The Horror of Coming Home: Integration and Fragmentation in Caroline de la Motte Fouqué's “Der Abtrünnige”

Summary

Caroline de la Motte Fouqué's Gothic short story “Der Abtrünnige” (The Turn Coat, 1816) opens on the evening of August 7th 1814, moments before King Friedrich Wilhelm III's regiment returns from the battlefield to Berlin, heralded with a burst of patriotic imagery and pomp. The Prussian eagle on the flag seems to circle above the newly liberated capital city; braziers illuminate the Opernplatz; and the streets of Berlin fill with a sea of lights shining amid laurels and flowers. A crowd waits in tense, silent anticipation until the king appears, in all of his regal glory; “Er wird die Sonne der Nacht” (112; he becomes the sun of the night). Transformed into the very source of light, the king embodies Prussian patriotism in this scene. The crowd erupts into a loud “Hurra!” (112) and follows the king, cheering through the streets to greet the regiment at the Brandenburger Tor.

Such patriotic scenes were common during the summer of 1814 as victorious soldiers returned from the Befreiungskriege to Prussia. For example, Fouqué's description of the events of August 7th bears striking similarities to the historical account of the homecoming celebration published in Königlich privilegirte Berlinische Zeitung. Prussia's role in the Befreiungskriege (1813–14) was in part the result of large-scale social and military reforms enacted after Prussia's defeat by the French in 1806. Following the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire and the French occupation, Prussia began a series of reforms aimed at strengthening its military and uniting its citizenry against the French, with the goal of one day reclaiming its sovereignty. This provoked a rise in nationalism and anti- French sentiment among the educated middle and upper classes throughout German-speaking Europe in general and Prussia in particular. Although the fragmented state of German-speaking Europe prevented the articulation of a unified German identity, Germany existed as a Kulturnation, bound by a shared culture, language and literature. This understanding of Germany was key to promoting the war effort that would eventually defeat Napoleon. Military homecoming ceremonies, such as the one depicted in “Der Abtrünnige,” referenced this shared Germanness and therefore played an important role in constructing national identity before Germany became an actual nation.