ple and a certain geographical area but was a spiritual unity created through shared culture and aspirations, a result of religious, social, economic, and political pressures. Fichte was twenty years younger than Herder and promoted a more intense brand of German nationalism that surfaced later in the nineteenth century. Of great importance though, Fichte, unlike Herder, "attributed to the Germans an originality and a genius not possessed by other peoples." Conversely altogether is the thinking of Hegel. His viewpoint was that the state, its policies, and the order it enforces were the only embodiment of nationalism or national culture. In other words, it was the duty of the state to ensure the independence of the arts and have the state maintain the embodiment of national culture. It can be assumed that this view was not appealing Beethoven or Wagner. Thus, the collision of cultural and idealistic nationalism with the ambitions of Napoleonic France effectively caused the German people to justify the political actions of their rulers, if not to find expression in a political sense.The German states were without a center without Austrian influence, as the Congress of Vienna had refused any Austrian influence in Western Europe. This created a gap, which remained until the creation of the German Empire under Prussian leadership. However, the cultural unity that existed in Germany, the unity of a common language, national folklore and national traditions, which were claimed as the real basis for national identity according to Fichte and Herder, all set the background for a desire for political unity. Thus, the thoughts of Hegel began to create a sense of urgency in the minds of many Germans, an urgency for political nationalism.According to Raynor, "the outcome of this sense of national unity thwarted by a threadbare, repressive political system underlay the longing for national unity which persisted until the creation of the G...
