Monarchy, myth, and material culture in Germany 1750-1950

Abstract

Explores popular attitudes toward political authority and monarchy in Prussia and Germany, studying how subjects incorporated the material culture of monarchy into their daily lives.

Contents

Introduction : the material culture of monarchy -- Collecting royal relics 1750s-1850s : means, motives, and meaning -- Relics and Friedrich Wilhelm III, 1797-1830 -- Entr'acte : culture and power, a long-term outlook -- Frederick the Great in the Vormärz : relics and myth, 1830s-1840s -- The Neues Museum 1850s-1870s : relics in retreat -- Wilhelm I : relics and myth -- Consumer capitalism and the gift-giving economy -- The Hohenzollern Museum -- Image as object : the carte-de-visite photograph as souvenir -- Wilhelm II and the Hohenzollern legacy : the Kaiser takes charge -- The fragmentation of a myth after 1888 -- Conclusion and epilogue.