German History Beyond Bismarck: Wilhelm I, Augusta and the Hohenzollern Monarchy in the 19th Century

For decades, cultural memory and historical scholarship has held on to the notion that it was Otto von Bismarck who was crucial in founding and consolidating the 1871 German Empire. As a result, Germany’s first imperial couple Wilhelm I and Augusta were relegated to the margins of historical writing. Three monographs have set out to fundamentally revise our understanding of their role. Susanne Bauer (Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities), Jan Markert (Trier University) and Frederik Frank Sterkenburgh (Utrecht University and SHN-member) presented their books at the Otto-von-Bismarck-Stiftung in Friedrichsruh on the 6^th of February 2025. Based on rarely to never-before used archival sources, they show how the imperial couple was crucial in the coming and consolidation of the new German nation state and establishing the Hohenzollern dynasty as the imperial monarchy.

The video recording of the lecture is now available to watch at home!