Wartburg Festival

Students marching to the Wartburg in 1817

The firstWartburg Festival(German:Wartburgfest) was a convention of about 500ProtestantGermanstudents, held on 18 October 1817 at theWartburgcastle nearEisenachinThuringia.The former refuge of reformerMartin Lutherwas considered anational symboland the assembly a protest against reactionary politics andKleinstaaterei.

History

After the German "Wars of Liberation"againstNapoleonand theFrenchoccupation, many people were bitter about dreams of German national unity shattered after the 1815Congress of Vienna.Democratic reforms were stalled, and governments had cracked down on press freedom and rights of association.

On 12 June 1815 several corporated students at theUniversity of Jenafounded theUrburschenschaftorganization in order to encourage German unity at the university. Many of them had participated as voluntary soldiers on the fields against Napoleon,e.g.in theLützow Free Corps,the black-red-gold colour scheme of which was adopted for theFlag of Germany.The German students demonstrated for a national state and a liberalconstitutioncondemning the "reactionary" forces in the newly recreated states of theGerman Confederation.At least, a constitution for the German state ofSaxe-Weimar-Eisenachincluding articles on freedom of speech, press and assembly was amended by Grand DukeKarl Augustin 1816.

On the occasion of the three-hundredth anniversary of Martin Luther's nailing of hisninety-five theseson 31 October 1517 and to commemorate the fourth anniversary of the bloodyBattle of NationsatLeipzig,theBurschenschaftstudent fraternities from the Jena andHalleuniversities agreed to organize a "national festival" at the Wartburg. The castle was chosen as a meeting place as it had been a refuge for Luther after he had been banned and was declaredvogelfreiby EmperorCharles Vin 1521. Inasmuch as he had translated the Bible there and thus set a standard for theGerman language,it became a symbol ofGerman nationalism.Hundreds of students fromBerlin,Breslau,Erlangen,Gießen,Göttingen,Greifswald,Heidelberg,Kiel,Königsberg,Leipzig,Marburg,RostockundTübingenjoined the festivities. Jena professors such asDietrich Georg von Kieser,Lorenz Oken,Heinrich Luden,andJakob Friedrich Frieswere also among the participants.

At the meeting in the Wartburg knights' hall, speeches were held about Martin Luther as a freedom fighter and the way to national unity. Followed by the Christian hymnNow Thank We All Our Godas sung by the victoriousPrussiantroops after the 1757Battle of Leuthenand a final blessing, the convention resembled a Protestant church service. The men eventually gathered for a festive meal and gave several toasts to the fallen of the Liberation Wars,Scharnhorst,SchillandKörner.

Invitations toAustrianuniversities had been blocked by the government of State ChancellorMetternich;the event itself was also used as a justification for further suppression of liberal forces, such as theCarlsbad Decreesof 1819. In 1832, theHambacher Festwas held in similar manner. A second festival at the Wartburg was held during theRevolutions of 1848 in the German states.

Book burning

Book burning after the Wartburg festival

Contemporary report with a list of the burnt things

After the end of the official festivities and referring to Martin Luther's burning of the papal bullExsurge dominein 1520, followers of "Turnvater"Friedrich Ludwig Jahnarranged a book burning with the burning of mocked books symbolizing a number of reactionary literary works, and symbols of Napoleon's foreign rule like a corporal's cane.This act was used in 1933 as a justification for the Nazibook burnings.

The symbolically burnt books comprised:

• Jean Pierre Frédéric Ancillon:Ueber Souverainitaet, etc.(De la souveraineté), [ "On Sovereignty" (and the Forms of Government)]
• F. v. Cölln:Vertraute Briefe[ "Private Letters" ].Freymüthige Blätter[ "Candid Papers" ]
• August Friedrich Wilhelm Crome:Deutschlands Crisis und Rettung im April und May 1813.[ "Germany’s Crisis and Salvation in April and May, 1813" ]
• Dabelow:Der 13e Artikel der deutschen Bundesacte[ "The 13th Article of the Act of German Confederation" ]
• Karl Ludwig von Haller:Restauration der Staatswissenschaft[ "Restoration of Political Science" ]
• August von Kotzebue:Geschichte des deutschen Reichs[ "History of the German Realm" ]
• Ludwig Theobul Kosegarten:Rede gesprochen am Napoleonstage 1800[ "Speech delivered on Napoleon’s Day, 1800'],Geschichte meines fünfzigsten Lebensjahres[ "History of My Fiftieth Year of Life'], andVaterländische Lieder[ "Patriotic Songs" ]
• Carl Albert Christoph Heinrich von Kamptz:Codex der Gensd'armerie[ "Codex of the Gendarmerie" ]
• W. Reinhard:Die Bundesacte über Ob, Wann und Wie? deutscher Landstände[ "The Acts of the Confederation on Whether, When, and How? The State of the German Nation" ]
• Schmalz:Berichtigung einer Stelle in der Bredow-Venturinischen Chronik; und die beyden darauf[ "Account of a Passage in theChronicleby Bredow and Venturini, and (the commentaries of) Both Thereon "]
• Saul Ascher:Germanomanie[ "Germano-Mania"]
• Zacharias Werner:Martin Luther oder die Weihe der Kraft[ "Martin Luther, or, The Consecration of Force" ],Die Söhne des Thals[ "The Sons of the Valley" ]
• K. v. Wangenheim:Die Idee der Staatsverfassung[ "The Notion of a National Constitution" ]
• TheNapoleonic Code
• Justus Friedrich Wilhelm Zachariae:Über den Code Napoleon[ "On theCode Napoléon"]
• Karl Leberecht Immermann:Ein Wort zur Beherzigung (gegen die Burschenschaft zu Halle)[ "A Word of Heed (Against the Student Association in Halle)" ], 1814

External links

• Media related toWartburg festivalat Wikimedia Commons