ABSTRACT
This chapter examines fifty-six violent confrontations between civilians and state authorities in the Prussian Rhineland, assessing the degree to which this violence can be understood as social or political protest. Ranging from simple fist fights to melees involving weapons, these fights cut across several socio-economic, political, and religious fronts and therefore cannot be identified as a fixed category of contentious behaviour. The given essay views the violence as one element of an evolving process through which ordinary Rhinelanders developed partisan positions toward Prussian authority. These fights manifest a changing popular political culture, which not only registered opposition to state intrusion but also the attempt of popular classes to link their grievances to broader political impulses. When integrating acts of violence between civilians and state authorities into larger contexts of popular politics, one must not overstate the claims being made.
