OF UNIONS AND UNITY

Today the 3^rd October 2011 marks the 21^st anniversary of German Unity Day. The new Germany is now 21 years old and has for some time had a key to the front door.

On the 3^rd October 1990 the German Democratic Republic ceased to exist and its territory became part of the Federal Republic of Germany. East German citizens became part of the European Union. This day is now a public holiday celebrated as German Unity Day.

An alternative choice to commemorate the reunification could have been  the 9^th of November, which was the day on 1989 when the Berlin wall came down. That day also coincided with the anniversary of the proclamation of the German Republic in 1918 and the defeats of Hitler’s first Munich Coup in 1923. But German sensibilities were more aware of the fact that the 9^th November 1938 was the night of the first large scale pogroms against the German Jewish population, now known as Kristallnacht. It was therefore decided that the day of formal reunification, the 3^rd October, 1990 would be chosen as a day to commemorate.

This day is celebrated each year with a ceremonial act and a citizens’ festival, Bürgerfest , which is hosted usually in the state capital of the German state presiding over the Bundesrat in the respective year. The Bundesrat is the legislative body that represents the sixteen federal states of Germany at the federal level. This year it is Bonn, the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia. It seems fitting at the age of 21, that the celebrations should be held it what was once the capital city of the Federal Republic of West Germany.

Some 2053 years ago on the 3^rd October 42 BC (if such dates can be considered as accurate) the first battle of Philippi took place. This battle between the unified forces of Octavian, Marc Antony and Lepidus, the Triumvirs, against the unified forces of Brutus and Cassius, styling themselves as the Liberators, was initially considered a draw; however, the subsequent encounter, on the 23^rd was pretty decisive in favour of the Triumvirs of Octavian and Antony. 

Antony

Octavian (Augustus

Brutus

                                       

Once again Shakespeare made it all come alive:

BRUTUS

Well, to our work alive. What do you think

Of marching to Philippi presently?

CASSIUS

I do not think it good.

BRUTUS

Your reason?

CASSIUS

This it is:

'Tis better that the enemy seek us:

So shall he waste his means, weary his soldiers,

Doing himself offence; whilst we, lying still,

Are full of rest, defense, and nimbleness.

BRUTUS

Good reasons must, of force, give place to better.

The people 'twixt Philippi and this ground

Do stand but in a forced affection;

For they have grudged us contribution:

The enemy, marching along by them,

By them shall make a fuller number up,

Come on refresh'd, new-added, and encouraged;

From which advantage shall we cut him off,

If at Philippi we do face him there,

These people at our back.

CASSIUS

Hear me, good brother.

BRUTUS

Under your pardon. You must note beside,

That we have tried the utmost of our friends,

Our legions are brim-full, our cause is ripe:

The enemy increaseth every day;

We, at the height, are ready to decline.

There is a tide in the affairs of men,

Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;

Omitted, all the voyage of their life

Is bound in shallows and in miseries.

On such a full sea are we now afloat;

And we must take the current when it serves,

Or lose our ventures.

CASSIUS

Then, with your will, go on;

We'll along ourselves, and meet them at Philippi.

BRUTUS

The deep of night is crept upon our talk,

And nature must obey necessity;

Which we will niggard with a little rest.

There is no more to say?

CASSIUS

No more. Good night:

Early to-morrow will we rise, and hence.

BRUTUS

Lucius!

Enter LUCIUS

My gown.

Exit LUCIUS

Farewell, good Messala:

Good night, Titinius. Noble, noble Cassius,

Good night, and good repose.

CASSIUS

O my dear brother!

This was an ill beginning of the night:

Never come such division 'tween our souls!

Let it not, Brutus.

BRUTUS

Every thing is well.

CASSIUS

Good night, my lord.

BRUTUS

Good night, good brother.

TITINIUS MESSALA

Good night, Lord Brutus.

BRUTUS

Farewell, every one.

Indeed farewell noble Brutus. There is something unforgettable about these four lines:

There is a tide in the affairs of men,

Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;

Omitted, all the voyage of their life

Is bound in shallows and in miseries.

Something to do with Carpe Diem I think.

When thinking of unity or union one must recall the Roman Empire:

And the Holy Roman Empire:

One presumes German Unification has stopped at 1990 borders. Mind you, the Empire as depicted in 1600 does give one pause; although, that could indicate that the Republic of Turkey might say "Give us back Spain". There is a tide in the affairs of men….

KAZAN

Just a brief note - on 2nd October 1552 Kazan was taken by Ivan the Terrible. Sergei Eisenstein set the siege on film in 1944.

WHEELING AND DEALING IN EUROPE

A few things stand out for the 1^st October. The news media was greeted with a new tabloid on the 1^st October 1843, when the News of the World tabloid began publication in London, whilst on the 1^st October 1910, a large bomb destroyed the Los Angeles Times building in downtown Los Angeles, killing 21 people.

Something of more significance however, began on the 1^st October 1814, the opening of the Congress of Vienna. The intention was to redraw Europe’s political boundaries after the defeat of Napoleon at the Battle of Leipzig between the 16^th and 19^th October 1913. Napoleon was forced to abdicate and was exiled to Elba.

