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Romantic nationalism (alsonational romanticism,organic nationalism,identity nationalism) is the form ofnationalism in which the state claims itspolitical legitimacy as an organic consequence of the unity of those it governs. This includes such factors as language,race, ethnicity, culture, religion, and customs of the nation in its primal sense of those who were born within its culture. It can be applied toethnic nationalism as well ascivic nationalism. Romantic nationalism arose in reaction to dynastic or imperialhegemony, which assessed the legitimacy of the state from the top down, emanating from amonarch or other authority, which justified its existence. Such downward-radiating power might ultimately derive from agod or gods(see thedivine right of kings and theMandate of Heaven).[1][2]
Among the key themes ofRomanticism, and its most enduring legacy, the cultural assertions of romantic nationalism have also been central inpost-Enlightenment art and political philosophy. From its earliest stirrings, with their focus on the development of national languages andfolklore, and the spiritual value of local customs and traditions, to the movements that would redraw the map of Europe and lead to calls forself-determination of nationalities, nationalism was one of the key issues in Romanticism, determining its roles, expressions and meanings. Romantic nationalism, resulting from this interaction between cultural production and political thought, became "the celebration of the nation (defined in its language, history and cultural character) as an inspiring ideal for artistic expression; and the instrumentalization of that expression in political consciousness-raising".[3]
Historically in Europe, the watershed year for romantic nationalism was 1848,[citation needed] whena revolutionary wave spread across the continent; numerousnationalistic revolutions occurred in various fragmented regions (such as Italy) or multinational states (such as theAustrian Empire). While initially the revolutions fell toreactionary forces and the old order was quickly re-established, the many revolutions would mark the first step towardsliberalisation and the formation of modernnation states across much of Europe.
In the Balkans, Romantic views of a connection withclassical Greece, which inspiredPhilhellenism infused theGreek War of Independence (1821–30), in which the Romantic poetLord Byron died of high fever.Rossini's operaWilliam Tell (1829) marked the onset of theRomantic opera, using the centralnational myth unifying Switzerland; and in Brussels, a riot (August 1830) after an opera that set a doomed romance against a background of foreign oppression (Auber'sLa Muette de Portici) sparked theBelgian Revolution of 1830–31, the first successful revolution in the model of Romantic nationalism.Verdi's opera choruses of an oppressed people inspired two generations of patriots in Italy, especially with "Va pensiero" (Nabucco, 1842). Under the influence of romantic nationalism, among economic and political forces, both Germany and Italy found political unity, and movements to create nations similarly based upon ethnic groups. It would flower in the Balkans (see for example, theCarinthian Plebiscite, 1920), along the Baltic Sea, and in the interior of Central Europe, where in the eventual outcome, theHabsburgs succumbed to the surge of Romantic nationalism.[4]
InNorway, romanticism was embodied, not in literature, but in the movement toward a national style, both in architecture and inethos.[5] Earlier, there was a strong romantic nationalist element mixed withEnlightenment rationalism in the rhetoric used inNorth America, in the American colonists'declaration of independence fromGreat Britain and the drafting of theU.S. Constitution of 1787, as well as the rhetoric in thewave of rebellions, inspired by new senses of localized identities, which swept the American colonies of Spain, one after the other, from the May Revolution ofArgentina in 1810.[citation needed]
Following the ultimate collapse of theFirst French Empire with the fall of Napoleon, conservative elements took control in Europe, led by the Austrian nobleKlemens von Metternich, ideals of thebalance of power between thegreat powers of Europe dominated continental politics of the first half of the 19th century. Following theCongress of Vienna, and subsequentConcert of Europe system, several major empires took control of European politics. Among these were theRussian Empire; therestored French monarchy; theGerman Confederation, under the dominance ofPrussia; theAustrian Empire; and theOttoman Empire.[citation needed]
