ABSTRACT
Centennial celebrations helped to revive, perpetuate and reinforce public perceptions of past events and people in collective memory. Commemorative festivals were part of the broader process of self-historicization. As with other commemorative celebrations, music played a significant role, and the choice of the pieces performed was programmatic. An ostensibly dynastic anniversary, celebrated in the small provincial town in Western Germany, reveals something of the multifaceted nature of late nineteenth-century patriotism. While the Innsbruck centenary celebrations tended to ignore the persona of Andreas Hofer, the Schill festivities in Germany in 1909 very much focused on that officer's personality and deeds. The potential awkwardness of centenaries for governments was also demonstrated by the commemorative events in Russia and in Germany in 1913. In Russia, the central aim of the celebrations of the Romanov tercentenary was to reinforce the dynastic link between the monarch and the people.