The Congress of Vienna was a conference of ambassadors of European states chaired by Klemens Wenzel von Metternich, and held in Vienna. The objective of the Congress was to settle the many issues arising from the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars, and the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire. This objective resulted in the redrawing of the continent's political map, establishing the boundaries of France, the Duchy of Warsaw, the Netherlands, the states of the Rhine, the German province of Saxony, and various Italian territories, and the creation of spheres of influence through which Austria, Britain, France and Russia brokered local and regional problems. The Congress of Vienna was the first of a series of international meetings that came to be known as the Concert of Europe, which some would believe was an attempt to forge a peaceful balance of power in Europe, and served as a model for later organizations such as the League of Nations and United Nations. In my view it may have been a model for organising large get-togethers between various foreign ministers and heads of state. The peaceful balance of power, however, was more problematic. The meeting merely ended up being the usual carve up of European States. The ensuing results of that carve up is what led to the Franco Prussian War, followed by World War I and then World War II, which produce its own carve up Europe meeting at Potsdam in 1945.

The Final Act, embodying all the separate treaties arrived at, was signed on the 9^th June 1815, only a few days before the Battle of Waterloo.

Its provisions included:

▪   Russia was given most of the Duchy of Warsaw (Poland) and was allowed to keep Finland (which it had annexed from Sweden in 1809 and held until 1917).

▪   Prussia was given two fifths of Saxony, parts of the Duchy of Warsaw (the Grand Duchy of Posen), Danzig, and the Rhineland/Westphalia.

▪   A German Confederation of 38 states was created from the previous 360 of the Holy Roman Empire, under the presidency of the Austrian Emperor. Only portions of the territory of Austria and Prussia were included in the Confederation.

▪   The Netherlands and the Southern Netherlands (approx. modern-day Belgium) were united in a constitutional monarchy, the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, with the House of Orange-Nassau providing the king (the Eight Articles of London).

▪   To compensate for the Orange-Nassau's loss of the Nassau lands to Prussia, the United Kingdom of the Netherlands and the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg were to form a personal union under the House of Orange-Nassau, with Luxembourg (but not the Netherlands) inside the German Confederation.[24]

▪   Swedish Pomerania, ceded to Denmark a year earlier, was ceded to Prussia.

▪   The neutrality of Switzerland was guaranteed.

▪   Hanover gave up the Duchy of Lauenburg to Denmark, but was enlarged by the addition of former territories of the Bishop of Münster and by the formerly Prussian East Frisia, and made a kingdom.

▪   Most of the territorial gains of Bavaria, Württemberg, Baden, Hesse-Darmstadt, and Nassau under the mediatizations of 1801–1806 were recognized. Bavaria also gained control of the Rhenish Palatinate and parts of the Napoleonic Duchy of Würzburg and Grand Duchy of Frankfurt. Hesse-Darmstadt, in exchange for giving up the Duchy of Westphalia to Prussia, was granted the city.

▪   Austria regained control of the Tirol and Salzburg; of the former Illyrian Provinces; of Tarnopol district (from Russia); received Lombardy-Venetia in Italy and Dubrovnik in Dalmatia. Former Austrian territory in Southwest Germany remained under the control of Württemberg and Baden, and the Austrian Netherlands were also not recovered.

▪   Habsburg princes were returned to control of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany and the Duchy of Modena.

▪   The Papal States were under the rule of the pope and restored to their former extent, with the exception of Avignon and the Comtat Venaissin, which remained part of France.

▪   The United Kingdom was confirmed in control of the Cape Colony in Southern Africa; Tobago; Ceylon; and various other colonies in Africa and Asia. Other colonies, most notably the Dutch East Indies and Martinique, were restored to their previous owners.

▪   The King of Sardinia was restored in Piedmont, Nice, and Savoy, and was given control of Genoa (putting an end to the brief proclamation of a restored Republic).

▪   The Duchies of Parma, Piacenza and Guastalla were given to Marie Louise, Napoleon's wife.

▪   The Duchy of Lucca was created for the House of Bourbon-Parma, which would have reversionary rights to Parma after the death of Marie Louise.

▪   The Bourbon Ferdinand IV, King of Sicily was restored to control of the Kingdom of Naples after Joachim Murat, the king installed by Bonaparte, supported Napoleon in the Hundred Days and started the Neapolitan War by attacking Austria.

▪   The slave trade was condemned.

▪   Freedom of navigation was guaranteed for many rivers, notably the Rhine and the Danube

          

Quite a lot was apparently achieved, even if the balance of power and peace never really had a chance. The governments concerned were conservative and royalist, if not feudal. What hope did the spirit of the American and French Revolutions have with their Droits de l”Homme and Bill of Rights, which should have been at the heart of such a Congress?

The devastation following the second World War is the testimony to that. Oddly enough it was on the 1^st October 1946 that the verdicts were pronounced at the end of the Nuremberg Trials.

 The 1st  October, 1946 Süddeutsche Zeitung announces "The Verdict in Nuremberg." Depicted are (left, from top): Göring, Hess, Ribbentrop, Keitel, Kaltenbrunner, Rosenberg, Frank, Frick; (second column) Funk, Streicher, Schacht; (third column) Dönitz, Raeder, Schirach; (right, from top) Sauckel, Jodl, Papen, Seyss-Inquart, Speer, Neurath, Fritzsche, Bormann. Image from Topography of Terror Museum, Berlin.