Seeing Prussia through Austrian Eyes: The Kölner Ereignis and Its Significance for Church and State in Central Europe

In 1837 Prussia arrested Clemens August Droste zu Vischering, archbishop of Cologne, in a dispute over mixed marriages. This event, known as the Kölner Ereignis (The Cologne Incident), ignited protests and riots for more than a year and re-energized Catholicism in Germany. Examining the Kölner 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 Kölner Ereignis sheds light on this event and important features of these two states that tend to be overshadowed by later developments, most notably the Reichsgründung.