Prachtvolle Epoche

Prachtvolle Epoche
1862–1913
Wiesstadt in Cislania, Werania in 1900.
Including	Weranian Empire Historicism
Monarch(s)	Adalbert, Leopold IV
Leader(s)	Prince of Oppolzer, Ludwig Gustav von Middendorff, Konrad von Höhnel, Casper von Kléber
← Preceded by Weranian Unification Followed by → Great Collapse

The Prachtvolle Epoche ("Splendid Epoch") was a period in Weranian history lasting from the early 1860s to the Great Collapse in 1913. The period retroactively named following the Great War was famed for its economic prosperity, political liberalism, social stability, imperial expansionism and scientific and cultural innovations. Compared to both the revolutionary violence and regional wars that marked the unification period and the political and social polarisation that dominated Werania from the Great Collapse through to the Kirenian-Weranian War the Prachtvolle Epoche is regarded as a period of optimism and peace both at home and abroad. The period also encompasses the Ruttish national revival.  

Terminology and periodisation

The Prachtvolle Epoche traditionally encompasses the majority of the reign of king Adalbert (who reigned from 1850 to 1913) leading to the period to sometimes be called the Adalbertine period. The period tends to be dated around the end of the Jurgaitytė rebellion in Ruttland from 1861 to the beginning of the Great Collapse in 1913. Some date the period to have begun following the conclusion of the War of the Triple Alliance and the Easter Revolution in 1856 which signalled the end of Weranian Unification, although the economic depression and social polarisation from 1856-1862 is often not generally considered to be in keeping with the perceived optimism of the period.

The Prachtvolle Epoche is an anachronistic term created by historians in the 1930s that sought to contrast the revolutionary violence of the early 19^th century and world war of the early 20^th to the joie de vivre of the late 19th^th century. According to Hugo Weizenbaum the use of the term was meant to invoke a supposed golden age contrasted to the perceived Satrian summer of post-war Werania "invoking a nostalgic image of prosperity, peace and power, of the politics of grandeur". The nostalgia for the supposed social stability and progress of Prachtvolle Epoche is often considered to mask the profound social tensions of the era - historian Casper Hildebrandt remarked that "only with the benefit of hindsight does the Prachtvolle Epoche emerge as a golden age. For those who lived through it there was substantial social instability and the supposed progress of the era was as uneven as it was splendid."

Sometimes the Prachtvolle Epoche is divided into two periods - one of conservatism, aestheticism and imperialism from the 1860s to one of avant-garde and modernity from the 1890s onwards, both interlinked by scientific and economic progress.

Politics

King Adalbert ruled Werania throughout the Prachtvolle Epoche.

The politics of the Prachtvolle Epoche were marked by the development of constitutional parliamentarianism over radical republicanism and absolutism. Over the period centre-right national liberals generally dominated parliamentary politics with rapprochement to the church, economic liberalism and centralisation. Members of the two main parliamentary blocs, the Right and the Left, generally formed large coalitions to block the republicans and later the socialists from holding influence. Many on both the right and the left would move to the political centre to maximise parliamentary majorities, a system known as the eisenring (iron ring) as it supposedly locked both the far-left and the far-right out of power. In practice the eisenring marginalised the left whilst empowering the right.

The end of the period saw the eisenring collapse due to a mixture of popular pressure from below and the growth of organised political parties, particularly the Radical Party and the Weranic Section of the Workers' International (OSAI). From the 1890s onwards a party system emerged with organised political parties displacing the loose parliamentary blocs. By 1906 with the introduction of universal male suffrage the trend had move decisively towards liberal democracy.

Art

Architecture

A photochrom print of the Vorderstein Castle, commissioned by king Adalbert as part of the castle romanticist (burgenromantik) movement.