The Political Fragmentation of Germany

Download or read book The Political Fragmentation of Germany written by Zef M. Segal and published by Palgrave Macmillan. This book was released on 2020-07-02 with total page 278 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book analyses the development of German territorial states in the nineteenth century through the prism of five Mittelstaaten: Bavaria, Saxony, Hanover, Württemberg, and Baden. It asks how a state becomes a place, and argues that it involves a contested and multi-faceted process, one of slow and uneven progress. The study approaches this question from a new and crucial angle, that of spatiality and public mobility. The issues covered range from the geography of state apparatus, the aesthetics of German cartography and the trajectories of public movement. Challenging the belief that territorial delimitation is primarily a matter of policy and diplomacy, this book reveals that political territories are constructed through daily practices and imagination.