Home / Press review / Archive / Magazine / History / Narrating the Nation / Article

A history of European identity, by Wolfgang Schmale

« back . 1 . 2 . 3 . 4 . 5 . next »

European Enlightenment Culture

In the intervening period, and as a result of the eighteenth-century Enlightenment's new definition of the concept of culture, the equation of European identity with "European culture” won more and more adherents. The above-mentioned early modern European demos was enriched over time by citizens, freelancers and intellectuals, social groups which were or became a part of the European communication network in the Age of Enlightenment. Since the Enlightenment, it was those social groups who, as a result of their own interests, were connected with one another socially, economically and in terms of communication, who became the bearers of the Enlightenment in its various facets, who displayed the sociability typical of the Enlightenment, and who constituted a trans-national collective which needed to define itself as "European”. This European collective can be called the demos of the Enlightenment.

It is no coincidence that the structural changes within this European collective which had an interest in defining itself - from the demos of the early modern period through to that of the Enlightenment – were connected, above all since the eighteenth century, with the idea of "European culture” as European identity. The principal emblem used for this identity was the allegory of Europe as part of the earth. It was furnished with countless attributes which illustrated the achievements of European culture, considered to be substantial. The attributes of Europa reified those individual things which people thought of when they thought of European culture: art, science, scholarship, the art of war, expansion beyond the seas, natural riches, Christianity, the political system, and much else besides.

The numerous cultural histories of the period, from Johann Christoph Adelung via Gottfried Herder and Immanuel Kant through to Voltaire, expounded on the idea that Europe's culture constituted its identity. Generally, the development of European culture was embedded in the history of mankind, which offered a good opportunity to demonstrate Europe's superiority in comparative culture. What these cultural histories all have in common is that, for the first time, they create a coherent history of Europe, in which trans-national and national historical elements were seen in their connection to one another within a systematic representation.

In spite of the fact that, in relation to the whole population, it had only a limited social basis, the demos of the early modern period and the Enlightenment did represent something which can rightly be called a European demos. The criteria for this are the fact that this was a truly European network; that the members of this group participated in the discourses which pointed the way; they shared in common fundamental political attitudes, views about Europe, a common interest in self-definition over Europe, and a common emblem of identity. In contrast to the concept of the demos in a democratic state, such as we use the term today, the majority of the members of these two historically successive demoi possessed no direct or formally secured rights of participation in political decision-making. But this does not mean that they lacked political influence: one only has to think of the most important members of the Enlightenment.

The impending end of the unity of the early modern period was already becoming clear by the time of the Enlightenment. The end eventually came about in the era of the French revolution in Europe. It occurred with respect to all the criteria listed above, on which the two early modern demoi had been based. Since the French Revolution, these criteria could be applied to a whole series of groups which can be defined in socio-political terms and which represented a European network. They were frequently in competition with one another, a competition which often broke out into armed conflict. We are dealing here with European collectives who defined European identity in different ways: (1) monarchs who followed the principle of legitimacy, who to a certain extent carried forward the early modern collective of the European demos – their European identity was expressed by the concept of the Holy Alliance; (2) the liberal bourgeoisie, which held political, economic, social and religious liberalism to be the European identity; (3) democrats, and often with them members of republican secret societies and the peace movement of the 19th century, who on the basis of the idea of the fraternity of the politically emancipated people of Europe (nations) recognised the identity of Europe in the United States of Europe for which they strove; (4) further European collective which crystallised in the course of the 19th century and which had quite different aims: the working class, the "intellectuals”, the "capitalists” (entrepreneurs and bankers who operated across Europe) and (generally university) scholars.

Although the dividing lines were unclear – Conrad von Schmidt-Phiseldek, who was famous as an author in the 19th century, linked the "Holy Alliance” with the "United States of Europe”[1] – the number of intra-European exclusions increased, especially towards Eastern Europe and the Balkans (with the exception of Greece) and the various goals drifted ever further apart. In contrast to the era of the early modern and Enlightenment demoi, Europe was no longer a common goal. However, ideas about European culture did remain. In the age of world exhibitions, they were occasionally made visual by means of the use of the figure of Europa (as a part of the globe), for example at the Paris world exhibition of 1878.[2] In the discourse of the various European collectives, certain common denominators remained, at least with respect to cultural identity, although racialist conceptions of history increasingly put pressure on the Enlightenment idea of a cultural European identity.

« back . 1 . 2 . 3 . 4 . 5 . next »

Further articles on the subject » Public Culture, » History, » Europe
More from the press review on the subject » Public Culture, » History, » Europe