UROP Project

Political Violence in the German Lands after Napoleon

Germany, Diplomacy, Terrorism, Security, Political Violence

Research Mentor: Dr. or Prof. George Williamson, He him. his
Department, College, Affiliation: History, Arts and Sciences
Contact Email: gwilliamson@fsu.edu
Research Assistant Supervisor (if different from mentor):
Research Assistant Supervisor Email: gwilliamson@fsu.edu
Faculty Collaborators:
Faculty Collaborators Email:

Looking for Research Assistants: Yes
Number of Research Assistants: 3
Relevant Majors: Criminology, History, International Relations, German Studies, British Studies, Terrorism
Project Location: On FSU Main Campus
Research Assistant Transportation Required:
Remote or In-person: Partially Remote
Approximate Weekly Hours: 5-10 depending on where we are in the semester, Flexible schedule (Combination of business and outside of business. TBD between student and research mentor.)
Roundtable Times and Zoom Link:

• Day: Wednesday, September 2
  Start Time: 2:00
  End Time: 2:30
  Zoom Link: https://fsu.zoom.us/j/8576263967
• Day: Friday, September 4
  Start Time: 12:30
  End Time: 1:00
  Zoom Link: https://fsu.zoom.us/j/8576263967

Project Description

This project contributes to a broader research project on the assassination of the German playwright August von Kotzebue (1761-1819) by the university student Carl Sand (1795-1820) and its effects on German cultural and political life. Sand's act of political violence had wideranging
ramifications not just in Germany but throughout Europe. Some of those ramifications included a crackdown on political dissent, heightened censorship of the press, closer policing of universities, and a turn toward monarchical or authoritarian forms of government under the belief that such governments were less likely to be overthrown by conspiracies or out and out revolution. In this project, students will read reports written between 1815 and around 1822 by British envoys stationed in various German capitals (Berlin, Vienna, Stuttgart, Dresden, Munich, etc.) These envoys reported on the political mood in these cities/regions, conveying this information (along with their own viewpoints) to the British Foreign Secretary Viscount Castlereagh. By analyzing these reports, it is possible to gain a sense not only of what was going on in Germany in these years, but also what leading officials in the German states thought about the political situation, as well as what the envoys thought of the German situation at this moment.

Research Tasks: I will need two or three individuals to go through the British Foreign Office reports. In the summer of 2024, I visited the National Archives in London and copied hundreds of these files. They are handwritten in fairly legible English and should not be difficult to decipher. I will provide researchers with a list of names and keywords to look out for when working through these documents. If time allows, I will also begin teaching students how to use Transcribus, an AI-powered transcription tool, whose purpose is to speed the process of transcribing letters from the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries (most of which were written in so-called Chancellorship Handwriting) into readable typewritten script.

Skills that research assistant(s) may need: Recommended: Knowledge of the German or French languages, even if quite rudimentary, is always helpful but by no means required, as most of the texts we will be working on are in English.
Required: the patience to decode the handwriting of the British envoys, whose texts we will be reading.
Required: sufficient curiosity about this particular moment in German and European history to spend hours working through primary and secondary sources on this topic.