Collecting and historical consciousness in early nineteenth-century Germany

About this book

"This book challenges long-held assumptions about the nature of historical consciousness in Germany. Susan A. Crane argues that the ever-more-elaborate preservation of the historical may actually reduce the likelihood that history can be experienced with the freshness and individuality characteristic of the early collectors and preservationists. Her book is both a study of the emergence in late eighteenth and early nineteenth-century Germany of a distinctively modern conception of historical consciousness and a meditation on what was lost as historical thought became institutionalized and professionalized.". "Familiar public forms of remembering the past, such as historical museums and historical preservation, have surprisingly recent origins. In Germany, caring about the past took on these distinctive new forms after the Napoleonic wars. The Brothers Grimm gathered fairy tales and researched the origins of the German language. Historical preservationists collected documents and artifacts and organized the conservation of cathedrals and other historic buildings. Collectors formed historical societies and created Germany's historical museums. No single national consciousness emerged; instead, many groups used similar means to make different claims about what it meant to have a German past."--BOOK JACKET.