‘MEDIEVAL SYMBOLOGY OF THE STATE: PERCY E. SCHRAMM'S CONTRIBUTION by J. M. Bok Symbol . . . Ist die Sache, ohne die Sache zu sein, und doch die Sache, ein im geistigen Splegel musammengezogenes Bild und doch mit dem Gegenstand iden- tiseh Gorrnet Since the beginning of our century political history seemed to move toward an impasse. Recording and analyzing the deeds and enunciations of kings, princes, and governments, it appeared to remain on the surface of events, while economic, social and intellectual history got hold of aspects thet “really matter.” No doubt, the crisis and breakdown of traditional political struc- ‘tures, in particular the downfall of monarchies in Europe, played an impor- tant role in this assessment. ‘The new disciplines of the nineteenth century, sociology, political economy, anthropology, and others, seemed to have admi- nistered the deathblow to politics as the “backbone of history."* In Germany the collapse of the Wilhelmian Reich made the endeavors of late nineteenth-century historians conspicuously obsolete. The great discus~ sions between Sybel and Ficker about the medieval empire? were inextricably linked with the problems of the 1871 Reichsgriindung. ‘The controversies over characteristics of the medieval state between adherents of corporationism and their critics was, in the last resort, a reflection of the absolute values 4 +A symbol is the thing without being the thing Itself, but still the thing, a contracted image in the mental mirror, nonetheless Identical with the object” (my trans.), “Nachtrag- ches" to “Philostrats Gemnahlde,” Werke 49, 1.142, (Motto In P. E. Schramm, Herrachafts- etehen [u. § below) 1.v). 2 Cf. J. LeGolf, “Ie Pollties Still the Backbone of History?” Daedalus, Journal of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 100 (1971) 1-19. There the work of Schrama is neatly placed into the context of “In-depth” political history. ® Critically summarized tn F, Schneider, Die neueren Anschauungen der deutschen Historther Aber dle deutsche Kalserpolitik dex Miltelalters, ed. 5 (Weimar 1942); cf. also BeckentOrde, 1a, 4 below. Copyright () 2004 ProQuest Information amd Learning Company Copyright (c) University of California Press