The Origin of National Identity
Summary
TLDRThis script delves into the historical intricacies of the Protestant Reformation and its profound impact on the formation of modern Germany. It highlights how the Reformation, initially a German religious movement, led to the bloody 30 Years War and the Treaty of Westphalia, which in turn influenced religious and political identities. The narrative explores the transition from a universal Christian identity to a more personal, localized one, and the subsequent 'search for the national epic' in the 18th and 19th centuries. The Brothers Grimm's role in shaping a German identity through language and mythology is underscored, alongside the evolution of nationalism and its implications for modern nation-states.
Takeaways
- 😀 The Protestant Reformation started primarily as a German religious movement, despite Germany not being a unified country at the time.
- 🏰 The concept of 'Germany' as a unified nation is a modern construct, not recognized in medieval times.
- 🌍 The Reformation led to the 30 Years War, one of the bloodiest periods in Western Europe, resulting from religious conflicts between Catholics and Protestants.
- 📜 The Treaty of Westphalia ended the 30 Years War and established the principle that religion was determined by the ruler of the territory, not a universal Christian identity.
- 🔍 The shift in identity from a universal Christian story to a political one led to a personalization of religious and spiritual identity.
- 🎭 The search for a 'national epic' emerged as a way to forge a collective identity in the absence of a shared empire or religion.
- 📚 The Brothers Grimm, known for their fairy tales, were also philologists who contributed to the creation of a German identity through language and mythology.
- 👥 Jacob Grimm's role in the first German Parliament highlighted the importance of language and storytelling in shaping a national identity.
- 🏛 Nationalism evolved to become a more totalizing identity, capable of overshadowing local traditions and regional identities.
- 🇺🇸 The American experience with local traditions and decentralization contrasts with the more centralized European models of nation-building.
- 🛣️ The development of infrastructure like the interstate highway system and the interstate commerce clause in the U.S. Constitution has impacted the balance between local and centralized authority.
Q & A
What was the primary location of the Protestant Reformation?
-The Protestant Reformation primarily took place in Germany, although it later spread to other regions such as France, Switzerland, and England.
Why is Germany sometimes referred to as a 'made-up country' in the context of the Reformation?
-Germany is considered a 'made-up country' because, during the time of the Reformation, it was not a unified nation but a collection of various regions and states, and people living there did not identify themselves as Germans.
What significant event resulted from the Protestant Reformation?
-The 30 Years War, a bloody conflict between Roman Catholics and Protestants in Western Europe, was a significant event that resulted from the Protestant Reformation.
What was the outcome of the 30 Years War in terms of religious identity?
-The outcome of the 30 Years War was the Treaty of Westphalia, which led to the principle of 'cuius regio, eius religio,' meaning that the religion of a principality was determined by its ruler, thus linking religious identity to political affiliation.
How did the Treaty of Westphalia change the hierarchy of identity in Europe?
-The Treaty of Westphalia led to a shift where religious identity became secondary to political identity, with people's faith being determined by the ruler of the region they lived in, rather than a universal Christian identity.
What is the concept of 'national epic' in the context of the script?
-The 'national epic' refers to the search for a narrative that could unite and define the identity of a nation, especially after the decline of the Holy Roman Empire and the fragmentation of religious unity in Europe.
Who were the Brothers Grimm, and what is their significance in the creation of a German identity?
-The Brothers Grimm, Jacob and Wilhelm, were philologists and collectors of folklore. They played a significant role in creating a German identity by compiling and editing old stories, fairy tales, and creating a comprehensive dictionary of the German language.
What role did Jacob Grimm play in the early German Parliament?
-Jacob Grimm was given a seat in the first German Parliament due to his contributions to German philology and folklore, which helped in shaping a German identity based on language and shared cultural heritage.
How did the concept of nationalism evolve from the older modes of identity?
-Nationalism evolved to become a more totalizing identity that could overshadow local and regional identities, with the nation-state taking precedence over other forms of allegiance, such as to a king or a religious institution.
What challenges did the American project face in maintaining local traditions and autonomy?
-The American project faced challenges such as the creation of the interstate highway system and the expansion of federal authority through the interstate commerce clause, which potentially threatened the autonomy and unique traditions of local regions.
How did the concept of a citizen of a nation emerge?
-The concept of a citizen of a nation emerged from the idea of a city-state in the ancient world, extended across many cities and a large geographic area, leading to the modern understanding of national citizenship.
