Cycles and Circles: January 1900
Created | Updated Mar 13, 2012
The other day I browsed my Chronicle of the 20th Century to look something up. I started flipping through the pages, as you do. What I found made me realise that our ancestors worried about the same or very similar things we worry about. Life goes in cycles and circles. I'm no historian but this is so fascinating I thought I'd share some of my finds with you.
January 1900
All over the western world, people celebrate the beginning of the 20th Century, although some say that the 20th Century would only start in 1901. It doesn't keep people from celebrating – each after their own fashion: the aristocracy with expensive festivities, the man in the street exactly there – in the street". In the big German cities, police block whole roads, restaurants and pubs etc close long before midnight, and the police and even the military are present in large numbers to prevent riots. All in all, the night remains fairly quiet, though.
The Berliner Illustrirte Zeitung had asked their readers to answer 26 questions about the 19th Century. Thousands of readers replied, and the answers can be seen as a mirror of the Wilhelminische Gesellschaft (Wilhelmian society).
The questions were:
- Which byname would you give the 19th century?
- Who did the greatest service to humanity?
- Who was the most important German?
- Who was the most important woman?
- Who was the greatest poet?
- Which was the greatest event?
- Which was the most influential event?
- Which was the saddest event?
- Which was the main Berlin-event?
- Who was the greatest thinker?
- Who was the greatest painter?
- Who was the greatest sculptor?
- Who was the greatest musician?
- Which was the most important battle?
- Which was the most important event for civilisation?
- Which was the happiest period?
- Which was the unhappiest period?
- Who was the hero of the century?
- Who was the greatest military leader?
- Who was the greatest statesman?
- Who was the greatest inventor?
- Which was the most important charitable invention?
- Who was the greatest Berliner?
- Which book had the biggest influence?
- Who was the worst wrongdoer?
- Which was the major economic event?
You can think about the answers while I tell you a bit more about what happens that month:
There are wars in all corners of the world: the Boxer Rebellion in China, the Boer wars in Africa1; Finland demands its independence from Russia, Norway wants to be free from Sweden, Poland doesn't exist any more as a sovereign state but is split into three sections, each of which 'belongs' to a different country, Russia and Great Britain squabble about Persia (Russia wins), France and Great Britain don't communicate, and so on.
The Italian Minister of Defence, Guiseppe Mirri, abdicates from his office after reports about his connections with the Mafia have been published.
In Würzburg, Bavaria, the flags that had been hoisted for German Emperor and King of Prussia Wilhelm II's birthday are removed from official buildings on the grounds that by decree of the Bavarian State Government flags are to be hoisted only on the birthdays and name days of the Bavarian King and Prince Regent, as well as at Corpus Christi.
The well-known Austrian conductor and composer Felix von Weingartner causes a scandal in Mainz by halting during a performance of the long expected Wagner opera Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg; throwing away his baton after having conducted only the overture, and leaving the building. He claims that it is infra dig to work in surroundings which are decorated for carnival.
The above is just a summary of what I found for January 19002. I hope it has whetted your appetite and you'll tune in for the next instalment3. If you like to have a go at guessing some of the replies to the questions above, please, start a conversation at the bottom of this page.
