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MEDIATIZATION (Ger. Mediatisierung, f...

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Originally appearing in Volume V18, Page 23 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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MEDIATIZATION (Ger. Mediatisierung, from See also:Lat. mediatus, mediate, See also:middle) , the See also:process by which at the beginning of the 19th See also:century, a number of See also:German princes, hitherto See also:sovereign as holding immediately of the See also:emperor, were deprived of their See also:sovereignty and mediatized by being placed under that of other sovereigns. This was first done on a large See also:scale in 1803, when by a See also:recess of the imperial See also:diet many of the smaller fiefs were mediatized, in See also:order to compensate those German princes who had been forced to cede their territories on the See also:left See also:bank of the See also:Rhine to See also:France. In 18o6 the formation of the See also:Confederation of the Rhine involved an See also:extension of this mediatizing process, though the abolition of the See also:empire itself deprived the word " mediatization " of its essential meaning. After the downfall of See also:Napoleon the See also:powers were besieged with petitions from the mediatized princes for the restoration of their " liberties "; but the See also:congress of See also:Vienna (1815) further extended the process of mediatization by deciding that certain houses hitherto immediate (i.e. Salm, Isenburg, Leyen) should only be represented mediately in the diet of the new Confederation. On the other See also:hand, at See also:Aix-la-Chapelle (1818) the powers, in response to the representations of the aggrieved parties, admonished the German sovereigns to respect the rights of the mediatized princes subject to them. Of these rights, which included the hereditary right to a seat in the estates, the most valued is that of Ebenbiirtigkeit (equality of See also:birth),which, for purposes of matrimonial See also:alliance, ranks the mediatized princes with the royal houses of See also:Europe. See See also:August Wilhelm Heffter, See also:Die Sonderrechte der Souverdnen and der Mediatisirten, vormals reichsstandischen See also:Hauser Deutschlands (See also:Berlin, 1871). The mediatized families are included in the Almanach de See also:Gotha.

End of Article: MEDIATIZATION (Ger. Mediatisierung, from Lat. mediatus, mediate, middle)

Additional information and Comments

The German term 'Mediatisierung' seems to have been used in an extended, metaphorical sense also. In an essay entitled 'Geschichte der Porträtbildnerei in Wachs', published in or around 1911 (the date of the EB article), Julius von Schlosser uses it in the context of the withdrawal of recognition of sculpturing in wax as an art form. For instance (p. 243): 'Tatsächlich hat die Camera obscura das ohnehin schwache Lebensflämmchen des alten Kunstzweiges vollends ausgeblasen, soweit auch hier nicht jene oft berührte Mediatisierung eintrat. Denn nun fanden seine Reste die letzte Zuflucht im Panoptikumwesen, dessen Anfänge wir bis in die Tage Ludwigs XIV zurückverfolgen konnten [...] '.
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