arranged at an earlier date than in any other country in Europe, Denmark has
achieved a considerable advantage, which it was a matter of maintaining, and,
if possible, extending’ (in Gra ̈slund 1987: 15). Worsaae also rightly noted that
the lesser interest of other countries, such as France, England and Central
Europe, in prehistoric archaeology was possibly related to their current
attraction to Roman monuments.
Prehistoric antiquities in GermanyBeyond Scandinavia, the acceptance of prehistoric archaeology encountered
more opposition. Pre-uniWed Germany (map 5) was a diVerent case altogether.
Explorations into local antiquities had witnessed a short-lived boom during
the Napoleonic era. They practically came to a halt with the conservative
reaction of the 1820s and only reappeared after the uniWcation of 1871.
To start with, the link between France and Rome, propagated by Napoleon
and maintained thereafter because of the tensions between France and
Prussia, had served to reinforce German identity along with philhellenism
(Chapter 4). Napoleonic interference in the German territories had brought a
signiWcant reduction in the number of states and had induced administrative
and legal reforms as well as the introduction of constitutional rule. Yet, as a
reaction to French hegemony, a sense of nationality emerged. Individualism,
national particularism and Protestantism were juxtaposed to Latin corpora-
tism, universalism and Catholicism, a divide which was expressed geograph-
ically in terms of northern as against southern Europe (Marchand 1996a:
159–60). The religious schism would only serve to create an image of Rome
and the Catholic world in the Protestant areas as the antithesis of what was
‘truly German’. Gradually the barbaric descent began to be invoked with pride
rather than embarrassment, a sentiment which spread through novels, operas
and scientiWc books alike (ibid.161–2).
This early nationalism was driven by anti-French sentiment and coloured
by Romantic ideals. Vereine (societies) with an interest in the local past were
founded in practically all German-speaking states from 1810. Their members
came from a wide range of professions and included intellectuals such as
Goethe and the brothers von Humboldt and Grimm. These societies not only
published journals and newsletters but also formed archaeological and ethno-
logical collections which gave rise to the opening of some museums, such as
the ones founded in Breslau in 1818 and in Bonn in 1820. The latter initially
received oYcial support from the Chancellor. Similarly, in Prussia the king,
Friedrich Wilhelm III (r. 1797–1840), lent a gallery in one of his castles in
Berlin, the Monbijou Palace, for the display of ‘national’ antiquities. All of
The Early Search (1789–1820) 327