The German Question, Part Thirty

"The Dismantling of Poland" Part One

While this is about German history, you might wonder why a segment about Poland is included. Well, two of the German states, Prussia and Austria, were involved in what is known to history as "The Partitions of Poland," and both added Polish territory to their realms. The overall politics of these partitions (there were three partitions over about a 23 year period) is far more complicated than I want to deal with here, but I'll leave it as a basic effort to maintain a certain balance of power between Prussia, Austria, and Russia. Just a little background: Poland and Lithuania had been joined in a commonwealth in the 1500s.* Initially it was very powerful, both militarily and economically, but over time its power and political stability declined. There were many reasons for this decline, but one reason was the vast diversity of its people, both ethnically and by religion. While Poles were the largest group in the commonwealth, there were substantial numbers of Lithuanians, Jews, Ukrainians, Ruthenians and Germans.** Roman Catholicism was the largest single religion, but there were significant numbers of Eastern Orthodox, Protestants (mainly Lutherans), Eastern Catholics (some referred to as Uniate members), and Jews. A decline in trade, uprisings by some Ukrainians, and out and out civil war conditions helped weaken the commonwealth, and eventually Russia became its protector.

The first partition, known by the unique name....ah..."The First Partition of Poland," was mainly engineered by Frederick the Great in 1772, even though he got the smallest amount of territory. Prussia took much of the northern parts of Polish territory, which included tacking on lands to northeastern Prussia, aka "East Prussia" (Ostpreussen, in German). It also obtained the lands along the Baltic coast and inland, thus depriving Poland of seaports (this issue would come back in the future, and I will cover it when we get to the aftermath of World War One). Much of this new land was called "West Prussia" (Westpreussen, in German). This new territory then linked East Prussia with the rest of Brandenburg/Prussia. Austria received a huge portion of what was known as "Galicia" (in southern and sw Poland) and a further part of southeastern Poland, including the town of Oświęcim, later to become infamous during World War Two, and better known by its German name...Auschwitz. Russia received large territories to the east and northeast. Russia at that time was ruled by Catherine II, better known as "Catherine the Great," who was a German by birth. Only a small rump of Poland remained at that time outside the borders of her neighbors.

The two German states together added more than three million people to their populations, although Prussia gained many people of German or mixed German-Polish background, and Austria gained many non-Germans. The fact that Austria had so many non-German populated territories was an issue that would gradually begin to disqualify Austria, more specifically the Habsburgs, from leading Germany in the eyes of some Germans.

One little humorous note, if there is anything humorous about carving up a country: While Maria Theresa's son and co-ruler of the Habsburg lands (and German Emperor), Joseph, had actually helped plan the partition of Poland, Maria Theresa initially opposed the plans as detrimental to Poland. Frederick the Great later noted something to the effect that (Maria Theresa) cried (in sympathy for the Poles) when she took their land, but the more she cried, the more land she took!

* As I've cautioned previously in this series, national and geographic terms, like in this case, Poland from those times, do not always correspond to our more modern concepts of these territories, as borders changed, sometimes, substantially so.

** The percentage of the population of these various groups changed as the borders periodically changed during the time the commonwealth lasted.

WORD HISTORY:
Court-This goes back to the Indo European root "gher," which meant "enclose/fence or wall in." This gave the Latin offshoot "cohors/cors," which meant "an enclosed area surrounding a house or building." From this, Old French, a Latin-based language, got "cort/curt," which took on the the more specific meaning of "king's or noble's enclosed yard around his residence." This came to English in the latter part of the 1100s from Anglo-Norman, but is more commonly rendered in modern English as the compound "courtyard" ("yard" is from the Germanic roots of English). This basic notion, perhaps associated then with the similar Latin word "curia," which meant "sovereign's assembly/personnel," gave us this further meaning, perhaps seen as "king's personnel assembled in the court(yard)." Further still, association with "curia," which meant "council," gave the term the more legalistic sense that we still use, as in "court of law," as originally, a king/ruler literally sat at the head of a council (or by himself) to decide legal matters of the citizenry. It seems some linguists believe that the verbal meaning "pay court to someone," came from the Italian form "corteggiare" (pay honor to someone) of the above Old Latin word. Others seem to feel it just came from the same path as "court" itself, simply meaning "to behave in a proper manner in court, or to behave as if in court." The verb seems to have come into English usage in the 1500s.

