Free as a Bird?
Contribution to the MS Wissenschaft: The mutability of notions of freedom
by Lennart Pieper
Under the slogan “Freedom”, Science Year 2024 refers explicitly to the 75th anniversary of Germany’s Basic Law, which already points to the close ties between freedom, law and history. What freedom means, who can enjoy it, and where its limits lie – this is determined not least by the legal system in place. The Basic Law, for example, guarantees many freedoms, such as freedom of the person, of opinion, and of teaching. Freedom can apply universally to all people, or it can exclude certain groups – who, in turn, often use the law to fight for their freedom(s). How freedom as a “fundamental notion of value and goal” (Werner Conze) is filled with substance is the result of social negotiation or political struggle. Very different ideas can clash in the process, some of which ultimately become law. Freedom thus interacts in a complex way with the existing law, and is therefore also subject to change.
Since the historical mutability of legal systems is the subject of interdisciplinary research at the Käte Hamburger Kolleg “Legal Unity and Pluralism” at the University of Münster, it was obvious to us that we should deal with the issue of freedom from a (legal-)historical perspective. We were able to contribute an interactive exhibit to this year’s exhibition on the “MS Wissenschaft”: the quiz “Freiheit im Wandel” (freedom in transition), which was developed from the preliminary reflections mentioned above. The “MS Wissenschaft” is a “floating science centre” that tours Germany and Austria every year on behalf of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) with an exhibition on the theme of the Science Year. It thus reaches a large and comparatively diverse audience. Taken from research centres and institutes, the exhibits act as a direct window onto current academic issues and themes.
A quiz on the history of freedom
The core aim of our exhibit is to show that freedom is not only a key notion of social and political discourse today – as addressed by many impressive exhibits on the MS Wissenschaft 2024 –, but also has its own history. The quiz format that we chose is intended to build on any existing knowledge that people may have, and to encourage visitors to engage with historical themes in a playful way. After selecting one of four possible answers, the player is given the correct answer and has the option to learn about the historical context. The round ends after five questions, and the player is told how successful they were. The quiz draws at random from a pool of 14 questions, which increases the value of playing again.
The quiz questions are mainly based on German history since the Middle Ages, with aspects of freedom being addressed in very different contexts: for example, as a demand for the abolition of serfdom in the Peasants’ War of 1525, as a protest against state arbitrariness in the Vormärz era using the example of the song “Die Gedanken sind frei” (“Thoughts are free”), and in the form of legal progress in women’s self-determination since the 1950s. This allows for epochal differences to become apparent across questions: the idea of legal equality and freedom for all citizens (nota bene, initially only for men) did not emerge until during the Enlightenment in the 18th century. Prior to that, freedom in the pre-modern estate-based society was tied to a person’s social status and was subject to subtle gradations, such as between unfree, half-free and free peasants. In addition, there were diverse “freedoms” (in the plural) as privileges and prerogatives connected to the estate system – we need only think of the tax exemption granted to the nobility. Also, the question on Vogelfreiheit, which translates to being “free as a bird” but actually means the lawless status of an outlaw, demonstrates the alterity of pre-modern concepts of freedom.
Talking about freedom
A meet-the-scientist event during the MS Wissenschaft’s stay in Münster saw Dr. Benjamin Seebröker and Dr. Lennart Pieper talk to visitors and discuss some ideas in more depth. The response to the quiz was very positive, and the questions encouraged many players to gather in front of the exhibit to exchange ideas in pairs or small groups.
As a further event on board the ship, the Kolleg organised a discussion round on notions of freedom in the medieval and early modern city. Taking the well-known legal saying “Stadtluft macht frei” (literally: “city air makes you free”) as a starting-point, EViR director and early modern historian Prof. Dr. Ulrike Ludwig and Münster City Archives director Dr. Peter Worm discussed the question of what kind of freedom the city could offer – for example, to peasants fleeing their landlords, who could free themselves from serfdom in the city “after a year and a day”. Temporary freedoms such as market or trade fair freedoms, and spatially limited freedoms such as ecclesiastical immunities (“cathedral freedoms”) in the middle of the city, also demonstrated how diverse and different pre-modern concepts of freedom were. The audience showed great interest and asked many questions, for example about where those fleeing the countryside were accommodated in the city (often as subletters with craftsmen), how much protection the city really could offer (a lot, because, unlike the countryside, it was considered a space of peace), and when this legal order came to an end (in the 19th century at the latest, when the cities became part of the emerging nation states with a unified legal system).
Looking at history can therefore give us a sense of the historicity and mutability of even a notion as seemingly timeless as freedom. We can therefore assume that our current understanding of freedom – an understanding that is the subject of intense debate in Science Year 2024 – will continue to change. We will almost certainly be discussing freedom and its limits in the future. At the same time, the historical perspective also shows us that we cannot take for granted the freedom that we know in the modern constitutional state, and we are therefore well advised to defend our democratic principles against attacks – by legal means, too.
Background
The MS Wissenschaft and its exhibition on freedom travelled through Germany and Austria from 14 May to 3 October. Next year’s theme will be future energies. More information can be found on the MS Wissenschaft website