The conservative forces held sway until theRevolutions of 1848 swept across Europe and threatened the old order. Numerous movements developed around various cultural groups, who began to develop a sense of national identity. While initially, all of these revolutions failed, andreactionary forces would re-establish political control, the revolutions marked the start of the steady progress towards the end of the Concert of Europe under the dominance of a few multi-national empires and led to the establishment of the modernnation state in Europe; a process that would not be complete for over a century and a half.Central and Eastern Europe's political situation was partly shaped by the twoWorld Wars, while many national identities in these two regions formed modern nation states when the collapse of theSoviet Union and the multinational statesYugoslavia andCzechoslovakia led to numerous new states forming during the last decade of the 20th century.[citation needed]
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Romantic nationalism inspired the collection offolklore by such people as theBrothers Grimm. The view that fairy tales, unless contaminated from outside literary sources, were preserved in the same form over thousands of years, was not exclusive to Romantic Nationalists, but it fit in well with their views that such tales expressed the primordial nature of a people.[6][7]
TheBrothers Grimm were criticized because their first edition was insufficiently German, and they followed the advice. They rejected many tales they collected because of their similarity to tales byCharles Perrault, which they thought proved they were not truly German tales;Sleeping Beauty survived in their collection because the tale ofBrynhildr convinced them that the figure of the sleeping princess was authentically German. They also altered the language used, changing each "Fee" (fairy) to an enchantress or wise woman, every "prince" to a "king's son", every "princess" to a "king's daughter".[8] Discussing these views in their third editions, they particularly singled outGiambattista Basile'sPentamerone as the firstnational collection of fairy tales, and as capturing theNeapolitan voice.[9]
The work of the Brothers Grimm influenced other collectors, both inspiring them to collect tales and leading them to similarly believe that the fairy tales of a country were particularly representative of it, to the neglect of cross-cultural influence. Among those influenced were the RussianAlexander Afanasyev, the NorwegiansPeter Christen Asbjørnsen andJørgen Moe, and the AustralianJoseph Jacobs.[10]
The concept of a "national epic", an extensively mythologized legendary work of poetry of defining importance to a certain nation, is another product of Romantic nationalism. The "discovery" ofBeowulf in a single manuscript, first transcribed in 1818, came under the impetus of Romantic nationalism, after the manuscript had lain as an ignored curiosity in scholars' collections for two centuries.Beowulf was felt to provide people self-identified as "Anglo-Saxon" with their missing "national epic",[11] just when the need for it was first being felt: the fact that Beowulf himself was aGeat was easily overlooked. The pseudo-Gaelic literary forgeries of "Ossian" had failed, finally, to fill the need for the first Romantic generation.[citation needed]
The first publication ofThe Tale of Igor's Campaign coincided with the rise in Russian national spirit in the wake of theNapoleonic wars andSuvorov's campaigns in Central Europe. The unseen and unheardSong of Roland had become a dim memory, until the antiquaryFrancisque Michel transcribed a worn copy in theBodleian Library and put it into print in 1837; it was timely: French interest in the national epic revived among the Romantic generation. In Greece, theIliad andOdyssey took on new urgency during theGreek War of Independence. Amongst the world's Jewish community, the earlyZionists considered theBible a more suitable national epic than theTalmud.[12]
Many other "national epics",epic poetry considered to reflect the national spirit, were produced or revived under the influence of Romantic nationalism: particularly in theRussian Empire, national minorities seeking to assert their own identities in the face ofRussification produced new national poetry – either out of whole cloth, or from cobbling together folk poetry, or by resurrecting older narrative poetry. Examples include theEstonianKalevipoeg,FinnishKalevala,PolishPan Tadeusz,LatvianLāčplēsis,ArmenianSasuntzi Davit byHovhannes Tumanyan,GeorgianThe Knight in the Panther's Skin andGreater Iran,Shahnameh.
The Romantic movement was essential in spearheading the upsurge ofGerman nationalism in the 19th century and especially the popular movement aiding the resurgence ofPrussia after its defeat toNapoleon in the 1806Battle of Jena.Johann Gottlieb Fichte's 1808Addresses to the German Nation,Heinrich von Kleist's fervent patriotic stage dramas before his death, andErnst Moritz Arndt'swar poetry during theanti-Napoleonic struggle of 1813–15 were all instrumental in shaping the character of German nationalism for the next one-and-a-half century in aracialized ethnic rather thancivic nationalist direction. Romanticism also played a role in the popularization of theKyffhäuser myth, about theEmperor Frederick Barbarossa sleeping atop theKyffhäuser mountain and being expected to rise in a given time and save Germany) and the legend of theLorelei (byBrentano andHeine) among others.