Outlines
🏛 The Protestant Reformation and the Birth of Germany
This paragraph discusses the origins of the Protestant Reformation, emphasizing its beginnings in Germany, a region that was not a unified country during the medieval period. It highlights the misconception that Germany has always been a single nation, pointing out that it's a modern construct. The Reformation led to the Thirty Years War, a bloody conflict in Western Europe between Roman Catholics and Protestants. The Treaty of Westphalia, which concluded the war, resulted in the principle of 'cuius regio, eius religio,' meaning that the religion of a principality was determined by its ruler, thus collapsing religious identity into political identity. This shift marked a transition from a universal Christian story to a more localized and personal identity, setting the stage for the modern concept of self-identified religious and political affiliations.
📚 The Search for National Identity and the Brothers Grimm
The second paragraph delves into the quest for a national epic in the wake of the Reformation and the decline of the Holy Roman Empire. It discusses the role of the Brothers Grimm, who are known for collecting and editing fairy tales but were also significant in the creation of a German identity. Jacob Grimm, a philologist, contributed to this identity by compiling a comprehensive dictionary of the German language and a volume on German mythology. His work was seen as a way to define German identity based on language and ancestry rather than religion or political boundaries. The paragraph also touches on the political implications of this identity formation, hinting at the potential for unhealthy nationalism that would later emerge.
🌐 The Evolution of National Identity and Its Impact on Local Traditions
The final paragraph explores the concept of nationalism and its evolution from allegiance to a monarch to a more encompassing identity that can overshadow local and regional differences. It uses the example of France, where the imposition of a standardized French language and education system during the Napoleonic era and the French Revolution aimed to create a unified national identity. The paragraph also discusses the challenges to the American project of maintaining local traditions and autonomy in the face of centralized authority and the impact of modern infrastructure like the interstate highway system and the interstate commerce clause on local identities.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Protestants Reformation
💡30 Years War
💡Treaty of Westphalia
💡National Epic
💡Philology
💡Jacob Grimm
💡German Identity
💡Nationalism
💡Interstate Highway System
💡Interstate Commerce Clause
Highlights
The Protestant Reformation began primarily as a German religious movement, despite Germany not being a unified country at the time.
The concept of Germany as a unified nation is a modern construct, with its inhabitants historically not identifying as 'Germans'.
The term 'Germany' and the identity of being German have evolved over time and are not as old as commonly believed.
The Thirty Years War, a result of the Reformation, was one of the bloodiest periods in Western Europe's history.
The Treaty of Westphalia led to the determination of one's religion by the principality in which they lived, rather than a universal Christian identity.
Religion shifted from being a universal identity to a more localized one, secondary to political identity.
The search for a national epic emerged as a response to the loss of a unified religious and imperial identity.
The Brothers Grimm are known for collecting and editing fairy tales, but their work also contributed to the formation of a German identity.
Jacob Grimm's philological work, including the creation of a comprehensive German dictionary, played a role in shaping German identity.
The German Revolution and the establishment of the first German Parliament saw Jacob Grimm as a significant figure due to his contributions to German identity.
National identity became more totalizing, with the ability to override local and regional identities.
Nationalism developed into a powerful force that could homogenize diverse regions under a single identity.
The American project initially embraced local diversity and resisted centralized imposition of ways of life.
The creation of the interstate highway system and the interstate commerce clause in the U.S. Constitution have impacted the balance of localized and centralized power.
The discussion highlights the evolution of identity from religious and imperial to national and personal, with implications for modern nation-states.
The transcript explores the complexities of identity formation, from the Reformation to modern nation-states, and the challenges of maintaining local diversity within larger political structures.
