Festive Culture in Germany and Europe From the Sixteenth to the Twentieth Century

“This collection is a very valuable addition to the ‘new cultural history’. By focussing on the different roles performed by festivals, the collection uses a single form to give coherent shape to changes in political and social meaning between different European countries as well as to between court and civic societies and town and countryside. The collection is particularly useful for bringing the early modern and modern periods together in a common focus in this way, and should be widely used in the teaching of political and social history as well as providing an excellent resource for researchers.” – Nicholas Stargardt

“One of the great strengths of the book is the way chapters allow us to compare between different geographical areas and periods as well as between different regimes, town and countryside and protestant and catholic traditions. ... The authors of this volume tap into the wealth of the historiography of festive culture, a growing field of historical research which has enriched recent social history inspired by historical anthropology and the history of everyday life which is particularly strong in continental Europe. The chapters in this collection demonstrate well that research on festivals can throw light on elite as well as on popular culture; in fact they show that it is more fruitful to regard these two strands not as separate but as overlapping and interlinked. ... It will be a most welcome addition to social as well as to cultural history.” – Dr. Cornelie Usborne

Table of contents:
Foreword, Illustrations
Part I: Popular Festivals and Power
1. Introduction (Karin Friedrich)
2. Election Festivals, Power and Society in 16th Century Burgundy (Mack P. Holt)
3. Trionfi of the Holy Dead: The Relic Festivals of Baroque Bavaria (Trevor Johnson)
4. Peace Festivals and the Culture of Memory in Early Modern South German Cities (Claire Gantet)
5. The Politicization of Traditional Festivals in Germany, 1815-48 (James Brophy)
6. Wine Festivals in Contemporary France: Reshaping Power through Time in Burgundy (Marion Demossier)
Part II: Monarchic, Dynastic, and Court Festivals
1. Habsburg Festivals in the Early Modern Period (Karl Vocelka)
2. Four Weddings and a Funeral: Festival Forms and Dynastic Consolidation in Ducal Lorraine 1563-1624 (Kate Currey)
3. The Petrine Year: Anniversaries and Festivals in the Reign of Peter I, 1682-1725 (Lindsey Hughes)
4. The Transformation of Ceremonial: Ducal Weddings in Brunswick, c. 1760-1800 (Thomas Biskup)
5. The 1896 Millennial Festivities in Hungary: An Exercise in Patriotic and Dynastic Propaganda (Tom Barcsay)
6. Province versus Metropolis: The Instrumentalized Myth of Archduke John of Styria, 1782-1859 (Dieter Binder)
Part III: Military, National and Patriotic Festivals
1. Early Modern Tournaments and their Relationship to Warfare: France and the Empire Compared (Helen Watanabe O’Kelly)
2. Rituals of the ‘Nations in Arms’: Military Festivals in Germany and France, 1871-1914 (Jakob Vogel)
3. War in Mind: Celebrations and War Enthusiasm in the Rhineland, 1913 (Ute Schneider)
4. Celebrating the Republic without Republicans: The Reichsverfassungstag in Berlin, 1929-32 (Pamela Swett)
5. The Nation Honours the Dead: Remembrance Days for the Fallen in the Weimar Republic and the Third Reich (Sabine Behrenbeck)
6. Celebrating Christmas in the Third Reich and GDR: Political Instrumentalization and Cultural Continuity under the German Dictatorships (Corey Ross)
7. The King’s Right Hand: A Hungarian National-Religious Holiday and the Conflict between the Communist Party and the Catholic Church, 1945-48 (Arpad v. Klimo)
Index
8.

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