The German philosopher who argued that true German culture was found among the common people, or 'das volk,' was:

Johann Gottfried Herder. Herder (1744-1803) held that folk songs, poetry and dances expressed the volksgeist, the true spirit of the nation.Read more: WorldHist0075 — Culture, Economics and the Idea of the Nation in 19th-Century Europe

Culture, Economics and the Idea of the Nation in 19th-Century Europe

An elle of cloth was 54.7cm in Frankfurt and 65.6cm in Nuremberg — one reason Germans built a customs union before they built a country.

This article covers Romanticism, folk culture, the Zollverein, national allegory, Britain’s own path, and the Balkans.

📑 Contents

1Romanticism and National Feeling
2Herder and the Volksgeist
3The Grimm Brothers: Folktales and Nation-Building
4Poland: Music and Language as Resistance
5The Zollverein: A Customs Union Before a Country
6Marianne: The Face of France
7Germania: The Face of Germany
8Britain’s Unlike Path to Nationhood
9Nationalism Turns Narrow
10The Balkan Powder Keg
11Nationalism Beyond Europe
12Exam Wisdom: A Genuinely Untested Angle

🏛️ Must Know

Romanticism and National Feeling

Beyond WarsNationalism did not grow only through wars and territory. Art, poetry, stories and music also shaped nationalist feeling.
Against Cold ReasonRomantic artists and poets criticised the glorification of reason and science, and instead focused on emotion and intuition.
A Shared PastRomantics tried to build a sense of shared collective heritage, a common cultural past, as the basis of a nation.

Herder and the Volksgeist

Das VolkGerman philosopher Johann Gottfried Herder (1744-1803) claimed true German culture was found among the common people, das volk.
VolksgeistFolk songs, folk poetry and folk dances were held to popularise the true spirit of the nation, or volksgeist.
Reaching the IlliterateCollecting folk culture was not just about nostalgia. It was a way to carry the nationalist message to mostly illiterate audiences.

The Grimm Brothers: Folktales and Nation-Building

Two LawyersJacob and Wilhelm Grimm, born in Hanau, Germany in 1785 and 1786, both studied law before turning to folktales.
Six Years of FieldworkThey spent six years travelling village to village, writing down folktales that had been handed down through generations.
1812Their first collection of tales was published in 1812, and later became the book known today as Grimms’ Fairy Tales.
A Political ProjectThe brothers saw French domination as a threat to German culture, and their folktales as expressions of a pure German spirit.
33-Volume DictionaryBeyond folktales, they also published a 33-volume dictionary of the German language and were active in the press-freedom movement.

Poland: Music and Language as Resistance

A Partitioned NationPoland had been partitioned by Russia, Prussia and Austria, yet national feeling survived through music and language.
Kurpinski’s OperasComposer Karol Kurpinski turned folk dances like the polonaise and mazurka into nationalist symbols through his operas.
Language Forced OutAfter Russian occupation, Polish was forced out of schools, and an armed 1831 rebellion against this was crushed.
The Clergy ResistPriests used Polish for Church gatherings as resistance. Many were jailed or sent to Siberia for refusing to preach in Russian.

The Zollverein: A Customs Union Before a Country

39 CurrenciesNapoleon left behind a confederation of 39 German states, each with its own currency and its own weights and measures.
11 Customs BarriersIn 1833, a merchant travelling from Hamburg to Nuremberg had to cross 11 customs barriers, paying about 5 percent duty each time.
One Cloth, Many LengthsAn elle of cloth measured 54.7cm in Frankfurt, 55.1cm in Mainz, 65.6cm in Nuremberg, and 53.5cm in Freiburg.
1834A customs union, the zollverein, was formed in 1834 at Prussia’s initiative, cutting the number of currencies from over thirty to two.
Friedrich List’s CaseEconomics professor Friedrich List wrote in 1834 that the zollverein would “bind the Germans economically into a nation.”

📘 Good to Know

Marianne: The Face of France

A Female AllegoryNineteenth-century artists personified nations as female figures, since a nation itself has no face of its own.
MarianneFrance’s allegory was christened Marianne, a popular Christian name underlining the idea of a people’s nation.
Her SymbolsMarianne’s attributes were drawn from Liberty and the Republic: the red cap, the tricolour, and the cockade.
Everyday SymbolStatues of Marianne stood in public squares, and her image was stamped on coins and postage stamps.

Germania: The Face of Germany

The Oak CrownGermania, the German national allegory, wears a crown of oak leaves, since the German oak stood for heroism.
Painted for ParliamentPainter Philip Veit’s 1848 Germania was made to hang from the ceiling of the Church of St Paul during the Frankfurt Parliament.
Reading Her SymbolsGermania’s broken chains meant freedom, her sword readiness to fight, and her olive branch a willingness for peace.
A Banned FlagThe black, red and gold tricolour behind her was the flag of the 1848 liberal-nationalists, banned by the German Dukes.

Britain’s Unlike Path to Nationhood

No Sudden RevolutionUnlike most of Europe, the British nation-state was not born from a sudden revolution but from a long, drawn-out process.
Act of Union, 1707The 1707 Act of Union between England and Scotland created the United Kingdom, dominated by its English members.
Suppressing the HighlandsScottish Highlanders were forbidden to speak Gaelic or wear their national dress, and many were forcibly driven from their homeland.
Ireland, 1801After a failed 1798 revolt led by Wolfe Tone, Ireland was forcibly incorporated into the United Kingdom in 1801.
One Set of SymbolsThe Union Jack, the anthem “God Save the King,” and the English language were promoted as the new shared British identity.

🌟 Great to Know

Nationalism Turns Narrow

Losing Its IdealismBy the last quarter of the nineteenth century, nationalism lost its earlier liberal-democratic idealism and turned into a narrow creed.
A Tool of EmpireMajor European powers manipulated the nationalist aspirations of subject peoples to further their own imperialist aims.

The Balkan Powder Keg

A Region of SlavsThe Balkans covered modern Romania, Bulgaria, Albania, Greece, Macedonia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Slovenia, Serbia and Montenegro.
An Explosive MixRomantic nationalism, combined with the Ottoman Empire’s slow disintegration, made the region highly volatile after 1871.
Rival Great PowersRussia, Germany, England and Austria-Hungary each sought to counter the others’ hold over the Balkans.
The Road to 1914This rivalry led to a series of Balkan wars, and finally helped trigger the First World War.

Nationalism Beyond Europe

Colonies Push BackMany countries colonised by European powers in the nineteenth century began opposing imperial domination through their own nationalist movements.
Never Just CopiedEuropean nationalism was never simply replicated elsewhere. Each region developed its own specific variety of nationalist thought.
A Universal IdeaStill, the idea that societies should be organised into “nation-states” came to be accepted as natural and universal worldwide.

Exam Point of View

Exam Wisdom: A Genuinely Untested Angle

No PYQ YetNo previous-year question specifically on Romanticism, the Grimm Brothers, the zollverein or Marianne/Germania has appeared in the papers indexed on this site yet.
Watch ForExams that test “culture and nationalism” elsewhere in the syllabus (folk revival, language movements) could plausibly extend this pattern to Europe.
Related ArticleFor the Balkans from the Ottoman side, see this site’s WorldHist0019, which covers the empire’s collapse and the remaking of West Asia.

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