A meeting of middle-class revolutionaries
In an attempt to put the genie of reform and nationalism back into the bottle, the rulers of the various states of the German Confederation deployed a range of repressive measures – bans, censorship, spies and draconian punishments – to buttress their restored rule after the fall of Napoleon. Taking their cue from the French, who overthrew their reactionary king in July 1830, the people of western Germany stepped up their clamour for reform. A group of journalists and publishers in Bavarian-ruled Rhineland Palatinate exploited the freedoms remaining from the period of French rule to organize one of the largest and most spectacular political gatherings of the pre-1848 period: the Hambach Festival.
As the Bavarian authorities disliked political rallies, the organizers of the meeting sold it as a festival. 27 and 28 May 1832 saw twenty to thirty thousand people, many carrying flags of black, red and gold – the German national colours – gather in the grounds of the ruined Hambach Castle. The participants – ordinary citizens, peasants and students from across Germany – demanded freedom of the press, freedom of expression and assembly, civil rights, popular sovereignty and national unity. After the end of the festival, the initiators were arrested and the display of a German tricolour was banned. It was too late: however hard the authorities cracked down, the German people remained irate. This anger was to boil over into the March Revolutions of 1848.
About the Deutschlandmuseum
An immersive and innovative experience museum about 2000 years of German history
The whole year at a glance
