at Wartburg — is the flag of Germany. Luna: Wait, the flag came from that? I thought it was from the 1848 revolution. Lucas: The colors themselves go back to the Lützow Free Corps in the Napoleonic Wars — black uniforms with red trim and gold buttons. But the Burschenschaften adopted them as a political symbol. At Wartburg, they flew a black red gold flag. So you can trace that line directly from 1817 to the Weimar Republic and the modern flag. It's a through-line of liberal nationalism. Luna: So in a way, the Wartburg Festival was the first public display of what would become the German nation-state. Lucas: Exactly. It was amateurish, romantic, and in some ways naive. But it planted a seed. And while Bismarck would later unify Germany under Prussian authoritarianism, that wasn't the only vision. The Wartburg Festival represents a different path — one based on popular sovereignty and civil liberties. A path that, as we know, would take much longer to realize.