Transcripts
Along Comes the Protestant Reformation
right and the result of the Reformation
it has to be remembered
that the Reformation took place in
Germany
right it's primarily at in his
Beginnings primarily a German religious
movement right obviously it gives France
and Switzerland and England other places
but originally it's primarily a German
religious movement except that
the Reformation didn't take place in
Germany because Germany did not exist
Germany is a made-up country
um fake news everybody
um no Germany's Germany's a made-up
country right there if you look at a
medieval map there's no Germany on that
map nope nobody who lived in the place
that we call Germany now would have
called themselves Germans actually they
still don't call themselves Germans but
um but uh a really fun game is actually
uh what's the name of German in other
languages and like every yeah what do
you call what do you guys call in French
Alma yeah right right uh uh because like
the all the main region right right so
so it's yeah nobody who lived there
called themselves Germans right this
this German but Germany is a modern
construct yeah but the way that it was
built
the story sort of begins in the
Protestant Reformation
I don't have like a ton of time to go
into this but let's say that uh as a
result of the Protestant Reformation we
got something called the 30 Years War in
Western Europe which is one of the
bloodiest periods in Western Europe
actually not not the Middle Ages right
but but this is this is now in the
modern period
um 30 years were incredibly bloody
struggled between Roman Catholics and
Protestants over basically a very small
slice of a very small slice of Western
Europe yeah and the result the end
result of the 30 years war is something
called the Treaty of Westphalia and one
of the things that comes about as a
result of that treaty is that they
decide okay your religion will be
determined simply by whatever
principality you live in so like if you
live in this little province
um
and some of these are quite small
basically the size of what in Texas
would be a county
um I don't know do you guys do you guys
call them parishes or counties or like
what's your what's the what's the unit
in Canada beyond the city
uh yeah we do have uh we do have
something like that I forget what
they're called yeah yeah yeah accounting
yeah yeah so um uh but basically these
very small principalities and your
religion if you live there would just be
whatever the official whatever the
religion of and so what happened was
that instead of instead of the instead
of the the identity conferred by the
Christian story being kind of the at the
very outside level
is that it collapsed down actually
several levels into the hierarchy and so
it goes from being here's a
universalizing story of passion week and
posca right of Rome and Greece of the
Trojan War and you know Saint John the
Baptist right all these things like this
is our universalizing story that kind of
is the container that holds everything
together and now that collapses actually
several rungs down the ladder right
um to now it's actually secondary to
your political identity now
once you kind of understand when that
happened and how that happened you can
then understand how it's actually a
pretty short trip to go from there to
now my religious Identity or my
spiritual Identity or whatever is
something that I confer upon myself
personal personal right yeah but but
also like but isn't that also like
political identity also has collapsed
down to that level now yeah so you're
you're you can freely associate with
whatever political party you want at
least in some parts of the world
um but you know talking to the United
States you can freely associate with
whatever political party you want and
and everything about your identity has
collapsed down to the level of the self
of the self
so when all of this is going on though
and before it kind of gets all the way
down to that level
in the primarily in 18th and 19th
century Europe
you have the emerging of what's
sometimes called the search for the
national epic yeah so why do we need the
national epic because we're not part of
an Empire anymore Holy Roman or
otherwise we're not part of an Empire
anymore and we are not part of and we're
not even part of the same religion
anymore
right it's a bit I mean and listen
nowadays Protestants Roman Catholics
Orthodox like we can go out together and
we can have a beer and we can talk about
our differences and all these different
things nobody stabs anybody and that's
great I love that
don't get me wrong
but if you think for a moment that
somebody you know in uh the 30 Years War
believed that oh the Roman Catholic over
there and and me we're the same religion
basically and we're just crippling over
a few small differences like
they this is not how people thought yeah
yeah they weren't killing each other
over small differences let's say so
anyway
um so you don't you're not held together
by the same religion anymore and you're
not held together by the same uh and and
you're not even held together by like
the the sort of like the Imperial story
right and so now what we need to do is
just try to find some other narrative
that can collect and hold our identity
together and this is the this is why
there's the search for the national epic
so something a lot of people don't know
um you're of course aware of Jakob and
Wilhelm Grimm the brothers Grim yeah
right and uh they're famous for a bunch
of fairy tales which they did not write
um they're the fairy tales that we know
is like the fairy tales of the brothers
Grim uh they were edited mainly by
Wilhelm but uh but they didn't write
those stories yeah what they did was
they went around collecting all the
oldest stories like the the children's
stories is what they would call them but
they went around just like correcting
all the old wives stories and all the
old children's stories and things like
this from these these tiny little
idiosyncratic you know valleys in
different places and what is now Germany
um and they're collecting they're
collecting these stories because the
oldest stories preserve the oldest words
and Jacob Grimm is a philologist he's
interested in really old words and so
his two great works that he composed
were
um the largest and most comprehensive
dictionary of the German language which
has ever been created and then also the
the uh
a an accompanying volume sometimes it's
called Teutonic mythology or
German mythology or something like that
it's got its own name in German
uh which I won't try to pronounce here
uh since we're on the internet but
um anyway you've got you've got
uh these two massive volumes one is this
is the German language and the other is
