The university of Göttingen and the Personal Union, 1737–1837 (original) (raw)

2007, The Hanoverian dimension in British history, 1714-1837

The British literary critic and historian of the Enlightenment, Robert Shackleton, once called Hanover 'an outpost of English civilization', 1 and the university town of Gö ttingen in particular, in the south of the Electorate, did indeed like to bask in the reflected glory of British power and English fashion like other outposts of the empire. At the nearby spa of Pyrmont, in the Waldeck principality, the Gö ttingen merchant Knierim established a stall where only English products were offered, and the university town itself celebrated English victories in the colonies with illuminations: 'Gö ttingen is Londres en miniature', wrote Caroline Michaelis-daughter of the eminent theologian Johann David Michaelisfollowing Rodney's naval victory over the French in 1782; indicating, incidentally, with her use of French that other points of reference remained important for the cosmopolitan university town. According to the Gö ttingen theologian and historian Ludwig Timotheus Spittler, English influence went beyond fashion, and affected what today would be called norms and values: 'We like to consider ourselves half-English here, and certainly not just in fashion, dress, and manners, but in character.' 2 Historians of the German Enlightenment and of the history of science have confirmed this view. In particular, it has been emphasised how Gö ttingen functioned as a gateway for the influx of British political and social thought, and as a place where Anglophilie, the German image of Britain as a model of political 'freedom', economic prosperity, and sociable culture, was shaped. 3 Little is, however, known about the role