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armour and portraits of (Protestant) defenders of the imperial constitution,
or stained glass windows glorifying the Swiss Confederation
as the embodiment of a federal ideal which alone was capable of protecting
smaller states, varied the general theme.
All this is convincingly argued. The Gothic House can indeed be
seen as a pronouncement of �ranz’s political vision. Whether it can
support the construction of a whole new strand of the German
Enlightenment, however, is doubtful. The very dichotomy between a
liberal, pluralistic Enlightenment with clear positive connotations
and a coercive, even oppressive counterpart embodied in Prussia
smacks of old Sonderweg theories and arouses suspicions. The fact
that �ranz stimulated reform in the spirit of the Enlightenment without
rescripts, as Umbach repeatedly stresses, may separate Anhalt-
Dessau from other, larger states, though it was not unknown even in
Prussia. But the method of encouraging rather than decreeing
reform, ‘government by precedent’ (p. 95), as Umbach calls it, might
also be the result of a weak administration which lacked the means
to introduce reforms more forcefully. Of greater importance, however,
is the fact that �ranz’s programme of improvements was no different
in content from those of larger territories. Contrary to Umbach’s
belief, an emphasis on ‘the useful aspects of enlightened politics’
cannot be counted as one of the ‘distinctive features’ (p. 56) of a
federal Enlightenment inspired by the English example. All German
states were united by a utilitarian approach, as the research of the last
thirty to forty years has made abundantly clear. This misconception
becomes obvious in those sections of Umbach’s book that deal with
Basedow’s educational reforms. �ar from being peculiar to small
states, as she claims, his writings were influential in all the German
territories. Although Basedow, like every prominent Enlightened
reformer, had his critics, his admirers saw that many of his ideas
were implemented. On the other hand, the question remains whether
Umbach’s federal Enlightenment had any adherents in small states
other than Anhalt-Dessau. Even among his closest collaborators
�ranz’s taste sometimes aroused resistance as his failed attempt to
distribute prints of English paintings demonstrates. Is there, for
example, any documentary evidence that the English Enlightenment
had the same strong influence on other princes? Neighbouring Saxe-
Weimar, the only other small state Umbach deals with at least in
passing, provides a striking example to the contrary. As Umbach her-
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