Macht, Emotion Und Geselligkeit / Power, Emotion and Sociability

The self-organization evident in co-operatives, societies, and associations in Germany since the Middle Ages shows a liberal element to the rule of the state. In the transition to modern society, self-organization is gaining a broader resonance, shape, diversity, and increasing political significance. In the 18th and 19th Centuries, the self-determining claim of the emerging middle class and the workers was expressed. In all variants of the principle of free association, one can find a clearly-defined social practice, in which common interest of preservation, education, and friendship are linked with the right to personal and political empowerment. The essays presented here cover the entire period of modern history from the late Middle Ages until the late 19th Century. They combine social and cultural issues with political history and accurately reconstruct the changing political and social terms that have described voluntary association. Synthesizing the views of more than 400 years of German history, this volume identifies in-depth the central elements of the legislative history of the modern world. German text.