The Wallenstein Figure in German Literature and Historiography 1790-1920

Albrecht von Wallenstein (1583-1634), one of the most famous and controversial personalities of the Thirty Years War, gained heightened prominence in the nineteenth century through Schiller’s monumental drama Wallenstein (1798-99). Schiller’s own fame, and the complexities he injected into his dramatic character, made Wallenstein a potent, near-mythical, but also highly ambivalent figure. This innovative and detailed study tests Schiller’s impact on historians as well as on later literary texts. It traces Wallenstein’s part in the construction of identity in Germany, Austria and Bohemia, examining the figure’s significance in events such as the ‘Wars of Liberation’ against France, the 1859 Schiller festival, and the First World War. The broad range of authors and historians studied includes Franz Grillparzer, Leopold von Ranke, Ricarda Huch and Alfred Döblin.