Feeling Political in Parliament: Rules, Regulations, and the Rostrum, Germany 1849–1951

Abstract

AbstractThis chapter focuses on four moments in German parliamentary history in which parliamentarians debated the regulation of speech and behaviour and established an emotional template for it. The evolution of German parliamentary history formed part of the wider history of participatory politics. The multiple changes of constitutions, parliamentary regulations, and parliamentary locations make for a rich case study. The rules that emerged speak to the inherent logic of the institution of parliament: enabling the ‘orderly conduct’ of politics and guaranteeing the ‘dignity’ of the chamber, yet allowing, and channelling, spontaneous expression of emotions such as (specific kinds of) laughter, cheering, angry interjections, the noise produced by, and used for, objections, and ultimately unrest. In their relationality to the bodies of parliamentarians, these spaces and rules reflected assumptions about emotions, democratic or otherwise.