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The emergence of German neo-Pietism after the Napoleonic Wars appeared to contest the dominance of orthodox Protestantism, mainly in Prussia, but also in other German lands. However, nineteenth-century neo-Pietists forged a different kind of relationship with the orthodox than that of the early Pietists and the orthodox about two centuries earlier. Although challenging each other during the 1820s, from the 1830s onwards, neo-Pietists and the orthodox joined forces to confront rational theology, liberalism, and modern nationalism. This article departs from the existing scholarly discussion about these developments in arguing that the Pietist–orthodox alliance, which merged with political conservatism, did not necessarily apply a reactionary policy. Acknowledging the impact of the new liberal trends, these Christian devotees introduced an alternative national ideal that was based on their religious and political views. Invoking the ideal of a German Christian State, the rival Christian strands became woven into a modernized force which fostered a specific German national identity. This was characterized by ecumenical Christianity, a specific understanding of religion, a deep devotion to the German people, and nationalization of Judaism. Theirs was not a democratic nation-state, but an amalgamated model which combined a historic relation to Christianity with new efforts to redefine collective identity in a national age.

"This book focuses on the national conceptualization of Judaism and Jews by German neo-Pietists from the early Restoration (1815) until the New Era (neue Ära, 1858-1861), at which point Prussia and other German states embarked on a liberal course. The book demonstrates how a certain understanding of nationalism by Awakened Christians, who were associated with political conservatism, was applied to themselves as belonging to a German nation, and correspondingly to Jews as members of a distinct Jewish nation. It argues that this kind of nationalization by neo-Pietists-among them theologians, intellectuals, and members of the agrarian aristocracy-was interwoven with their religion of the heart, and drew on a tradition of a community of kinship established by the earlier German Pietism since the late seventeenth century. The book sheds new light on the accommodation of nationalism by German Pietist conservatives, who so far were considered as opponents of the national idea. At the same time, it shows that their posture towards Jews was not merely anti-Semitic. It emerged from a specific religious-national synthesis, and aimed at an alternative solution to the Jewish Question, other than emancipation, in the form of Jewish national political independence"--

AbstractThis article compares the German conservative conceptualization of Judaism and Jewish emancipation with that of liberals, from the Vormärz (1830–1848) to the Neue Ära (1858–1861). It argues that both conservatives and liberals understood Judaism not merely as a religion but also as a nationality. Yet while liberals acknowledged the national dimension of Judaism as a secularized culture, and even supported Jewish emancipation, conservatives developed a different concept. Since the 1830s, conservatives accommodated nationalism while investing the Christian State ideal with national meaning. This national‐religious construction was imposed on Judaism, which was similarly interpreted now as a synthesis between religion and nationality. In accordance with this conceptualization, conservatives rejected Jewish emancipation on national ground while advocating for the establishment of a Jewish nation‐state. This thesis diverges from the existing literature, in which the reluctance of conservatism to embrace nationalism until the 1870s stands as the consensual view.

From the 1830s, Prussian conservatives started to contemplate the meaning of nationalism and national identity. The continuous efforts of liberals to bring about German national unification according to modern criteria, and the constant change in the social and economic structures, required the definition of nationalism on an alternative basis. In order to address the severe difficulties faced by society and to avoid national unification based on revolutionary foundations, Prussian conservatives defined German national identity on the basis of particular social relations and order, and on a unique version of religious devotion and designation. At the same time, however, the conservatives did not assign any political importance to these national peculiarities and continued to adhere to the traditional pattern of state and political authority. Such a definition of national identity was considerably different from the later fascist and racist national ideologies. In this regard, the conservative version of nationalism, as developed until the last quarter of the nineteenth century, cannot act as a precursor to National Socialism, as some historians have argued.