نبذة مختصرة : In 1837 Prussia arrested Clemens August Droste zu Vischering, archbishop of Cologne, in a dispute over mixed marriages. This event, known as the Kolner Ereignis (The Cologne Incident), ignited protests and riots for more than a year and re-energized Catholicism in Germany. Examining the Kolner Ereignis reveals that, in contrast to Prussia, Austria was a nonconfessional state. Rooted in the Enlightenment, its church system had legitimacy and stability for its subjects. Comparing the two German powers in the Kolner Ereignis sheds light on this event and important features of these two states that tend to be overshadowed by later developments, most notably the Reichsgrundung.Keywords: Metternich, Cologne Troubles, Kolner Wirren, mixed marriage, KolowratOn the evening of November 20, 1837 Archbishop Clemens August Droste zu Vischering of Cologne (see figure 1) was in his workroom, in his nightgown, when four men stormed in. The leader of this intrusion was the Oberprasident of the Rhineland, Emst von Bodelschwingh, who informed the archbishop that by order from King Frederick William III, he was to be conveyed to the fortress of Minden. The arresting officers gave the archbishop an hour to put his affairs in order, while several wagons and a military escort awaited Clemens August and his vicar, Eduard Michaelis. A crowd gathered and as the wagons rolled away with the clergymen, Michaelis shouted to the people, "praise be to Jesus Christ."1Far from solving Pmssia's conflict with the Catholic Church on mixed marriages and the removal of heretical teachings at the universities, this arrest and the ensuing reaction, known as the Kolner Ereignis (Cologne Incident) or the Kolner Wirren (Cologne Troubles) sparked an uproar across central Europe that forced Pmssia to make ample concessions to the Church. Furthermore, this event marked the absolutist extreme of Pmssia's erratic policy toward the Catholic Church-an open battle with the Catholic Church, as the Pmssian government stmggled to incorporate Catholics into a Protestant-dominated country. This battle injected vigor into the Church and pulled Catholicism out of its political stagnation. The Chmch should have been a source of stability for the conservative order in Prussia, but these factors ensured that instability would ensue when Church and state clashed. Significantly, the turmoil in Cologne had ramifications throughout Central Europe, causing Habsburg officials to fear the spread of disorder. But such an outcome did not occur in the Austrian Empire, as Austria had a stable Church rooted in Josephinist tradition and a nonconfessional state that enabled the Habsburg Empire to weather the storms of religious rancor. A comparison of the two powers in Central Europe, Austria and Prussia, in the Kolner Ereignis not only provides a fuller picture of the event but also illustrates important features of both states in the Vormarz that tend to be overshadowed by developments leading to the Kaiserreich in 1871.2It is understandable why the Pmssian government would assume that moving against the Church would be an easy affair. Catholicism had suffered a series of blows since the middle of the eighteenth century-including the Enlightenment, the French Revolution, and the absolutism of the Vormarz. The Enlightenment had questioned the core of Catholic doctrine. The French Revolution had leveled the Church, and the secularization of ecclesiastical property in Germany had gone uncontested. The French had entered the Rhineland in 1792, taking Mainz, and occupied the left bank of the Rhine in 1794. The French introduced the revolutionary calendar in 1798, instituted secular state holidays, banned public religious symbols and processions, and replaced the teaching of religion with ethics.3 Arrangements at Basel, Rastatt, the Peace of Luneville, and the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss had, by 1803, abolished the ecclesiastical states and compensated German princes who had lost territory west of the Rhine. …
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