The Revolutionary Nineteenth Century at the House of European History in Brussels: Narrative – Context – Objects

This paper, the last chapter of a book dedicated to the modernity of 1848/49, presents the section on the European revolutions of the nineteenth century in the permanent exhibition of the House of European History. It outlines the section’s main themes and key objects, as well as its dramaturgical structure and the national narratives that underpin it. Particular attention is paid to the scholarly research, didactic approach, and display strategies employed to present European revolutions that, while differing in their points of origin, aims, and outcomes, also share significant similarities. The revolutions addressed in the exhibition largely focused on the struggle for national independence, the formation of unified nation-states, the pursuit of civil and political rights, the establishment of liberal constitutional and legal systems, and the improvement of social conditions. The guiding concept of this section is that of ‘political transformations’, a notion that applies both to the individual revolutions, understood as transnational events, and to the nineteenth century as a whole, seen as a period of political change, in which Europe entered modernity.

Available to purchase.

Academic reference

Perikles Christodoulou, "Das revolutionäre 19. Jahrhundert im Haus der Europäischen Geschichte in Brüssel: Narrativ, Kontext, Objekte", in A. Bartuschka – B. Bublies-Godau – E. Thalhofer – K. Wolff – D. Linnemann (eds), Die Modernität von 1848/49. Ambivalente Aufbrüche und neue Zugänge zur Revolution, Vormärz-Studien XLVIII (Bielefeld 2025), p. 429–442.