Gabriele B. Clemens

Ancestors, castles, tradition: the German and Italian nobility and the discovery of the Middle Ages in the nineteenth century

This article examines the different ways in which the nobility used historical culture in the nineteenth century to defend its endangered political and economic position. It focuses on two issues in particular. First is the aristocratic family and home where for centuries history had been handed down from generation to generation. Second is the role of the European nobility in developing historical societies, which in the nineteenth century offered uncomplicated new opportunities for nobles to act as patrons. Participation in these societies was a means of creating historical awareness that aimed at presenting the regional aristocracy as a symbol of achievement in times of changes.