this is German mythology and yeah uh
they're both fascinating works his
tutank mythology is let's say has a lot
of problems from the perspective of
modern scholarship because once again
there were a bunch of gaps and he just
tried to fill the gaps in by guesswork
essentially
um and then but the fairy tales were you
know basically he was sending his grad
students out because grad students are
the uh the Mindless minions of the
academic world so he would send his grad
students out to basically collect these
stories and then later they edited them
together in a volume and that turned out
to be much more popular and and let's
say more enduring than the other two
works yeah but what a lot of people
don't know is that uh following the
German Revolution
um sometimes it's called the March March
Revolution uh when the uh when the
National Assembly of the National
Assembly uh of the German people is like
the first German Parliament uh was what
came together
Jakob Grimm had a seat
it wasn't just a seat in the parliament
but it was like a special chair not
really and he had a vote and everything
else and he got disenchanted with
politics it didn't really last but the
reason that they gave him this spot
in the like the very first German
Parliament ever
was because he was he was the great
German philologist he was the great
German you could say Storyteller in that
he was telling by collecting all these
old stories and trying to package them
and arrange them what he's actually
doing is
creating an identity
that is German yeah
an identity that's based in that's based
in the language that you speak
and who your ancestors were more than it
is in what your religion is or where you
live or those other things and so one of
the great you know questions of the time
was well you know as there as the German
state is being founded and there's
there's lots of like little revolutions
and different governing bodies and all
these different things it's difficult to
to track even if you have it all laid
out in front of you but basically one of
the big questions that they're trying to
answer is what does it actually mean to
be German
but it's not a religious question
anymore
right it's not a it's not it's not you
know you know so like what does it mean
to be German and
um
obviously eventually attempts to answer
that question are going to develop in
some really kind of unhealthy ways yeah
yeah and more nationalistic ways the way
we understand them now right right the
ancient world that like if there had
been some kind of German identity let's
say in France there was definitely more
of a let's say a basic French identity
even though all the regions still there
was still that issue where all the
region and like your French identity was
basically that you know you're somehow
related to the king of France like
that's where your French identity comes
from you know you owe allegiance to the
king but then you probably don't speak
French you don't speak the same French
right in France does you speak some
other local dialect or whatever and and
you don't see that this allegiance to
the king of France as this totalizing
thing right as this thing that it's like
I am French and the way even that the
French would understand that today yeah
yeah I mean that's the thing about
nationalism as opposed to let's say the
older mode is is that your national
identity is now much more totalizing to
the point that it
um has the ability to actually
obliterate the things beneath it
um I mean obviously it's the French is a
good example when Napoleon took over he
basically you know imposed Parisian
French on the rest of France right to
make it one language he he he he
basically imposed a an education system
on to all the different regions and
those that you know and you can see that
all like during the revolution you can
see that happening it's wild you know
the the the the local places that resist
the revolution you know they get they
get slaughtered and people just get
slaughtered because they they there's
this one thing nacion right that that's
where even the idea is is kind of born
right this idea of a citizen of a Nation
the way that we just did it now
yeah and it's a sort of uh a weird
extension you could say of like the the
old really old classical idea of the
city-state yeah but now impose across
many cities and over a very large
geographic area until you get to these
places where you have the situation
today where Modern Nation States are so
impossibly large I mean this is part of
why I keep demurring on like when we're
gonna do like what's the symbolism of
America
uh video right part of it is is that
like which America yeah like well don't
you think that one of the reasons for
the success of America has been that it
had had been at least for a while had
been able to kind of recast that
multiplicity right a sense in which
there were local Traditions local places
you know people people in different
regions just have different ways of
living and we kind of don't feel like
the like the the centralized Authority
has the right or the capacity to impose
ways of being ways of thinking on on the
people in the local areas
yes there yes there is a uh
uh I think that was part of a lot of the
early Genius of the American project and
the two the two things that really
challenged it and maybe broke it
um although we'll see we're still I mean
we're brand new country so we'll see but
uh one is one is the the creation of the
interstate highway system yeah you know
the ability you know which is
very importantly uh it's like it's like
now it's the artery right the the
arterial system that connects the
country but very importantly like it's
it's owned and paid for by
decentralized power the federal
government right but then also and also
along with that
um you know kind of developing as well
as the is the there's something in our
Constitution called the interstate
commerce clause
which basically gives the federal
government authority to regulate
anything that might possibly touch
interstate commerce and I don't want to
get like too much into like American
constitutional stuff and politics but
you could just say that the the the kind
of the Brilliance of the great localized
Pro uh uh you know being able to recast
that locality like you just said
that start that is that started to break
down when those two things and obviously
airplanes have made things worse
تصفح المزيد من مقاطع الفيديو ذات الصلة
History 101 | The Protestant Reformation Explained
LA CONSOLIDACIÓN DE LOS ESTADOS NACIONALES
Imagined Communities P.1
The Protestant Reformation: Crash Course European History #6
Print Culture and The Modern World | 10 Minutes Rapid Revision | Class 10 History
World History Online: Ep. 4 - The Reformation
5.0 / 5 (0 votes)