Germany's Rude Awakening
Censorship in the Land of the Brothers Grimm
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 16536725 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Katherine Aaslestad (corresponding author), Katherine B Aaslestad, Frederik Ohles |
| Year | 1994 |
| Volume | 17 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 169 |
| Publication date | 1994-02-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | German Studies Review (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0149-7952 • E-ISSN: 2164-8646 |
| Publisher | JSTOR (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.2307/1431319 |
| OpenAlex | W1991038597 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 4 |
Germany's Rude Awakening depicts the rise and fall of censorship in the age of the Brothers Grimm and Prince Metternich. Focusing on the Grimm's homeland of Hesse-Cassel, it illustrates how censorship first awakened to the challenge posed by new political forces and literary forms, then lost its effectiveness as more and more Germans read and wrote what they wanted, finding ways to evade both censors and police. Frederik Ohles looks beyond the legislation of the German Confederation, beyond the pronouncements of Prince Metternich, to examine actual practices. He asks what effect laws had on the censors' work; analyses the political influence Prussia and Austria had on the Principality of Hesse, situated at the crossroads of the German Confederation; and interprets the results of censorship on literature, politics, the book trade, and public and private life. In telling the story of a momentous struggle between old and new views of politics and literature, he shows that while censorship became a public issue in 19th century Germany it failed as a policing institution. Ohles's extensive research includes police archives, early issues of the bookdealers' gazette published in Marburg, recollections of the Brothers Grimm, the Hessian collection of artistic and scholarly memoirs, and travellers' accounts. The result is a work that will appeal to specialists 19th century German history and literature as well as historians of censorship, publishing, and German political culture. It also complements current historical debates about communications, public culture, and the modernisation of bureaucracy
Art · Censorship · Literature · Political science · European history and politics · German History and Society · German Literature and Culture Studies · History · Law
| Citations per year | 0.25 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2010 - 2021 (12) |
| Highly cited | No |