Original fraternity

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Root book of the original fraternity with the entry of Heinrich von Gagern , who later became President of the Frankfurt National Assembly

The original fraternity pursued the idea of abolishing the national associations at the universities and bringing all students together in a "general fraternity ". In politics, too, small states should be abolished in favor of a unified Germany . The protagonists of these ideas were Friedrich Ludwig Jahn , Ernst Moritz Arndt , Johann Gottlieb Fichte and Jakob Friedrich Fries . The Jena historian Heinrich Luden was a spiritus rector .

Emergence

The place where the original fraternity was founded, the “Grüne Tanne” inn in Jena-Wenigenjena, Karl-Liebknecht-Straße 1
Memorial for the original fraternity and their founders in Jena. Historical location on Eichplatz, later in front of the new main university building.
Jenaer Gedenkblatt (1883) - the founders of the German fraternities Riemann (o), Horn (ul) and Scheidler (ur)
GDR postage stamp for the Wartburg Festival 1817

As in large parts of the population (mainly in the Prussian-Protestant area), a special, German patriotism developed within the student body during the Napoleonic rule . As early as 1811/12, Friedrich Ludwig Jahn and Karl Friedrich Friesen came up with the first plan to found a "Burschenschaft" ( Bursche was the contemporary term for student ). The tasks should lie in strengthening the German sense, moral improvement and preparation for German liberation and unification. The ideas met with strong approval at German universities. When the formation of voluntary associations was permitted in Prussia at the time of the wars of liberation , many students - many of them were later founding members of the original fraternity - joined the Lützow Freikorps , where they came into contact with the ideas of the Jahn-Friesen boys' regulations. After the victorious return from France it came in 1814 with the establishment of a "Wehrschaft" in Jena, the "Teutonia" in Halle (which was already strongly fraternized and had the motto "Freedom, Honor, Fatherland!") And in Gießen (" Gießener Schwarze "or" Unconditional ") to the first fraternity associations.

As student associations, country teams dominated around 1815 as groups of students of the same regional origin. For the Jena students, they were a symbol of the national fragmentation of Germany. On May 29, 1815, the senior citizens' convention of the Jena Landsmannschaften decided to dissolve it. On June 12, 1815, the existing Landsmannschaften Thuringia, Vandalia, Franconia, Saxonia and Curonia dissolved and founded the fraternity in the inn " Green Fir " in Wenigenjena . The constitutional document of the Jena fraternity of June 12, 1815 states:

“Raised by the thought of a common fatherland, imbued with the sacred duty that is incumbent on every German to work towards the revival of the German way and spirit, thereby awakening German strength and discipline, and thus to reestablish the previous honor and glory of our people and to protect against the most terrible of all dangers, against foreign subjugation and the compulsion to despotism, some of the students in Jena have decided to establish a union under the name of a fraternity. "

The fraternity saw itself as a student reform movement and was therefore first supported by the university. Above all, the harassment of younger students ( Pennalism ) and dueling were widespread in the country teams. In the Jena constitutional charter, the coexistence within the fraternity was described in detail, and the use of scales was subject to strict rules.

The founding ceremony took place in the “Grüne Tanne” inn in Wenigenjena, because this place offered the students sufficient space. The myth that this place was chosen because it was outside the city limits of Jena and thus removed from the jurisdiction of the university is wrong, because the fraternity as a reform movement was supported by the state and the university in the early days. As a sign of dissolution, the country teams lowered their flags. The officials were elected from among the 143 founders present: 9 heads and 21 committee members. This brought the fraternity into being. Carl Horn , the last senior member of the Vandalia Jena country team, was appointed the first speaker .

In contrast to later developments, around 1815 the ideal of including all students at a university at the University of Jena was still to a certain extent enforced, at least at the beginning. A total of 859 active students belonged to the “Urburschenschaft”, ie around 60 percent of all Jena students who studied in Jena between the summer semester of 1815 and the winter semester of 1819/20. No fraternity or any other type of association could later achieve this level of coverage.

The complete list of all members of the original fraternity , the "Stamm-Buch", is now in the possession of the Arminia fraternity in the Jena castle cellar and was revised and published in 2005.

The fraternity movement soon spread throughout Germany and stood in opposition to the early compatriots, which until then had claimed representation for students at a university.

From the beginning the fraternities were political organizations with political demands: especially for democratic reforms and Germany's unification. The country teams, on the other hand, saw themselves as associations for the common regulation of student life.

