▼ Despite Bettina von Arnim’s (1785-1859) interest and participation in the Vormärz political discourse of the 1830s and 40s in Berlin, scholarship has traditionally focused on the literary aspects of her earlier texts, largely ignoring her later, politically charged works. My project explores Bettina von Arnim’s use of mythological and heroic imagery in her later writings, as it relates to her vision of an ideal governmental structure, which is based on the figure of the Volkskönig or “People’s King.” One of the many new ideas on government discussed in intellectual circles during this period, von Arnim’s Volkskönig model of government called for a strong and moral monarch, who would value the welfare and development of his subjects above all else. I bring attention to the discrepancies between von Arnim’s call for a strong monarchy and her desire for progressive social reform, which demonstrate the tensions between the author’s cultural background in Romantic thought and her involvement in Young German and Young Hegelian intellectual discourse. The presence of such tensions illustrates not only Bettina von Arnim’s problematic role as an emerging female voice with her own formative concepts of nationhood, but the general complexity of nineteenth-century German debates on government. Advisors/Committee Members: Becker-Cantarino, Barbara.