This project explores the manner in which one form of political legitimacy came to overtake another, the enfranchisement of the Volk at the expense of monarchy during World War I Germany. The project begins with the "festive year" 1913, when the Wilhelmine regime celebrated the centennial of the Wars of Liberation as well as Kaiser Wilhelm II's Silver Jubilee. In these ceremonies the monarchy attempted to legitimize itself before the German public, but failed to achieve broad, popular participation. The study then shifts to the nationalist demonstrations of July-August 1914, their problematic...