In 1817, the new movement appeared for the first time at a meeting of numerous boys at the Wartburg ( Wartburg Festival ). Here the goal of bringing the student body together into a uniform organization was formulated in order to anticipate the unity of Germany in the university area. The Isis or Encyclopädische Zeitung magazine quoted some speakers at the Wartburg Festival in 1817:

“That is precisely why you do not have to give yourself names that contradict this universality. You don't have to call yourself white, black, red, blue, etc. because there are others too; you don't have to call yourself Teutons either; for the others are also Teutons. Your name be what you are alone and exclusively, namely the student body or the civic society. This includes all of you and no one else. But be careful not to wear a badge and so sink down to the party that would prove that you do not know that the class of the educated repeats the whole state in itself, and thus its essence is destroyed by fragmentation in parties. "

Identity symbols

Flag of the original fraternity from 1816
Pedigree sheet Alfred von Seckendorff - unique juxtaposition of the circle of Urburschenschaft and Corps
Seal of the original fraternity

A symbol of the new national movement was a special form of dress and hairstyle that had already emerged during the Wars of Liberation and was called old German costume , although there were no historical models. This costume was intended to counterbalance “French fashion follies” and consisted of a long, closed skirt with a shirt collar that was open at the top, wide-cut trousers and a large, velvet beret . Long hair and beard growth were considered indispensable. This costume was so provocative and inflammatory that it was partially banned by the authorities.

The colors of the primitive fraternity go back directly to the lance pennants of the Uhlans in the free corps "von Lützow" , divided by red and black, additionally adorned with a golden fringe (percussion). It is now on permanent loan in the Göhre in Jena, as the joint property of the Arminia , Germania and Teutonia fraternities . Later the so-called "Wartburg flag" was created, red with a black bar, the whole thing covered by a golden oak branch and adorned with a golden fringe. One of the first black, red and gold flags hangs today in the great hall at the Wartburg . The flag should form the origin of the "German colors" black, red and gold . These in turn go back to the uniform colors of the Lützow Freikorps in the wars of liberation against Napoleon: It was black with red advances and gold-colored buttons.

impact

While the idea of ​​the fraternity spread throughout Germany and new fraternities were founded all over Germany, the unification of all students of a university could not be enforced in other places as in Jena. The attempt of 1818 to found a “General German Burschenschaft” for all students in Germany was doomed to failure after the Carlsbad resolutions . At many universities, the former country teams, which later called themselves corps , continued or were re-established.

Soon there were fights for direction within the “fraternity” movement. The original fraternity in Jena split up in 1819 into the three equal fraternities Teutonia Jena, Germania Jena and Arminia Jena. Progressive ideas were advocated by Arminia and the opposite by Germania. Soon there was talk of an arministic and a germanistic direction within the fraternity movement. The Jenenser Corps Saxonia , Thuringia and Franconia were also founded again from 1820.

On the occasion of the dissolution of the original fraternity, Daniel August von Binzer composed the song We had built a stately house in 1819 , the 7th stanza of which reads:

"The ribbon is cut, it
was black, red and gold,
and God suffered,
who knows what he wanted!"

Here the colors black, red and gold were mentioned for the first time, which then became a symbol of the fraternity and democracy movement in Germany. The tricolor in the German colors was shown for the first time at the Hambach Festival in 1832 , but mostly from bottom to top according to Jenensian tradition, that is, the black color stripe was below, the golden one above.

With the emancipation and differentiation of the bourgeoisie and the academization of the nobility , the original fraternity with its ideal of a unified student body failed. Rather, the senior citizens' conventions strengthened . The goals of the original fraternity were later partly taken up and pursued by the student progress , by the free student movement and - most momentous - in the German student body .

More than 100 years later, National Socialism failed in its efforts to bring the German student body into line. Some of the student associations evaded conformity and were suspended .

Members

literature

  • Max Hodann , Walther Koch (ed.): The Urburschenschaft as a youth movement. Published in contemporary reports on the centenary of the Wartburg Festival. Jena 1917.
  • Karl Schulze-Western: The legacy of the original fraternity. The course and world of thought of a student movement based on contemporary documents. Bochum-Langendreer 1952.
  • Günter Steiger : Departure. Original fraternity and Wartburg festival. Leipzig, Jena, Berlin 1967 and: Urburschenschaft and Wartburg Festival. Freiburg 1991.
  • Peter Kaupp (edit.): Stamm-Buch of the Jenaische Burschenschaft. The members of the original fraternity 1815-1819 (= treatises on student and higher education. Vol. 14). SH-Verlag, Cologne 2005, ISBN 3-89498-156-3 .

Web links

Commons : Urburschenschaft  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Fraternities: Zu Jena auf der Tanne , by Peter-Philipp Schmitt, FAZ June 13, 2015
  2. ^ Fraternities: Rebellion in Black-Red-Gold , by Jörg Schweigard, Die Zeit 23 July 2015
  3. ↑ CONSTITUTIONAL DOCUMENT OF THE JENAISCHE BURSCHENSCHAFT, in: Herman Haupt (Hrsg.), Die Verfassungsurkunde der Jenaischen Burschenschaft of June 12, 1815 (= sources and representations on the history of the fraternity and the German unity movement, vol. 1), 2nd edition, Heidelberg 1966, pp. 114-161.
  4. ↑ Herman Haupt (ed.): Sources and representations on the history of the fraternity and the German unity movement , Volume 1, C. Winter, 1910. P. 124.
  5. ↑ Isis or Encyclopädische Zeitung zum Wartburgfest 1817 Archived copy ( Memento from January 8, 2009 in the Internet Archive ).
  6. ^ Emil Popp: On the history of the Königsberg student body 1900-1945 . Holzner, Würzburg 1955 (new edition: WJK, Hilden 2004, ISBN 3-933892-52-X ).