A5: Europa-Repräsentationen

This sub-project examines representations of Europe which are to be compared in two different time periods and in terms of a contrast between the centre and the periphery.

The first assessment timeframe is the period from 1880 to roughly 1914. On the one hand, Russian political actors' representations of Europe and the role of these representations in reform discussions in the late Tsarist Empire are examined. On the other, the discussions between Asians and Europeans in Germany and the United Kingdom are investigated. The particular point of interest here is how Asians attempted to influence discussions regarding the modernity or decadence of Europe. Contributing to the same timeframe, a further project deals with the press coverage of colonial wars in England and Germany and analyses the role representations of Europe played in this context.

In the second assessment period, the 1990s, the key concern is politicians' and intellectuals' representations of Europe in their confrontation with the non-European world. Two projects examine EC/EU member states' representations of Europe. One of these focuses on France and Germany at the national level, comparing public debates with discussions between politico-scholarly experts. The other project primarily considers the European level with regard to the tensions between national and supranational politics in Spain and Germany. In particular, this project is concerned with how these representations shaped the partnership initiatives and expansion negotiations with the Arab world surrounding the Mediterranean and the EU's eastern expansion. The third project in this time period analyses representations of Europe among Arab intellectuals and the bureaucratic elite, focusing on Morocco, Tunisia and Egypt.

Newspaper articles, parliamentary debates and statements by the actors in question – in diaries, books or records – provide the main sources, while discourse analysis is the predominant method used.

The project expands disciplinary limits in many areas. To date, neither the representations of Europe of politicians nor those of non-European actors and intellectuals have been examined in this way. The project is resolutely interdisciplinary and transregional, with collaboration between historians of Eastern and Western Europe and scholars of Islamic studies.

In its use of the concept of representation the sub-project is concerned with the issue of how these representations of Europe determine social order and shape the actors' deeds. The question of how representations of Europe influence worldviews and thus prefigure action is of special interest here. The project is thus not concerned with abstract concepts of Europe but rather with concepts which – in some cases unconsciously – influence decision-making processes. It might thus provide a response to the question of why various processes of expansion  and modernisation gave rise to unintended results lying outside the framework of a rational logic of action.

Publications by members of this sub-project

• Hartmut Kaelble, Robert Frank, Marie-Françoise Lévy, Luisa Passerini (Hg): Building a European Public Sphere. From the 1950s to the Present / Un espace public européen en construction. Des années 1950 à nos jours. Peter Lang, Bern et al 2010.  (mehr)
• Jörg Baberowski (Hg): Arbeit an der Geschichte. Wie viel Theorie braucht die Geschichtswissenschaft?. Campus, Frankfurt am Main / New York 2010.  (mehr)
• Jörg Baberowski, Gabriele Metzler (Hg): Gewalträume. Soziale Ordnungen im Ausnahmezustand. Campus, Frankfurt am Main / New York 2012.  (mehr)
• Johan Grußendorf, Jörg Feuchter, Regina Finsterhölzl, Andrea Fischer-Tahir, Friedhelm Hoffmann, Simone Holzwarth, Maren Klotz, Michi Knecht, Veronica Oelsner, Nurhak Polat, Reet Tamme, Stefan Beck, Christiane Reinecke: Wissen und soziale Ordnung. Eine Kritik der Wissensgesellschaft. Mit einem Kommentar von Stefan Beck. SFB 640, Berlin 2010.  (mehr)
• Johan Grußendorf, Andreas Weiß: Europarepräsentationen - Spanien, Frankreich und Deutschland im Vergleich. SFB 640, Berlin 2010.  (mehr)
• Andreas Weiß: Colonialism and violence: Alleged transfers and political instrumentalisation. In: Jörg Feuchter, Friedhelm Hoffmann, Bee Yun (Hg): Cultural transfers in dispute. Campus, 2011. (im Druck). S. 193-210  (mehr)
• Andreas Weiß, Johan Grußendorf: Europarepräsentationen. Spanien, Frankreich und Deutschland im Vergleich.  (mehr)
• Friedhelm Hoffmann: Legal authenticity, cultural insulation and undemocratic rule. ʿAbd-al-Razzāq Aḥmad al-Sanhūrī’s (1895–1971) Sharia project and its misrepresentation in Egypt. In: Jörg Feuchter, Friedhelm Hoffmann, Bee Yun (Hg): Cultural transfers in dispute. Campus, 2011. (im Druck). S. 211-260  (mehr)
• Jörg Feuchter, Friedhelm Hoffmann, Bee Yun (Hg): Cultural transfers in dispute. Representations in Asia, Europe and the Arab world since the Middle Ages. Campus, Frankfurt am Main 2011. (im Druck).  (mehr)
• Jörg Feuchter, Regina Finsterhölzl, Andrea Fischer-Tahir, Friedhelm Hoffmann, Simone Holzwarth, Maren Klotz, Michi Knecht, Veronica Oelsner, Nurhak Polat, Christiane Reinecke, Reet Tamme, Stefan Beck, Johan Grußendorf: Savoir et ordre social. Une critique de la société du savoir. Avec un commentaire de Stefan Beck. Traduit de l’allemand par Anne Joly, en collaboration avec Friedhelm Hoffmann. SFB 640, Berlin 2011. (im Druck).  (mehr)
• Jörg Baberowski, Hartmut Kaelble, Jürgen Schriewer (Hg): Selbstbilder und Fremdbilder. Repräsentationen sozialer Ordnungen im Wandel. Campus, 2008.  (mehr)
• Jörg Baberowski, David Feest, Christoph Gumb (Hg): Imperiale Herrschaft in der Provinz. Repräsentationen politischer Macht im späten Zarenreich. Campus, 2008.  (mehr)
• Jörg Baberowski, David Feest, Maike Lehmann (Hg): Dem Anderen begegnen. Eigene und fremde Repräsentationen in sozialen Gemeinschaften. Campus, 2009.  (mehr)
• Jörg Baberowski, David Feest, Priska Jones (Hg): Repräsentation sozialer Ordnungen. Formen und Theorien. Campus, 2008. (in Vorbereitung).  (mehr)
• Jörg Baberowski: Der rote Terror. Die Geschichte des Stalinismus. Fischer, München 2003.  (mehr)
• Friedhelm Hoffmann, Johan Grußendorf: „Frieden, Wohlstand und Menschenrechte rund ums Mittelmeer“ – Die Erklärung von Barcelona (1995).  (mehr)
• Jörg Feuchter, Bee Yun, Friedhelm Hoffmann (Hg): Cultural Transfers in Dispute. Representations in Asia, Europe and the Arab World since the Middle Ages. Campus, Frankfurt am Main / New York 2011.  (mehr)