Zrod buršenšaftů: Příspěvek k rané historii německého nacionalismu

Abstract

The aim of this study is the analysis of the development of Burschenschaften from their formation as radicalization of one part of the student movement until the prohibition of politically engaged associations in consequence of the Carlsbad Decrees’ acceptance, and to offer a balanced view on Burschenschaften and their influence on early German nationalism. The meaning of Burschenschaften for early German nationalism was extensive. It consisted primarily in formation and spreading of national ideas in all the German states and social classes, in propagation of the formation of one united national state and also in the effort to establish liberal reforms and, in the first instance, constitutions on the basis of the Article 13 German Federal Act. However the radicalism, which was connected to the Burschenschaften, discredited later the whole student movement. It paralyzed all its progressive strengths and led to the prohibition of the Burschenschaften.