The German Question, Part Twenty-Nine

"An Empress & Queen Of The Germans" Part Two of Two

When Frederick the Great first invaded Silesia, he offered a deal to Maria Theresa, that if she would give up most of the province to him, he would then side with her to defend her rights as a female ruler. Maria Theresa was advised to accept the offer, even initially by her husband, but she declined, preferring to fight for her territory. Her husband then went along steadfastly with her decision. While she did not succeed in recovering Silesia from Prussia, her determination showed that she was a force to be reckoned with, and that she would not just let her lands be taken over without a fight because she was a woman. She attempted, without success, to regain her lost Silesian territory even after the war ended (see Part 26 for a brief sketch of the "Seven Years' War," which included Maria Theresa's unsuccessful attempt to regain control over Silesia. Here is the link to Part 26: http://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2010/07/german-question-part-twenty-six.html ).

If you think enduring war showed Maria Theresa's character, she had SIXTEEN children (three died in infancy, far from uncommon in those times), which meant that during most of the crises of more than the first half of her rule, she was in some stage of pregnancy. Two of her sons, Joseph and Leopold, became German emperors, her daughter Maria Carolina became what was then called Queen of Naples and Sicily, and her most famous offspring, daughter Marie Antoinette, became Queen of France, a position which cost her life, as she was taken prisoner and then beheaded as a consequence of the French Revolution (as was her husband, King Louis XVI).

Maria Theresa pushed for reform of the army and of the government itself, instituting a substantial standing army that showed she was ready for war with any would-be invader, and imposing taxes on the rich and the nobility, which although not entirely successful, showed that she was not afraid of society's rich and powerful. The additional revenues more than helped balance her treasury, and the surplus further helped discourage other rulers from aggressive acts, as she had cash to support her army. She brought learned and experienced people into government to advise her on all sorts of matters, demonstrating that she was not so insecure in her position that she feared such advice. She survived an attack of smallpox in the 1760s, making her determined to try to prevent large outbreaks of this serious disease which often had a mortality rate of 25%-30%, in its most virulent form. This was before Jenner's vaccine, but there was a form of inoculation (using powdered scabs blown up the nose) used to literally give people a mild form of the disease (usually a slight rash), thus preventing further, more serious, or even fatal, infection.* She had her own children inoculated and pressed others to do the same, and her example helped propel the number of inoculated children in her territories, mainly in what is now modern Austria. Maria Theresa also tried to make it mandatory for children to attend school, but the very nature of the geography (mountains, valleys, and many isolated areas), made it virtually impossible to enforce, although she wanted parents arrested and punished for non-compliance. She also tried to force her many non-German speaking subjects to learn German to "Germanize" all of her lands. Not only did this not succeed, it had the opposite effect with many non-Germans, bringing about a certain "nationalism" or "ethnic pride," especially among the Czechs.

While obviously "enlightened" in some matters, Maria Theresa was a very devout Roman Catholic, and she was not tolerant of other religious beliefs, except Eastern Orthodox believers. She openly believed that her lands should be uniform in Roman Catholicism, and even tried harsh measures to convert non-Catholics, but interestingly, at the same time, she reserved the right of appointment of all Catholic authorities in her lands for herself, and not for the Church. She had a substantial number of Austrian Protestants relocated to Transylvania, then a part of her Kingdom of Hungary. A blot on her legacy was her commitment to extreme measures against Jews living in her territories, especially during the first half of her rule. She issued exorbitant taxes on Jews, had Jewish children forcibly converted to Catholicism, and had many Jews expelled from various parts of her lands. Later, under the influence of her son Joseph, who was far more tolerant of differing religions, she began to ease her anti-Jewish measures, even eventually offering Jews some protections, and abandoning the practice of forcible conversion of Jewish children.