TheNazi movement later appropriated the nationalistic elements of Romanticism, with Nazi chief ideologueAlfred Rosenberg writing: "The reaction in the form of German Romanticism was therefore as welcome as rain after a long drought. But in our own era of universalinternationalism, it becomes necessary to follow this racially linked Romanticism to its core, and to free it from certain nervous convulsions which still adhere to it."[13]Joseph Goebbels told theatre directors on 8 May 1933, just two days before theNazi book burnings in Berlin, that: "German art of the next decade will be heroic, it will be like steel, it will be Romantic, non-sentimental, factual; it will be national with great pathos, and at once obligatory and binding, or it will be nothing."[14]
Of this phenomenon, the Soviet literary scholar Naum Berkovsky wrote:
German fascism extracted Romanticism from the naphthalene of the past, established its ideological kinship with it, included it in its canon of forerunners, and after some cleansing onracial grounds, absorbed it into the system of its ideology and thereby gave this trend, which in its time was not apolitical, a purely political and topical meaning ...Schelling,Adam Müller and others thanks to the fascists again became our contemporaries, though in the specific sense in which every corpse taken out of its century-old coffin for any need becomes a "contemporary". In his bookThe Tasks of National Socialist Literary Criticism, Walther Linden, who revised thehistory of German literature from a fascist point of view, considers the most valuable for fascism that stage in the development ofGerman Romanticism when it freed itself from the influences of theFrench Revolution and thanks to Adam Müller,Görres,Arnim and Schelling began to create truly German national literature on the basis ofGerman medieval art, religion and patriotism.[15]
This made scholars and critics likeFritz Strich,Thomas Mann andVictor Klemperer, who before the war were supporters of Romanticism, to reconsider their stance after the war and the Nazi experience and to adopt a more anti-Romantic position.[16]
Heinrich Heine parodied such Romantic modernizations of medieval folkloric myths in the "Barbarossa" chapter of his large 1844 poemGermany. A Winter's Tale:
Forgive, OBarbarossa, my hasty words!
I do not possess a wise soul
Like you, and I have little patience,
So, please, come back soon, after all!
Retain the old methods of punishment,
If you judge theguillotine unpleasant:
The sword for thenobleman, and the cord
For the townsman and vulgar peasant.
But, do switch things around, now and then:
Peasants and townsmen should die by the sword,
And noblemen should hang on a rope.
We’re all the creatures of theLord!
Bring back the laws ofCharles the Fifth,
With the hanging courts restoration,
And divide the people, as before,
Into guild, estate and corporation.
Restore the oldHoly Roman Empire,
As it was, whole and immense.
Bring back all its musty junk,
And all its foolish nonsense.
TheMiddle Ages I’ll endure,
If you bring back the genuine item;
Just rescue us from this bastard state,
And from its farcical system,
From that mongrel chivalry,
Such a nauseating dish
OfGothic fancies and modern deceit,
That is neither flesh nor fish.
Shut down all the theatres,
And chase their comedians pack,
Who parody the olden days.
