Irony and popular politics in Germany, 1800-1850

Abstract

Defining irony as an aesthetic trope that constructs distance, difference, and detachment, this essay explores the relationship of irony to political sensationalism in Germany’s evolving popular political culture. Concretely, the essay explores the evolving growth of ironic expression in popular political texts (flysheets, songs, almanacs, calendars, lithographs, and various forms of journalism), all of which encouraged detachment and analytical distance to the social order, spawning in turn critical reflection and partisan engagement. Drawing on the images and popular political texts of the Restoration and Vormärz eras (1800-1848), this essay presents how irony posed enormous problems for censors and their regulation of political discourse. The analysis will particularly focus on the Rhine Crisis of 1840 and the attempted assassination of King Friedrich Wilhelm IV of Prussia in 1844 as examples of sensationalism that transformed popular political identity. By shifting the representative modalities of political sensation and scandal toward critical citizenship, irony assumes a central role in shaping political modernity.