Neuzeit (Modern Era)
The 18th Century
In magnificent robes, gleaming armor and splendid fur, Christian IV, Count-Palatine of Zweibrücken gazes proudly from his canvas. He lets his gaze pass over his subjects (you, the Museum visitor) and admires his kingdom, the permanent exhibition called “Modern Times”. In front of him are spread decorated hunting rifles, the choicest Frankenthaler porcelain, landscape paintings accurate in the finest detail, and inlaid wooden furniture worthy of a count’s court.
Frankenthaler Porcelain
After many attempts, alchemists in Saxony finally figured out how to produce “white gold”, i.e. porcelain. Even though the secret was carefully guarded, it quickly spread throughout Europe. In 1755, it came to Frankenthal and soon after that, to Zweibrücken. In its scant 50 years of production, the Frankenthal plant produced dinner sets and table centerpieces. The Historical Museum of the Palatinate owns one of the largest collections of these products which are treasured throughout the world. The fragile-looking figurines were inspired by ancient myths and served as decoration for the courtly table.
The French Revolution
In 1789, in neighboring France, a new movement began, centered on the ideals of “freedom, equality, and brotherhood”. Revolutionary France moved into the Palatinate west of the Rhine in 1792. While some impressionable farmers put up “freedom trees”, they were forced to find their freedom elsewhere. It was indeed progress to do away with the feudal system of the Middle Ages and introduce general economic freedom in its place but there was a price to pay. From 1797 until 1814, The Palatinate west of the Rhine belonged to France. Only after Napoleon was defeated and Europe was restructured at the Congress of Vienna did the Palatinate return in 1816 to Germany, where it became part of the Kingdom of Bavaria.
The Festival of Hambach
After Emperor Francis II laid down his crown in 1806, the Holy Roman Empire was effectively dissolved and the German nation again consisted of individual states. The discontent of the population over high taxes and tariffs was increasing. Liberal press rules, carried over from Napoleonic times, made it possible for new ideas to spread quickly. It peaked in the populist protest movement at the Festival of Hambach. Almost 30,000 citizens came to the mountain castle of Hambach near Neustadt to peacefully advance the idea of a unified democratic Germany. The protest was strenuously suppressed by monarchs during the years that followed. More …
The 19th Century
After the French revolution, citizens not only had assumed individual rights, such as the right to own land, but had also evolved their own individual style, called Biedermeier (similar to Federal in the US and Regency in the UK). They wanted to distinguish themselves from the pompous Baroque style of their rulers and so adopted a simple, unadorned style. Middle-class taste now yearned for peaceful family idylls and retreated into comparative isolation — domesticity instead of trying to look like something you are not. This found expression in the landscape painting of the time, fashion, furniture, music and literature.
A Painter from Speyer
At the start of the Industrial Revolution, Anselm Feuerbach yearned for a return to the classic humanity of antiquity. He was able to realize his wish for quiet, educated and beautiful fellow human beings, at least in his paintings. The artist, who was born in 1829 in Speyer, got his schooling in Düsseldorf, Munich, Antwerp and Paris. Then he left for Italy, where most of his works were painted, among them such famous pieces as “Iphigenie” and “Plato’s Banquet”.
More Information may be found at the website of the painter’s birthplace: www.feuerbachhaus.de
The World Wars
The Industrial Revolution with its machines changed human lives. Wars were now fought with submarines and airplanes and drew the entire world into them. The initially great enthusiasm of patriotic soldiers soon gave way to a simple yearning for freedom. Germany started two world wars and lost both of them. In 1919, the idea of seceding from Bavaria and the German Reich in order to found an independent republic took hold in the Palatinate. But the separatists came to nought when on January 9, 1929, their ringleader was assassinated in the “Wittelsbacher Hof” hotel.
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