SOVEREIGNTY AND THE LEGAL LEGACIES OF EMPIRE IN EARLY NINETEENTH-CENTURY PRUSSIA
Charlotte Johann
Abstract The traceless disappearance of the Holy Roman Empire from map and minds nineteenth-century Germany was until recently a pervasive historiographical trope. Revisionist scholarship has since uncovered empire's modern afterlife as model for federative political order archetype greater German ( großdeutsche ) nation. This article identifies different kind legacy, by examining role in shaping constitutional configuration an individual successor state – Prussia. In debate over Prussia's unwritten historical constitution unfolding 1840s, narratives history became basis on which juridical structure kingdom's sovereignty negotiated jurists actors. These included, among others, King Frederick William IV his brother William, leaders school jurisprudence Savigny Eichhorn, Prussian statesman Kamptz. contrasts two rival interpretations imperial legacy: teleological narrative focusing evolution within genealogical highlighting origins hereditary fiefdom. doing so, it questions rigid distinction that historians have drawn between empire statehood replaced 1806.
The Historical Journal