The Restoration of the Electorate of Hesse (Hessen) after the Defeat of Napoleon in 1813
The Restoration of the Electorate of Hesse (Hessen) after the Defeat of Napoleon in 1813
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Today from Kassel's vibrant city center, an avenue runs several kilometers straight as a rod through upmarket residential suburbs and into the Hohes Gras recreational area on a large hillside in the Habichtswald forest. Halfway up this rampart stands the huge and somber palace of Elector Wilhelm I, the Schloss Wilhelmshöhe Palace. Below its staring windows, a broad swath is caught in a straight line through the town and across the entire valley. Above the palace rise, along the same axis, terrace gardens that compose one of Europe's loveliest parks and which culminate in a 180 foot high octagonal stone pedestal, the highest point for miles and miles around, surmounted by a colossal statue of Hercules with his club. In its time this figure of Hercules which dominated the landscape, was a symbol of the brutal absolute power wielded by the rulers of Hessen over their citizens. Among the centralized enlightened autocracies of 18th century Germany, with their splendid geometrical palaces and parks, dominating unfree cities of residence (Residenzstädte) - Berlin, Munich, Dresden, Stuttgart, and Kassel - Kassel had the most brutal ruler.
On October 19, 1817 radical students at a meeting held at the Wartburg Castle above Eisenach Germany started a bonfire into which they threw not only the Code Napoléon and many other written writings, but also a man's ponytail. The ponytail was a symbol of absolutism and the restoration, most specifically absolutism in the Electorate of Hesse (Kurhessen, Hessen, Hessen-Kassel). Hessian soldiers were not allowed to cut their hair, and were required to wear a ponytail. When the Elector Wilhelm I of Hessen Kassel returned to power after the French occupation, he demanded the return of the military braid as a symbol of the return of the old order and authority.
The Staging of the Restoration
On November 21, 1813, a Sunday, the Elector Wilhelm I (Kurfürst Wilhelm I) returned to Kassel. He had spent seven years in exile and been forced to watch how his state had been torn apart by Napoleon and formed into the newly created Kingdom of Westphalia, how Napoleon's brother Jérôme had entered Kassel as a king, how many of the Elector's former soldiers and state officials had given their loyalty to the new king, and how with one reform following another, the old order of things had been ground to dust.
Wilhelm I organized his return trip through his lands in the autumn of 1813 as a triumphal procession. This despite the fact -- or perhaps precisely because of the fact -- that the country was still under the administration of Russian military and the provisional government set up by the Prussians and Russians. This government body under the leadership of General Karl vom und zum Stein, was considering hindering the restoration of the Electorate, or at least to break away some parts of it such as Hanau. Therefore the Elector Wilhelm I presented himself as a triumphant victor, like a Triumphator in ancient Rome, whose coach was pulled by jubilant crowds through the city gates when he arrived in the cities of Hanau and Kassel, while spectators and classes of schoolchildren watched and cheered. For an absolutist Duke this is staging an event of an almost radically populist nature -- and it didn't fail in its goal of making an impression upon the German public. Wilhelm I could represent himself as an incorruptible opponent of Napoleon, even more so than the southern German dukes, although he had made no noteworthy contribution to the military victory. At the same time he presented himself as the only guarantor of order -- for despite the cries of the military authorities for continuity, fairness, and moderation - the power of the state was disappearing into thin air.
The staging of the return was that much more strange because it turned history upside down. After all, six years before Jérôme had entered the electorate of Hessen under just the same cries of jubulation from the people. The young foreign king had no historical legitimacy, and had his hands full trying to remove the stigma of a foreign occupation. Napoleon therefore gave him the task of gaining political legitimacy and showing the exemplary new French way of doing things by means of a systematic series of reforms. And in fact Westphalia did really set the benchmark in this respect. A constitution was created, the very first on German soil. The Code Napoleon was established as the civil code. Equality before the law was proclaimed. The emancipation of the Jews was put through. The obligations of peasants to their landlords loosened. Free trade was introduced. A rational bureaucratic administration replaced age-old practices and peculiarities. The break with the past was also underlined by systematically removing the symbols of the exiled Elector's rule. Wilhelmshöhe Palace (Schloss Wilhelmshöhe) which had only just been rebuilt as a perfect representation of absolutist rule, was given a new name - Napoleonshöhe - and became the focal point of royal celebrations and events.
Other palaces, squares and streets also received new names. Friedrich's Square (Friedrichsplatz) in Kassel became "Place des Etats" and Kings Square (Königsplatz) was renamed "Place Napoléon". Monuments to the Landgraves of Hessen-Kassel were taken down, such as the statue of Landgrave Friedrich II that had been dedicated in 1783 on the former Friedrichsplatz. In their places were erected monuments to the French Emperor. The people followed the example set by the authorities: from Free Masons lodges to taverns, German names were replaced with French ones, for example, the "Hessischer Hof" became the "Hôtel de Westphalie".
After the return of the Elector everything was put back to the way it was before. Napoleonshöhe was once again called Wilhelmshöhe, the squares in Kassel got their old names back, and even destroyed monuments were rebuilt. However, and this was symptomatic for the entire process of restoration, the architect Heinrich Christoph Jussow, who was given this task of rebuilding, took the opportunity these projects allowed to undertake some corrections, from his point of view. Jussow by the way, and this was also very characteristic, had served the Elector before the Elector's exile. The architect had already completed Schloss Wilhelmshöhe Palace by finishing the middle building in 1806, then he reached the highest office in the administration of physical infrastructure in Westphalia by becoming director of the Royal Buildings and General Inspector of Bridges, Streets, and Public Buildings. And now that the Elector had returned, Jussow was the chief royal architect and once again took over direction of all the symbolic building projects planned. Such a career for a bureaucrat was not unusual. The years 1813-14 did not witness any kind of house cleaning among the staff of the bureaucracy. Only a very few bureaucrats, those who had made public attacks upon the Elector's reputation, were let go. All others were allowed to remain in the service of the state. However their seniority and rank was reduced to what it was before the occupation, although they could rise quickly once again. Basically Elector Wilhelm I maintained the same ideology, public face, and attitude, as if the six years of French occupation had never taken place. He simply moved the clock back to just before the point of his departure.
At least he gave the appearance of doing so, for he was smart enough to keep those changes which were to his advantage: the abolition of numerous aristocratic privileges such as feudal courts and freedom from taxation. And he did this while alluding to the very spirit of the times which he so often frowned upon, saying namely that "laws of all types, if they are to be accompanied by favorable success, must be adapted to the times".