Upon the death of her husband, German Emperor Franz I, in the summer of 1765, Maria Theresa lost her title as "German Empress and Queen of the Germans." Their son Joseph (Josef, in German) was then elected German Emperor as Joseph II. Maria Theresa also made Joseph her co-ruler in the Habsburg lands; he thus replaced his late father. Joseph was more "enlightened" than his mother, and the two did not see eye-to-eye on many matters, but while he had an influence on some of her ideas, she prevailed in overall matters, often even regarding policies of the German Empire, although HE was the emperor! Maria Theresa died in 1780, leaving Joseph in full control of both the German Empire and the Habsburg lands. Frederick the Great, Maria Theresa's frequent military opponent, commented that Maria Theresa's achievements were as great as many men, which was quite a compliment to a woman in those days.

*This was obviously a bit risky, as some people came down with more serious infections, but from what I've read, it seems such cases were relatively rare, and the risk of death from an outbreak of the more serious form of smallpox was eventually seen as far greater (as was the risk of severe scarring for those who survived).

WORD HISTORY:
Mesh-This word seems to go back to Indo European "mezg," with the idea of "knitted or twisted." This gave the Old Germanic offshoot "masko/mesko," which in turn gave Anglo-Saxon (Old English) "masc/max," which meant "net," plus Old English had the word "maescre," seemingly derived from the same source, which seems to have actually meant "mesh." All of these forms seem to have "meshed" together (I couldn't resist that!), later giving English "mesche," before moving on to the modern spelling. Relatives in the other Germanic languages include German "Masche," Low German "Masch," Dutch "maas," Icelandic "möskvi," Norwegian and Danish "maske," Swedish "maska." Notice that the North Germanic languages of Icelandic, Danish, Norwegian and Swedish all use the harder "k" sound, as compared to the West Germanic languages of English, German, Low German and Dutch using the softer sounding "sh/sch/s." I could not find a modern form in Frisian. 

The German Question, Part Twenty-Eight

"An Empress and Queen Of The Germans" Part One of Two

If you've noticed there haven't been any female German rulers, it's because women could not hold the throne of the German Empire.* They were designated as "Queen of the Germans" and "Empress,"** but it was not a ruling title, and it was given only as their title due to marriage to the Emperor and King of the Germans. The Habsburg family likewise only allowed males to assume the ruling titles of their various possessions. Kaiser Karl VI (Emperor Charles VI, in English) was of the Habsburg family, and he had only two daughters (as did his older brother). Without a male heir, the control of his lands (not the imperial throne, which was an elected position) would go to other members of his family, and not to his eldest daughter.*** To get around the Habsburg succession law of that time, Karl issued an edict, called the "Pragmatic Sanction of 1713," which permitted the Habsburg ruler to be a woman. In an effort to make the law effective if it were put into practice, Karl obtained the signatures of many of the other rulers of Europe, who agreed to recognize the law. These signatories included many of the rulers of the more powerful German states, as well as the German Imperial council, and the king of Great Britain, whose king was a German, and indeed, he held German lands in and around Hanover.

The problem was, with such vast holdings of the Habsburgs at stake, when Karl died in 1740 and his daughter, Maria Theresa (Maria Theresia, in German), took control of the House of Habsburg,**** the temptations for others were too great, and a number of signatories to the edict broke their word. This led to the "War of the Austrian Succession," as these rulers tried to grab whatever lands they could from the new "Queen of Hungary and Bohemia and Archduchess of Austria." The war became a major European war, and even had an adjunct in North America, known as "King George's War." On one side was Prussia, France, Spain, Bavaria, Saxony and some others, and on the other side was the Habsburg Monarchy, Great Britain and its allied Hanover, the Dutch Republic,***** Russia (at times), and the Kingdom of Sardinia.^ Saxony later changed sides.

In late 1740, Prussia, under Frederick the Great, invaded the Habsburg territory of Silesia (Schlesien, in German), a very important region due to its abundant coal and copper.^^ The Prussians were victorious, and they occupied the region. The French and the Bavarians took Prague in 1741, and the Bavarian ruler, Karl, soon to be elected German Emperor Karl VII, was named King of Bohemia.^^^ The Austrian forces moved into Bavaria, as it had been left sparsely defended. The war swayed back and forth, and a treaty with the Bavarians in 1745 ("Peace of Füssen") took them out of the alliance against Maria Theresa, and in the end, in 1748, Maria Theresa regained all of her lost territories, except the Silesian lands, which she lost to Frederick the Great of Prussia.

