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Nobility on a Path to Modernity

Impoverished Nobility in Prussia at the Turn of the Nineteenth Century

Summary/Abstract: In 2020, Chelion Begass published a book on impoverished nobility in Prussia at the turn of the nineteenth century. The aim of this discussion article is to assess the scholarly merits of this publication and to evaluate the new research approach proposed by the authoress. It should be emphasised that the very topic of the work is innovative in itself. Begass focuses on the impoverished nobility, i.e. this part of the social stratum that was not able to live a life suited for the nobility due to insufficient financial resources. Such nobles experienced contradictions that arose from the discrepancy between high social prestige and uncertain livelihood. The book identifies the causes and consequences of this situation. In the subsequent chapters, Begass discusses the policy of the Prussian State towards the impoverished nobility and then presents the results of her research on poverty experienced by the nobility. The authoress makes use of the approach of cultural anthropology and attempts to demonstrate the worldview of investigated nobles. Her studies indicate that the impoverished nobility had to face the new economic circumstances and the emerging bourgeois society as early as at the turn of the nineteenth century, i.e. much earlier than the aristocracy placed higher in the social hierarchy. Begass’s research demonstrates the necessity to take a different view of the history of Prussian nobility. One needs to take into account the heterogeneity of this social group, the economic condition of its members, their relations with the monarchy, and the different paths that led them to modernity.

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