FOREWORD

Jon Vanden Heuvel's study fills an important gap in the historical literature on the development of modern Germany's political culture. This is a study of one of the revolutionary epoch's most fascinating characters, Joseph Gorres, but beyond that it is a portrait of a seminally important and understudied and inadequately understood period of modern history: that of Germany during the two or three generations prior to the country's unification under Bismarck.

While studies of Bismarck and his era fill the library shelves and treatments of the twelve years of Nazi rule seem to proliferate exponentially, Gorres's era, roughly framed by the revolutionary years that frame his lifespan, 1776-1848, remains relatively neglected. The lasting influence of political and cultural template established during these can scarcely underestimated.

This was the era during which modern representative government first took root. Concepts such as liberal or conservative, thought of as self-evident today, where first devised and given their content during Gorres's era. Indeed, the political spectrum with which we still live today was an invention of Gorres's generation. Modern journalism and the very notion of public opinion as a force in politics first emerged in Germany, in no small part because of Gorres's efforts. The modern philosophical tradition, whose greatest representatives are Kant, Hegel and Marx, was a product of Gorres's time and place.

The modern European states' system, and the balance of power designed to preserve it originated during this period. Modern nationalism, in all its creative and destructive force, was born during these years, and the notion of national self-determination, which has influenced diplomacy from Gorres's time to the Treaty of Versailles down to our own day, was first enunciated.

In none of these matters was Gorres the most profound thinker nor the most influential actor of his generation. But he placed himself at the very center of their debate. Most crucially he tackled basic issues which to this day dominate the political discourse, namely role of the state versus that of civil society. Where do the state's responsibilities and powers end? What is the role of religion in politics?

The term "modern" is a recurring one in this foreword. In this portrait of a man and his times, the reader will find much that is foreign and strange, much that seems to belong to a time and place far removed from our own. But he will also recognize much that is familiar, and it is the achievement of Vanden Heuvel's study that he recalls before our eyes the extent to which our own era, with its brilliant achievements and its tragic failings, has its origins in Gorres's age of revolution.

CREDIT
SUISSE

FIRST
BOSTON

SEP 17 1999

Wednesday, September 15, 1999

Dr. Henry Kissinger
350 Park Avenue, 26th Floor
New York, NY 10022

Dear Dr. Kissinger:

Here is my doctoral dissertation, to be published by the Catholic University Press in Washington in spring 2000. I would be very honored if you would write a brief forward to the book.

My biography of Gorres, I think, fills a key gap in the historical literature by detailing the life and thought of a central political and intellectual figure in early 19th century Germany. But more broadly I use Gorres's life as window into the compelling currents of his time: the impact of the French Revolution on Germany, the dawn of German nationalism during the clash with Napoleon, and the emergence of the middle class as a force in German politics.

Essentially the book is about the birth of modern German political culture -- the growth of parties, the definition of what it meant to be conservative, liberal or radical. I discuss the key role of religious confession in German politics in the 19th century, an enduring factor into our own century. I explore how the people of that time sought to define the boundary between the prerogatives of the state and those of society -- something our polity still grapples with today.

The forward need not be longer than one or two pages. The publisher would like to have a final manuscript before Thanksgiving, so there are about eight weeks to write it.

I will also get back to you next week with some ideas for your study of statecraft, as well as a look at the historical literature on diplomacy during the First World War.

9/15/99 3:53 PM Document2/1

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction..................................................................................1

Chapter One. Youth and early Republicanism, 1776-95..................11

1. Youth in a Residenzstadt..................................................15

2. The Enlightenment in Coblenz............................................19

3. Görres's Education..........................................................22

4. The Radicalization of the Enlightenment..........................26

5. Kantian Politics..................................................................39

Chapter Two. Republicanism in the Rhineland......................45

1. The Coblenz Patriots......................................................48

2. The Cisrhenanian Project..............................................56

3. Das Rothe Blatt............................................................68

Chapter Three. Görres Breaks with the Revolution..................78

1. "The Alienation of the Left"........................................79

2. The Summer of 1799......................................................89

3. Görres's Delegation to Paris............................................96

4. The Results of my Mission to Paris .................................105

Chapter Four. Emancipation in Romanticism:

Görres in Coblenz, 1800-1806........................................110

1. Retreat from the Political Stage....................................112

2. Romanticism and the Philosophy of Nature......................121

3. Romantic Science and Medicine....................................133

Chapter Five. The Heidelberg Romantics..........................143

1. Görres's Appointment....................................................146

2. Görres's Lectures..........................................................152

3. Mythical Studies........................................................157

4. Old German Literature..................................................162

5. The Romantics and the Spätaufklärer................................169

Chapter Six. Collaboration and Cultural Nationalism:

Görres in Coblenz, 1808-1813........................................176

1. Life under Emperor Napoleon........................................180

2. The German National Renewal....................................187

i

Chapter Seven. The Rheinischer Merkur and the Public Sphere...203

<table><tr><td>1. Press and Politics in the Rhineland, 1814</td><td>205</td></tr><tr><td>2. The Struggle against France</td><td>214</td></tr><tr><td>3. Görres and Prussia</td><td>221</td></tr><tr><td>4. "Germany's Future Constitution"</td><td>226</td></tr><tr><td>5. The Congress of Vienna</td><td>232</td></tr><tr><td>6. Görres in Opposition</td><td>238</td></tr></table>

Chapter Eight. Görres's Break with Prussia, 1816-1819...248

<table><tr><td>1. Life after the Merkur</td><td>252</td></tr><tr><td>2. Scholarship and Religious Stirrings</td><td>263</td></tr><tr><td>3. Prussia, the Rhineland and the Constitutional Question</td><td>268</td></tr><tr><td>4. Germany and the Revolution</td><td>277</td></tr></table>

Chapter Nine. Görres in Exile, 1819-1826...289

<table><tr><td>1. Flight to Strasbourg</td><td>292</td></tr><tr><td>2. Sojourn in Switzerland</td><td>302</td></tr><tr><td>3. Görres's Return to the Catholic Church</td><td>310</td></tr><tr><td>4. Der Katholik</td><td>320</td></tr></table>

Chapter Ten. Germany's Catholic Awakening:

<table><tr><td>Görres in Munich, 1826-1838</td><td>327</td></tr><tr><td>1. Görres and Ludwig's Bavaria</td><td>330</td></tr><tr><td>2. The Eos Circle</td><td>337</td></tr><tr><td>3. Görres as Historian</td><td>349</td></tr><tr><td>4. Die Christliche Mystik</td><td>357</td></tr></table>

Chapter Eleven. Confessional Politics...367

<table><tr><td>1. The Cologne Affair and Athanasius</td><td>370</td></tr><tr><td>2. The Victory of Ultramontanism</td><td>381</td></tr><tr><td>3. Political Catholicism and the Historisch-Politische Blätter</td><td>395</td></tr></table>

Chapter Twelve. Conclusion...410