Object Title

Josef Görres

Description

Josef Görres (1776, Koblenz - 1848, Munich) was a writer, teacher, philosopher, and theologian. He directly witnessed several political currents during his lifetime, always enthusiastically embracing them only to later discard and criticise them in his magniloquent, complex, polemical writings. Caught between the extremes of French revolutionary ideals, German unification, Prussian militarism, and Hapsburg restoration, he aimed to strike a balance between upholding rights, truth, and freedom (Fink-Lang, 2013: 7-9).

A cunning polemicist, Görres polarised public opinion through several publications of various political orientations, always calling out arbitrary despotism, whether during the French occupation, the Congress of Vienna, or the Prussian rule of the Rhineland. His writings in the Rheinischer Merkur (1814-1816) and his pamphlet Teutschland und die Revolution (1819) made him one of the earliest and ardent champions of German unification and nationalism. Additionally, Athansasius (1838) is considered the foundation for political Catholicism during the Vormärz.

A key figure to establish acceptance of the Prussians among the Rhinelanders, he rose to Director of Public Schooling in the Rhineland. However, when his hopes were disappointed by restorative measures of the Prussian King who failed to deliver a constitution as promised in article 13 of the Bundesakte (German Federal Act), he became openly subversive in his writing and his opinion. His controversial anti-Prussian tract Teutschland und die Revolution (1819) triggered his prosecution by the Prussians, forcing him to flee to France and later settle in Munich - never to return.

The statue is situated on the left bank of the Rhine in Görres home-town Koblenz. Plans for such a commemorative statue existed since the 1840s, but only came to fruition during French military government in the 1920s, mostly due to Prussian political repression of such plans.

Contributor

Isabelle Riepe

Spatial Coverage

Germany

Temporal Coverage

erected 1928

Date

1817

Bibliographic Citation

Monika Fink-Lang, Joseph Görres – Die Biographie, (Paderborn: Verlag Ferdinand Schöningh, 2013)

Creator

Richard Langer (sculptor)

birthday

1776-01-25

Birthplace

Koblenz

Occupation

Writer, philosopher, theologian

Biographical Text

Josef Görres was an important public figure in early to mid 19th century Germany. He is coined father of political Catholicism and one of the key contributors to German unification and nationalism.

Bibliography

Monika Fink-Lang, Joseph Görres – Die Biographie, (Paderborn: Verlag Ferdinand Schöningh, 2013)

Subject

Catholicism

commemoration

ideologies

nationalism

people

polemic

religion