The Enlightenment of Baden

Dagmar Herzog's book Intimacy and Exclusion: Religious Politics in Pre-Revolutionary Baden, published in 1996, paints the picture of the grand and egalitarian possibilities of 19^th century German society - to a point. Her book is logically structured and, for the majority of the book, tightly argued. Herzog's choice for the focus, and one might say protagonists; of her book is not the traditional "high thinkers" of German society such as Immanuel Kant, but what she terms the "middle range of thinkers."^[1] Her stated purpose here is to use these voices and actors 'for the people' to write a "more historically accurate"^[2] history of early- to mid-nineteenth century Germany.

Focusing on one particularly progressive area, namely Baden, and with the superstructure of the reforms of Baden's 'enlightened' Grand Dukes; Herzog does argue persuasively that the tensions between Liberal and Conservative forces in the area led to some phenomenal changes - at least for the short-term. Her premise is that in the wakes of the Enlightenment, the French Revolution and the conquests of Napoleon, European society had been so shaken, so upset in its early modern balance of power, that new social experiments were not only possible, they were inevitable. I was a "secularizing" age, she contends, and with a greater emphasis upon the separation of church and state, many progressive (here read Liberal) minds of the time began to question all of society's assumptions. For instance, if priestly celibacy imposed by the church can be redefined as abhorrent to nature, what else could be - indeed should be - rethought? In this era of freer dialogue between ideologies (Conservative, Protestant, Liberal, and Catholic) many assumptions were challenged; the emancipation of Jews and Women for example. Herzog's main argument that it is the back-and-forth between conservatives and liberals that propelled such radical agendas. One should not assume, however, that Liberals were the only "winners" of these showdowns, Herzog points out, for conservatives of the time also increased their base, as well as found allies in other, more authoritarian regimes in the German states.

That being said, Herzog's book is nothing less than a tragic tale of wasted, or rather quashed, progressive ideologies. First and foremost, Herzog ensures throughout the various chapters that the reader never forgets that, though liberal, the actors of the time are still products of their time. It was not some sense of egalitarianism that motivated the Liberal progressives to push for Jewish emancipation, for example, but a sense of social and religious "evolution" that was the product of late Enlightenment thinking. Judaism was seen as the low end of the socio-religious evolutionary scale, with Catholicism next in line, followed by Protestantism, and finally Enlightenment, so Liberals were not so much equating Judaism as equal to Christianity (in either form), but were motivated by a desire to help Jews "evolve." Herzog's delivery lurches in this area, as many readers would assume that, particularly given the above sentence, Catholics were automatically conservative while Protestants were automatically Liberals. The truth is that relationships were often much more muddy than that, as is true in any society. Take the relationship between the Badenese state and the Catholic church for further example; In the early chapters, Herzog sets up the enlightened authoritarianism of the Grand Dukes of Baden as the framework in which her actors will operate, then removes the state authority in much of the issues debated in the society, relegating it to the role of reactionary to and executor of the people's will. The state only re-enters as a force to be reckoned with at seemingly random intervals, such as when reformers underestimate the role the Catholic Church plays in the state's estimation. Though progressive, Badenese Arch Dukes were by no means radicals and often counted on Church officials to be "guardians of order and morality"^[3] in these times of change. A similar weakness that Herzog's style has is in the treatment of the issue of Women's emancipation, which, unlike the chapter on sexuality or Jewish emancipation, seems to be fraught with more ambiguity than other issues. This may be because her subjects were unclear on where they stood, or it may be that the evidence she used is sparse and incoherent on the subject, or any other combination of factors. Whatever the reason, this chapter - her final one of the book - seems to lack the clarity of argumentation and vision as well as the energy suffused into other chapters as if she was reluctant to enter into the debate.

Despite these hurdles, and the reader should be reassured that they are for the most part only moderate hurdles, the book is well argued, and offers a divergent point of view from traditional "great man" history that tends to dominate the study of the Enlightenment's effects on society. A light book, weighing in at less than 200 pages, it none the less packs a lot of historical information into its pages without sacrificing readability to any appreciable degree. Her prose is accessible without being simplistic, which the structure of the book separates the issues that are often intertwined in a clear manner like an architect's blow-up, without disconnecting the issues entirely from each other. Finally, Herzog's argument and book are daring in premise and, despite her "heroes" meeting eventual defeat; it is an interesting tome which encourages the reader to engage in a game of historical "what-might-have-been."

^[1] Page 14

^[2] Page 15

^[3] Page 29