The Kings of Bavaria

On my primary blog, History Rhymes, I've begun a new multi-part series about the kings of Bavaria since there does not appear to be much information about them on the internet. This will also help me to learn more about the kings of Bavaria in preparation for my dissertation.

The Kings of Bavaria will feature all of the Bavarian kings which ruled between the collapse of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806 and the fall of the Kingdom of Bavaria after World War I in 1918. Although the Kingdom of Bavaria did not actually last all that long (less that a century), it had some colorful figures as monarchs which left a lasting impression on Bavaria even to this day.

You can find the series on History Rhymes.

Book about King Maximilian II of Bavaria

Does anyone know where I can find a book or two either in German or English about King Maximilian II Joseph of Bavaria? I can't seem to find any books about him which strikes me as being extremely unusual.

New Books

I've just recently acquired three new books which I think are going to be quite useful for my research:

Bonk, Sigmund and Peter Schmid (eds). Königreich Bayern: Facetten bayerischer Geschichte 1806-1919 (Regensburg: Verlag Friedrich Pustet, 2005).

Körner, Hans-Michael. Die Wittelsbacher: Vom Mittelalter bis zur Gegenwart (Munich: C.H. Beck, 2009).

Körner, Hans-Michael. Geschichte des Königreichs Bayern (Munich: C.H. Beck, 2006).

Frustrations about German History

One of the most frustrating parts of researching anything in German history is that it is primarily dominated by the twelve years of Nazi rule. If you visit any bookstore and browse the European history section, the only German history books you will find are World War II books, GDR books and perhaps, if you are lucky, one or two books about World War I and/or Imperial Germany.

What about all the history that happened before that? How about mediæval Germany? What happened to the time of great German philosophy of the last eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries? How about the Revolution of 1848? I bet most people don't even realise there was a revolution in Germany in 1848.

It is always very frustrating when you are having a discussion with someone and the first thing they ask you when you mention you are researching German history is something about the Nazis. Because of our modern obsession with that time period and that regime, it seems as though a lot of people are completely unaware that Germany has (or at least the German people have) been around for a very long time and there is an enormous amount of very interesting history there!

Next time German history comes up in any conversation, please do the Germans a favour and make it a point to emphasise other aspects of it and not just the Nazi period as well.

Sources 2

Demel, Walter. "Adelsstruktur und Adelspolitik in der ersten Phase des Königreichs Bayern" in: Reformen im rheinbündischen Deutschland (Munich, 1984). 213-228.

Demel, Walter. "Der bayerische Adel von 1750 bis 1871" in: Europäischer Adel 1750-1950 (Göttingen, 1990). 126-143.

Demel, Walter. "Die wirtschaftliche Lage des bayerischen Adels in den ersten Jahrzehnten des 19. Jahrhunderts" in: Der Adel an der Schwelle des bürgerlichen Zeitalters 1780-1860 (Stuttgart, 1988). 237-270.

Lieven, Dominic. The Aristocracy in Europe, 1815-1918 (New York, 1993).

Rogalla von Biberstein, Johannes. Adelsherrschaft und Adelskultur in Deutschland (Frankfurt a.M., 1989).

Tönnies, Ferdinand. "Deutscher Adel im neunzehnten Jahrhundert" in: Die Neue Rundschau 2 (1912). 1041-1063.

Vierhaus, Rudolf. "Vom aufgekläten Absolutismus zum monarchischen Konstitutionalismus. Der deutsche Adel im Spannungsfeld von Revolution, Reform und Restauration (!789-1848)" in: Legitimationskrisen des deutschen Adels 1200-1900 (Stuttgart, 1979). 1140-1147.

Progress Update

Over the past couple of weeks, I haven't made any progress whatsoever on my dissertation. This is because of the load of work that comes at the end of the semester on a taught course. I've had several essays to write for my modules and as of last Wednesday, I am now finally finished with all of them. Progress will resume at some point soon I hope.

Progress on the Dissertation

Not much progress has been made on my MA Dissertation in terms of research. I've unfortunately had to focus on work for other classes. I've got two long essays due next week that I've been working on which means my dissertation is at a standstill for the moment. I should be able to continue with research after next week though.

PhD Funding Application

Yesterday, I completed the first draft of my PhD funding application. It is not as easy as you might suspect. I am absolutely looking forward to the opportunity to pursue my research goals, but it is certainly a grueling process getting there.

I have particular issues when it comes to the existing historiography as there really has not been much work done about the German aristocracy in the nineteenth century. I am planning a trip to Munich relatively soon so I can see what there is there in terms of local history books in the bookstores, libraries and especially the Ludwig-Maximilian-University's library. Hopefully something useful will emerge. I am also going to be looking into the archives there in Munich and the surrounding area for anything that might be of use.

Ideas and Sources

Today I had a discussion with a potential supervisor for my MA dissertation about the feasibility of a couple of ideas I have. My primary idea involves doing something in the direction of the relationship that the Bavarian aristocracy had with the royal court in Munich during the nineteenth century. I can imagine it would have been a fairly precarious relationship as the Wittelsbacher (the royal family) were put into power by Napoleon during the occupation by France in the early part of the century. We will see though.

A couple of interesting secondary sources I've found so far:

Conze, Eckart and Monika Wienfort. Adel und Moderne. Deutschland im europäischen Vergleich im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert. Cologne, Weimar, Vienna: Böhlau Verlag, 2004. ISBN: 3412186031

Elias, Norbert. Die höfische Gesellschaft: Untersuchungen zur Soziologie des Königtums und der höfischen Aristokratie. Suhrkamp Verlag, 2007. ISBN: 3518280236

Funck, Marcus and Stephan Malinowski. "Geschichte von oben" in Historische Anthropologie. Cologne, Weimar, Vienna: Böhlau Verlag, 1999.

Reif, Heinz. Adel im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert. Munich: Oldenbourg Wissehschaftsverlag, 1999. IBSN: 3-486-55022-5

Schulz, Günther and Markus A. Denzel. Deutscher Adel im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert: Büdinger Forschungen zur Sozialgeschichte 2002 und 2003. St Katharinen, Germany: Skripta Mercaturae, 2004. ISBN: 3-89590-145-8

These I have found a way to get, but there are a couple of sources which I have not been able to find:

Kink, Barbara. Adelige Lebenswelt in Bayern im 18. Jahrhundert: Die Tage- und Ausgabenbücher des Freiherrn Sebastian von Pemler von Hurlach und Leutstetten (1718–1772). Munich: Kommission für bayerische Landesgeschichte , 2007. ISBN: 978-3-7696-6876-6

My Intentions with this Blog

I've created this blog with the intention of summarizing my research as it happens. As I deal with quite a lot of information, I feel it necessary to somehow sum up everything that I've researched in a day by writing it out. This method has helped me in the past with smaller projects and for those I have always used a regular notebook of some sort and have written them out by hand.

Now, however, I have a much larger task ahead of me. This is to research my MA dissertation which is going to be a project much larger than what I've done in the past. As such, I've decided to try summarizing my thoughts in the form of a blog. I've blogged before and am quite familiar with it, but this is going to be slightly different in that it will be completely informal. My main blog, History Rhymes, is a more formal affair with, for the most part, properly researched articles done specifically for publication on the blog. This will not be like that at all. It will simply be my outpourings as I work on my dissertation.