O, Emperor, do come back![17][18][19]
Romanticism played an essential role in the national awakening of many Central European peoples lacking their own national states, not least in Poland, which had recently failed to restore its independence whenRussia's army crushed thePolish Uprising underNicholas I. Revival and reinterpretation of ancient myths, customs and traditions by Romantic poets and painters helped to distinguish their indigenous cultures from those of the dominant nations and crystallise the mythography of Romantic nationalism. Patriotism, nationalism, revolution and armed struggle for independence also became popular themes in the arts of this period. Arguably, the most distinguished Romantic poet of this part of Europe wasAdam Mickiewicz, who developed an idea thatPoland was the Messiah of Nations, predestined to suffer just asJesus had suffered to save all the people. The Polish self-image as a "Christ among nations" or the martyr of Europe can be traced back to its history ofChristendom and suffering under invasions. During the periods of foreign occupation, the Catholic Church served as bastion of Poland's national identity and language, and the major promoter ofPolish culture. Thepartitions came to be seen in Poland as a Polish sacrifice for the security forWestern civilization. Adam Mickiewicz wrote the patriotic dramaDziady (directed against the Russians), where he depicts Poland as the Christ of Nations. He also wrote "Verily I say unto you, it is not for you to learn civilization from foreigners, but it is you who are to teach them civilization ... You are among the foreigners like the Apostles among the idolaters". InBooks of the Polish Nation and Polish Pilgrimage Mickiewicz detailed his vision of Poland as a Messias and a Christ of Nations, that would save mankind. Dziady is known for various interpretation. The most known ones are the moral aspect of part II,individualist and romantic message of part IV, as well as deeply patriotic, messianistic and Christian vision in part III of the poem. Zdzisław Kępiński, however, focuses his interpretation onSlavic pagan andoccult elements found in the drama. In his bookMickiewicz hermetyczny he writes abouthermetic,theosophic andalchemical philosophy on the book as well asMasonic symbols.
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After the 1870s "national romanticism", as it is more usually called, became a familiar movement in the arts. Romanticmusical nationalism is exemplified by the work ofBedřich Smetana, especially thesymphonic poem "Vltava". In Scandinavia and the Slavic parts of Europe especially, "national romanticism" provided a series of answers to the 19th-century search for styles that would be culturally meaningful and evocative, yet not merely historicist. When a church was built over the spot in St Petersburg where TsarAlexander II of Russia had been assassinated, the "Church of the Savior on Blood", the natural style to use was one that best evoked traditional Russian features (illustration, left). In Finland, the reassembly of the national epic, theKalevala, inspired paintings and murals in theNational Romantic style that substituted there for the internationalArt Nouveau styles. The foremost proponent in Finland wasAkseli Gallen-Kallela (illustration, below right).
By the turn of the century, ethnicself-determination had become an assumption held as being progressive and liberal. There were romantic nationalist movements for separation inFinland,Estonia,Latvia andLithuania, theKingdom of Bavaria held apart from a united Germany, and Czech and Serb nationalism continued to trouble Imperial politics. The flowering of arts which drew inspiration from national epics and song continued unabated. TheZionist movement revived Hebrew, and began immigration toEretz Yisrael, andWelsh andIrish tongues also experienced a poetic revival.
At the same time, linguistic and cultural nationality, colored with pre-genetic concepts of race, bolstered two rhetorical claims used to this day: claims of primacy and claims of superiority. Primacy is the claimedinalienable right of a culturally and racially defined people to a geographical terrain, a"heartland" (a vivid expression) orhomeland.Richard Wagner notoriously argued that those who were ethnically different could not comprehend the artistic and cultural meaning inherent in national culture. Identifying "Jewishness" even in musical style,[20] he specifically attacked the Jews as being unwilling to assimilate into German culture, and thus unable to truly comprehend the mysteries of its music and language. Sometimes "national epics" such as theNibelunglied have had a galvanizing effect on social politics.
In the first two decades of the 20th century, Romantic Nationalism as an idea was to have crucial influence on political events. Following thePanic of 1873 that gave rise to a new wave ofantisemitism andracism in theGerman Empire politically ruled by an authoritarian, militaristic conservatism underOtto von Bismarck and in parallel with theFin de siècle (which was also reflected to a degree in the contemporary art movements ofsymbolism, theDecadent movement, andArt Nouveau), the racialistvölkisch movement which grew out of romantic nationalism in Germany in the late 19th century.[21]
The rising nationalistic and imperialistic tensions between the European nations throughout theFin de siècle period eventually erupted in theFirst World War. After Germany had lost the war and undergone the tumultuousGerman Revolution, thevölkisch movement drastically radicalized itself inWeimar Germany under the harsh terms of theTreaty of Versailles, andAdolf Hitler would go on to say that "the basic ideas ofNational-Socialism arevölkisch, just as thevölkisch ideas are National-Socialist".
