Public keynote speeches and a panel discussion as part of the international conference

The Beginning of a Major Transformation and the Calm Before the Storm
Professor Dr Frank Uekötter (Ruhr University Bochum, Institute of History)
The 19th century was a time of rapid change, and no one could be certain where this change would lead. Focusing on Germany, this lecture outlines a period of upheaval in environmental history: changes in agriculture and the countryside, the increasing use of fossil fuels, the growth of major cities bringing new challenges – all accompanied by intense scientific and social debates. It becomes clear just how much the developments that seem central from today’s perspective differed from the perspectives and knowledge of the time. The 19th century seems both familiar and infinitely distant today.

Kinetic Energy – Ecological Mobilisation and Social Mobility between Village History and the Realist Novel
Dr. habil. Solvejg Nitzke (Ruhr University Bochum, General and Comparative Literature)
In the 19th century, the ‘village story’ emerged as a literary form that sought both to impart knowledge and to foster cohesion. Whilst the programme of poetic realism gives form to reality, the aim here is to depict ‘authentic’ ways of life. Together with the various forms appearing in their immediate context – in some cases in the very same journal – these texts generate a dynamic energy that renders plausible the connections between text and the world, connections which can still be observed today. Amidst mountain meadows and spa towns, environmental destruction and rural exodus, narrative threads thus become visible, which this lecture aims to trace.

Panel: Dr Stephanie Großmann (Passau), Dr habil. Solvejg Nitzke (Bochum), Dr Falko Schnicke (Linz), Professor Frank Uekötter (Bochum)