Making of a German Constitution : a Slow Revolution

68 • The Making of a German Constitutionthis was sure to enshrine hatred of all things French at the grassroots of Germansociety, a sentiment that was echoed, in raw terms, by Arndt: ‘I hate all the Frenchwithout exception in the name of God and my people.’ 69 While Savigny’s letter toNeurath in 1798 did not match Arndt in passion, his comments captured the sense ofurgency and fear of the impending destruction of Germany. His growing reservationabout violent means was a reaction, not only to the events in Paris, but the shockingbrutality that was meted out against ordinary Germans in the occupied areas and inthe name of liberté, égalité, fraternité.The Glory of the Emperor?After Napoleon Bonaparte (1769–1821) established himself as emperor of Francein 1804, defeat of continental Europe was swift. The final blow for Central Europewas the crushing of Austrian and Russian forces in 1805. The humiliation was capturedon canvas in Gérard’s Napoleon at the Battle of Austerlitz. When Prussia triedto mount a defence, Napoleon quickly crushed its army at Jena and Auerstädt in1806. He was in her capital within two weeks, where he issued the infamous BerlinDecrees, banning the importation of British goods. By June Prussian territory wasreduced by half, and those areas directly under French rule faced the forced receptionof French law. In the aftermath of this catastrophe, it is not difficult to understandthe appearance of pamphlets such as Germany in Its Period of Deep Humiliation(1806). 70The Holy Roman Empire, which Savigny referred to as little more than a ‘gussiedupgrave’, collapsed with spectacular speed. 71 The old Germany, between the Rhineand Elbe rivers, was reorganized by Napoleon into the Confédération du Rhin, whichincluded Savigny’s Heimat, Frankfurt and his university town of Marburg. Newsatellite states sprang into existence from Napoleon’s cannons and old ones weregobbled up. When one considers the long and rich tradition of local jurisdictionand self-governance in German-speaking Europe, the legal consequences of the occupationare far more significant than historians have considered. The imposition ofFrench law codes on German soil not only destroyed local autonomy, but inspiredthe bitter resentment of Germans for more than a century.Following close on the heels of Napoleon’s troops into the heart of Germany wereles cinq codes, namely the Code civil des Français (1804), Code de Procédure civile(1806), Code de Commerce (1807), Code pénal (1810) and Code d’InstructionCriminelle (1811). The most famous of these was the Code civil, also known as theCode Napoléon. Codification was high on the new political agenda following therevolution, but it was only after Napoleon appropriated it for his own purposes thatcodification began in France. The Code civil came into force in the annexed Rhinelandas soon as it was promulgated in 1804. By 1810, French codes were imposedon the citizens of north-west Germany, including the free cities of Hamburg and