Krise, Reformen - Und Kultur: Preussen VOR Und Nach Der Katastrophe Von 186

The contributions to this volume emerged from an academic conference organized by the Prussian Historical Commission and the Privy State Archives of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation. This volume is the last in a trilogy devoted to the period of transition in Prussia around 1800, focusing on various topics. While the first two volumes discussed the significance of state finances during those decades, as well as issues of Prussian criticism of the army and military reform, the third volume focuses on "culture" and examines when and where reform impulses, innovations, and changes can be identified in this field. The modern term "culture" refers to "culture," understood as intellectual and artistic life, as it unfolded around 1800 in thought, education, and science, as well as in the arts and religion. It was not only with the reforms after 1806 that the Prussian state turned to culture as an area of its own activity. The connection between culture and statehood, defined by Johann Gottlieb Fichte after 1800, had already become evident in the last third of the 18th century in reform initiatives, for example in certain areas of school education, church and religious policy, and artistic training. Culture then becameall the more so with the reforms of Stein, Hardenberg, Scharnhorst, and Humboldtnot only an inherent component of state action, but also a subject of public discourse and communication. Over the course of the 19th century, it gained evident importance for society, state, and dynasty alike. The modern state required a new form of education and culture. Its cultural mandate grew, and it increasingly recognized and claimed it for itself. But culture, too, could not do without the state, but knew how to utilize its investment power for science, art, and general education. Thus, although the individual areas were staggered, the cultural state's actions and the cultural shaping of social groups often intertwined and ultimately allowed the potential in Prussia to grow which, since the second half of the 19th century, has led to internationally recognized top achievements in the sciences, school education, and in the arts and museums.