BRITISH IDENTITY AND THE GERMAN OTHER A Dissertation ...

well as outward “cheerfulness” or “comfort,” which described a positive facet of the Old or
South German stereotype opposite in nature to English “stiffness and reserve,” appeared to be
threatened with extinction under modern Germany’s “consciousness of new-born dignity”. 3 This
chapter deals with how this transition came about, and how German political developments gave
rise to stereotypes of German political ineptitude as a means of both preserving an air of British
superiority and projecting the worst aspects of nationalism and imperialism onto the Germans.
Even before imperial rivalries developed between Britain and Germany during the mid-
1880s, a psychological rivalry had been played out on cultural grounds, as seen in negative
British reactions to German literature and theology. This game of national one-up-man-ship also
extended to political and social commentary as German nationalism, reform and revolutionary
movements became items of interest in British periodicals. Defining German national character
often served as a vicarious means of predicting future outcomes, particularly during the
revolutionary year of 1848 and, later, in coming to terms with Bismarckian Germany’s transition
from the innocuous and cultured land once admired by Prince Albert and Queen Victoria toward
the Prussian model of militaristic diplomacy and efficient, but reactionary, government.
Throughout the century British writers produced a significant body of literature aimed at
exposing the “German Mind” or “German Character,” seen either as an inherent cause or result
of socio-economic, political and cultural realities. These excursions into “things German”
included general descriptions of Germany as well as more specialized social commentary about
various facets of German life. “Touring” articles, written more in the narrative tradition of de
Staël than functional guides such as Baedeker’s, continued to highlight the quaint and curious
3 Evans, “Germany Under the Empire,” 548-49. For an earlier description of
Gemüthlichkeit see “Germany,”Blackwood’s, 127.
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