Now for intrigue, some of which coincided with the above war. Maria Theresa could not become a ruling German empress due to her gender, so she strove to get her husband, Franz Stephan, selected as emperor. In order to get him a vote as an elector, she made him co-ruler of the Austrian and Bohemian lands, and the Hungarians approved his co-ruler status about a year later. In truth, Maria Theresa kept the actual power. As part of the "Peace of Füssen," mentioned above, not only did the Bavarian elector drop any claim to become German emperor, he agreed to support Maria Theresa's husband for the position, and to secure the votes of family members (the Wittelsbach family) of two other German electors. When Karl VII died, Franz Stephan was elected German emperor, as Franz I, and this formed the House of Habsburg-Lorraine (Habsburg-Lothringen, in German). As with the Habsburg lands, Maria Theresa was the real power. She remained German Empress and Queen of the Germans until her husband's death in 1765.
To be continued ...

(A Word History is below the notes)

* Allowing only males to occupy noble ruling positions was quite common among the German nobles of the various states in those times, as well as in many other European countries.  

** In German, queen=Königin (all German nouns are capitalized) and empress=Kaiserin.

*** The Habsburg ruler carried a number of titles, but I would say the main titles were "King of Hungary, Archduke of Austria, and King of Bohemia."

**** Karl VI was succeeded by Karl VII, as German emperor. This is mainly noteworthy as Karl VII was not a Habsburg, but rather from the Wittelsbach family and Prince-Elector of Bavaria, although he was married to a Habsburg. He was the first non-Habsburg German emperor in three hundred years!

***** Remember, the Dutch had been given total independence from the German Empire in 1648, but the southern districts of the former Low Countries, essentially the future Belgium, remained a part of the Habsburg possessions, and were thus ruled by Maria Theresa.

^ The Kingdom of Sardinia would eventually lead the movement to unite Italy into a modern nation, but that was not until the mid 1800s.

^^ Silesia in those times was undoubtedly heavily German, but with a substantial Polish minority and a smaller Czech minority, both of which, however, formed majorities in certain locales.

^^^ Karl VII died during the war, in 1745, and this brought about a new election for German emperor.

WORD HISTORY:
Arch-I'd say the noun form, meaning "curved, bowed," as in "arch"way, is not the same word as the adjective, meaning "main, superior, chief, principal" as in "arch"enemy (chief, main enemy), "arch"duke (main, superior duke). The adjective goes back to Greek "arkos," which had the meaning "superior."  "Supposedly" this goes back to Indo European "arkhein," with a notion of "rule, command," which, if true, would certainly tie into the idea of "main, principal, superior." How English got the word is puzzling, but German has the related "Erz," which is used in the same way English uses "arch;" for example, "Erz"feind="arch"enemy, and both may well have gotten the term from Greek or from Church use, such as "arch bishop." The ultimate origin of the noun form is uncertain, but Latin had "arcus," which meant "curve, bow," and it is also the source of "arc." This gave Old French (a Latin-based language) "arche," and this was then borrowed by English from French in the 1300s.

The German Question, Part Fifteen

One of the most important families in German history is that of the Habsburgs. The family, or at least the part of the family that came to be such durable rulers, arose in the southwestern German lands, specifically a region known as Swabia. There they built a castle called "Habsburg" (Burg in German means "castle," and more specifically "fortified castle," as opposed to a palace-type castle, which in German is a "Schloss"). While there is some disagreement over how the name came into existence, the traditional view of historians and linguists has been that the "Habs" part came from a contraction of, or a dialect pronunciation of, the German word for "hawk," which is "Habicht," with the "s" showing possession; and thus we have "Hawk's Castle." The castle was built circa 1025 A.D., and "supposedly" had a hawk frequently perched atop its walls, thus spawning the name. From what is known, the family didn't begin to associate the name of their castle with their actual family until the early 1100s, but it is quite understandable that such would happen, as in those times, when not everyone had a family name, it was not uncustomary for people to take on the name of the place they were connected with in the public mind. So we have the "von Habsburg" family, with "von" meaning "of/from" in German, just as in England there is the "Duke of Edinburgh," "Robin of Locksley/Sherwood," etc. "Von" came to denote "noble" status in German when used as part of a family name.

