Das Badische B Rgerliche Recht Und Der Code Napol On

The Campaign for the German Imperial Constitution

This refrain [Hecker, Struve, Blenker, Zitz and Blum, slay the German princes!- Ed.] which on every highway and in every tavern from the Palatinate to the Swiss frontier rang out on the lips of the South German "people's militia" to the well-known tune of "Surrounded by the Sea," a mixture of chorale and barrel-organ-this refrain sums up the whole character of the "magnificent uprising for the Imperial Constitution." Here you have in two lines their great men, their ultimate aims, their admirable staunchness, their noble hatred for the "tyrants" and at the same time their entire insight into the social and political situation. Amidst all the movements and convulsions in Germany which followed in the wake of the February Revolution and its subsequent development, the campaign for the Imperial Constitution stands out owing to its classically German character. Its occasion, its appearance, the way it conducted itself, its whole course, were through and through German. In the same way as the June days of 1848 mark the degree of the social and political development of France, so the campaign for the Imperial Constitution marks the degree of the social and political development of Germany, and especially of South Germany. The soul of the whole movement was the class of the petty bourgeoisie, usually known as the burghers, and it is precisely in Germany, and especially in South Germany, that this class is in preponderance. It was the petty bourgeoisie which, in the "March Clubs," the democratic constitutional clubs, the patriotic clubs, the multitude of so-called democratic press, swore to the Imperial Constitution its Grutli oaths, as widespread as they were innocuous, and carried on its fight against the "refractory" princes of which the only immediate result was admittedly the elevating consciousness of having fulfilled one's civic duty. It was the petty bourgeoisie, represented by the resolute and so-called extreme Left of the Frankfurt Assembly, i.e. in particular by the Stuttgart Parliament and the "Imperial Regency," which furnished the entire movement with its official leadership; lastly, the petty bourgeoisie was dominant in the local committees of the provincial diets, committees of public safety, provisional governments and constituent assemblies which in Saxony, on the Rhine and in South Germany won greater or lesser credit in the cause of the Imperial Constitution.

Venice

"You might think there is little new to say about Venice, but Cees Nooteboom strolls down many under-explored alleyways in the city, his insights coloured by his knowledge of art and literature as welll as his past experiences . . . Witty and meditative by turns, the overall effect is like being shown around by a wonderfully self-effacing, but impressively erudite guide" The Sunday Times BOOKS OF THE YEAR "Nooteboom has achieved the impossible: to say something new about the ageless city about which everything has been said" ALBERTO MANGUEL "The whole book is the illuminating testimony of a man who cannot look away and so sees things that others, even those with more specialist knowledge, have missed, whether it be the color and consistency of the ropes on the vaporetti, the glistening hues and squirming movements of the fish at the market, or the wondrous effects that Tintoretto could achieve with dabs of white in 'the gleam of armour, the folds in a sleeve, the windings of a turban, the halo of a man of the air who, as in the Last Judgment, is flying through space, in a wide flowing cloak . . .'" GREGORY DOWLING, Wall Street Journal VENICE: "A dream of palaces and churches, of power and money, dominion and decline, a paradise of beauty." By the author of Roads to Santiago and Roads to Berlin With this treasury of his time spent in Venice over a period of fifty-five years, Nooteboom makes himself the indispensable companion for all lovers of "the sailing, amphibious city", and for every new visitor. Because he is a master storyteller with an inexhaustible curiosity, and always with a suitcase of books (to which new discoveries are added), he brings vividly and poetically to life not only the tumultuous history of the Republic but along the way its doges, its villains, its heroes, its magnificent painters, its architects, its scholars, its skies, its canals and piazzas and alleyways, and on his expeditions its "bronze voices of time". Those who know and love this city and its literature will recognise Nooteboom - in Laura Watkinson's fine translation - as the dazzling heir and companion to Montaigne, Thomas Mann, Rilke, Ruskin, Proust, Brodsky, and Donna Leon. His homage to Venice is a generous introduction, learned and enchanting, and worthy of its magnificent subject. "His writing is lyrical and densely textured. He is a poet of time and memory" - COLIN THUBRON Translated from the Dutch by Laura Watkinson

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