Obedient Germans? - A Rebuttal

Drawing on his knowledge of mediaeval and early modern German history, Peter Blickle demonstrates that Germany was one of Europe's most intensive areas of local self-governance from 1300 to 1800. Arguing against the traditional image of a passive lower class, Blickle shows that the peasantry actively participated in a continuous struggle for political autonomy. In German cities and villages from the 14th century on, burghers and peasants commonly established their own political institutions characterized by elected magistrates, a responsibility to householders, and a belief in the common people's right to resist unjust authority. Urban and rural revolts unparalled in other European nations were common in early modern Germany when peasants felt their rights had been violated. Blickle argues that only in the 18th century - and then under the strong influence of foreign conceptions of absolutist rule - did the term "subject" begin to assume the negative meaning it has had since the Enlightenment. This work presents a radically revisionist view of German history that explains how deeply rooted cultural beliefs in a communal political system could eventually be pushed aside by an authoritarian, centralist practice.