By the 1400s, the area of the castle was taken over by the Swiss Confederation, and it remains a part of Switzerland to this day (the castle still stands in the village of "Habsburg," which only has a few hundred residents). Remember, in those times, the area of present-day Switzerland was part of the old German ("Holy Roman") Empire. Habsburg Castle lies close to the present-day border with Germany, and to its former owner, and to the area of Swabia (Schwaben in German), home of "Mercedes" vehicles. The Habsburgs eventually ruled from Vienna ("Wien" in German), and indeed, Vienna was essentially the capital of the German Empire for many, many years.

Over time, the Habsburgs expanded the family holdings from that small area to much of that part of the southwestern German lands (including Alsace and the area around present-day Freiburg), and then they proceeded to acquire lands further eastward to the border of the Empire, including much of present-day Austria. The history of all of these acquisitions is complicated, but the lands were not always "seized" by force,* but often were acquired through negotiations or through marriages, sometimes "strategic marriages."**

With the prestige of having so many lands, the Habsburgs became THE important German noble family of those times, with titles like "duke" and "archduke," and the family leaders were often elected as German emperors (and kings of Germany), the first being Rudolf von Habsburg (usually with the Roman numeral "I" included in his name, as Rudolf I von Habsburg) in 1273.*** In fact, over a period of nearly 600 years, a Habsburg occupied the imperial throne much of the time, and in the last 368 years of the empire, a Habsburg was German emperor for all but 3 to 4 years.****

So, this is one of the powerful German families that ruled German lands, and the Habsburgs were based in the southern area of German territory. A bit later, another family, based in the north, rose to prominence and challenged the Habsburgs for the right to rule Germany. (A "Word History" follows the notes)

* With the loose organization of the German Empire, the German states frequently fought with each other, often resulting in transfers of territory.

** "Strategic marriages" were those where Habsburgs deliberately married into families that owned lands they wanted (what's all this "love" stuff, anyway?); thus bringing some of those lands into the Habsburg domain upon marriage, or eventually all of the lands due to heredity. I should note, this was NOT a practice exclusive to the Habsburgs, but they could have taught classes in it, as they were masters at it.

*** Technically, Rudolf I was not the German emperor, but rather carried the title "King Of Germany" due to much political turmoil in Germany with the decline of the Hohenstaufen family dynasty and because of battles with the Papacy. In order to get the "blessing" of the Pope as German king, Rudolf had to renounce certain possessions of the empire in Italy. He is counted as a German emperor, as he was indeed elected by the German electors in Frankfurt in 1273.

**** Later, Maria Theresa of the Habsburg family married Franz Stephan, the Duke of Lorraine (German: Lothringen), a territory that is about to become very important in the, "who is a German," question. So there will be much more on Lorraine. Maria Theresa's marriage to Franz Stephan altered the name of the dynasty to, "Habsburg-Lorraine," but the long connection of the Habsburgs to the German imperial throne still remained. 

WORD HISTORY:
Kaiser-This word goes back to Julius "Caesar," who became Roman Emperor. His personality was so strong, his name became associated with his position as emperor, which was "Imperator" in Latin. The Germanic peoples picked up the word "Caesar" in their own various forms, as did the Slavic peoples (thus we have "Tsar" or "Czar," which is simply "Caesar" in Slavic form). Old English had "casere," but from what I can find, the word seems to have died out (maybe it was stabbed to death, like its namesake, ah, for those unaware, Julius Caesar was stabbed to death in Rome in 44 B.C. Okay, don't laugh too much!) During the mid 1800s, English borrowed "Kaiser" from German, as it was the German word for "emperor." This went back to Old High German "keisar," which had been borrowed from Latin, noted above. The modern German spelling of "Kaiser," comes from south German dialect ("Bavarian," or as some now call it, "Austro-Bavarian"), which tends to use "ai" in place of "ei" in some spelling, but with the same pronunciation. When many Americans hear the word, they most likely think of "Kaiser Wilhelm," who was German emperor during World War I (he was actually "Kaiser Wilhelm II), but "Kaiser" was the title of other previous German/Austrian emperors.