THE NAPOLEONIC EMPIRE AND THE MAKING OF A MODERN PUBLIC: POLICING, POLITICS, AND PARADES IN NINETEENTH-CENTURY HAMBURG, 1806-1830

Despite the attention historians have given to the Revolutionary and Napoleonic eras in Central Europe, few works have sought to understand these events' reverberations throughout the nineteenth century in a local or regional context. Taking the northern German city of Hamburg as its focal poi...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Haidinger, Brendan
Format: Others
Published: VCU Scholars Compass 2013
Subjects:
Online Access:http://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/etd/3111
http://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4110&context=etd
Description
Summary:Despite the attention historians have given to the Revolutionary and Napoleonic eras in Central Europe, few works have sought to understand these events' reverberations throughout the nineteenth century in a local or regional context. Taking the northern German city of Hamburg as its focal point, this study investigates the change in the urban political culture affected by eight years of Napoleonic occupation. In the process of replacing Hamburg's sprawling and archaic government with one characterized by Gallic centralization and rigor, the French introduced a new style of politics that relied on consistent, public, and martial presentations of its authority. This public presence was heightened not only by the implementation of modern policing techniques, but also by a series of choreographed, ideologically-charged public spectacles whose effectiveness relied on a clever manipulation and politicization of urban space.