This book analyses the development of German territorial states in the nineteenth century
through the prism of five Mittelstaaten : Bavaria Saxony Hanover Württemberg and Baden. It
asks how a state becomes a place and argues that it involves a contested and multi-faceted
process one of slow and uneven progress. The study approaches this question from a new and
crucial angle that of spatiality and public mobility. The issues covered range from the
geography of state apparatus the aesthetics of German cartography and the trajectories of
public movement. Challenging the belief that territorial delimitation is primarily a matter of
policy and diplomacy this book reveals that political territories are constructed through
daily practices and imagination.
