An Illinois State University scholar has taken on a massive biography of a historical figure who is one of the founding myths of Germany.
Frederick Barbarossa was the head of the Holy Roman Empire from the year 1155 until his death on the Third Crusade at the age of 68 in 1190.
John Freed, ISU Distinguished Professor of History Emeritus, said Yale University Press approached him to write "Frederick Barbarossa: The Prince and the Myth."
Freed said Barbarossa is an important character in German history. In various regimes in the last 150 years, people have appealed to him to justify all sorts of different systems
Kaiser Wilhelm used Barbarossa to legitimize from history an image of a second Reich. The Nazis used Barbarossa in their national mythmaking as laying groundwork for the third Reich. Hitler also famously used the king to name his Operation Barbarossa, the disastrous attack against the Soviet Union. And back in the 1860s, those promulgating German unification hearkened back to Frederick I as well.
"You have to get to a bigger 19th century cultural issue that goes far beyond Germany, nation state building. You are trying to take countries that are not really very united and trying to create in some sense and artificial unity. And you do this in part by creating a common language. You teach them a common language in the schools and a founding historical figure," said Freed.
"Rarely has a historical figure been more misrepresented and his public persona more shaped by legends and momentary political needs."
He said Germany is not the only country to engage in this mythmaking.
"Perhaps Joan of Arc is the most obvious example in France. She is a good republican symbol, a peasant girl who rises to save France. But she is also good for the Catholic opposition, because, after all, she ends up being a saint. She cuts across all the boundaries. We do the same thing in the United States with George Washington. Do we really think crossed the Delaware standing up in an open row boat?" said Freed.
And he said Barbarossa served the same purpose in German national unity that no other German figure could.
"It was partially that a myth had developed that he was sleeping in this mountain, the Keyffhauser in Thuringia. And the mountain was in a crucial location because it just happened to be within a few miles of Luther's hometown of Wittenberg where Luther starts off the Reformation, so it had all those associations. But it was also close to Weimar, the image of German cultural supremacy," said Freed.
Freed said the brothers Grimm brought back the myth of Frederick sleeping in the mountain until some future need when they were collecting folklore and published in 1815. That turned out to be a good time because many Germans were disappointed in the failure of Germany to coalesce in the decades following the French revolution of 1789. Instead came wars of liberation against French occupation and the Congress of Vienna left Germany divided into 39 states.
After that, Freed said a poet, Friedrich Ruckert, wrote about Barbarossa sleeping until the day of unification when he would awaken. And after unification comes in 1871, Ruckert's poem became part of the curriculum for every German schoolchild, according to Freed.
"Rarely has a historical figure been more misrepresented and his public persona more shaped by legends and momentary political needs," wrote Freed in the book's conclusion.
Freed said, ironically the truth somewhat contradicts than unitary German symbol.
"In many ways what he really did was help to lay the foundation for the political division of Germany contrary to the myth. You couldn't have a united Germany in the 12th century. It was geographically enormous," said Freed.
And there were no natural boundaries on the east and west. Frederick, Freed said, allowed the German princes to establish order in their own territories as long as they recognized his superiority. And for 38 years he was largely successful, without any particularly significant rebellion, an exception to the times, said Freed.
"Part of that was he was viewed as impartial because until late in his reign he did not have significant lands of his own and also because he was related to every other German prince," said Freed.
The biography of Barbarossa is the first in English in nearly half a century.
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