In all seriousness : laughter in the German Reichstag, 1871–1914

Abstract

The ideal of parliamentary debate is often construed in terms of a disimpassioned exchange of arguments. Yet in actual practice, emotions play a key role. As recent studies of French, British, and other parliaments have shown, a closer look at the uses of laughter in the plenary debates can provide a useful entry point for a better understanding of the atmospheric dimension of debates. Focusing on the early decades of the German Imperial Reichstag, this article considers the varying modes of parliamentary humour, laughter and ridicule and their significance in the context of rhetorical struggles and processes of political in- and exclusion. In comparative dialogue with research on other parliaments, it contributes to a more precise characterization of the internal dynamics of an institution still very much in flux. While contemporaries made a sharp distinction between exclusionary laughter and inclusionary mirth (Heiterkeit), a closer look at the plenary interactions shows that while parliamentary laughter performed many different functions, on the whole, it primarily constituted a mechanism of de-escalation. As such, parliamentary humour did not stand in opposition to (rational) debate, but played a key role in the management of difference and conflict that the parliament was created to facilitate.