Das Paradies der Dinge

Abstract

Sie sind 1941 in Berlin geboren und haben in den späten sechziger Jahren an der Freien Universität studiert. Später sind Sie immer wieder zum Forschen in die Stadt zurückgekehrt. Welche Kindheitserinnerungen haben Sie an das Berlin der Kriegszeit? Kurioserweise stammt meine einzige Erinnerung aus einem Eisenbahnabteil. Wir waren während des Krieges evakuiert nach Schlesien. Als sich das Ende abzeichnete, flüchtete meine Mutter mit meinen Bruder und mir gen Westen. Der Andrang an den Bahnhöfen war groß. Ich wurde durch das Abteilfenster gereicht und kam im Gepäcknetz zu liegen. Von dort hatte ich die Empfindung zu fliegen. Später habe ich mir das so rekonstruiert, daß der Zug auf einer Behelfsbrücke über Wasser fuhr, gewissermaßen auf Gleisen durch die Luft, ohne einen Halt fürs Auge. Aber mit Berlin hat das nichts zu tun.

Substance Use

“…2, we should spend some time in this chapter looking at where the present classification system of substances comes from and what this "present system" is after all. When preparing this section, I had the problem, for example, that there is no direct corresponding term in many languages for the German term Genussmittel or the Dutch genotmiddel, literally meaning something that is consumed for enjoyment or as a mild stimulant (see Hengartner & Merki, 1999;Schivelbusch, 2010). In debates on drug policy, this term often functions to positively frame substances not primarily consumed for their nutritional value, while distinguishing them from the "bad drugs" (Droge or drug in the two languages).…”

Normalisation and Ambivalence: Tobacco in the Seventeenth-Century Dutch Republic

“…Tobacco combined with the stimulating effect of another new intoxicant, coffee, to give the early modern bourgeois his daily chemical diet of 'uppers' and 'downers'. 23 Tobacco stimulated rest, concentration, and contemplation. Schivelbusch refers in this context to a picture of peaceful smoking farmers in a village inn painted by Adriaen van Ostade.…”

“…Schivelbusch refers in this context to a picture of peaceful smoking farmers in a village inn painted by Adriaen van Ostade. 24 (We will return to these peaceful farmers below.) In a similar perspective as in the work of Schivelbusch, British historian Jordan Goodman has analysed how tobacco was 'Europeanized' and incorporated in the diet and lifestyle of different social classes, as part of the 'soft drug revolution' in which according to Goodman tobacco, coffee, tea, and chocolate conquered Enlightenment Europe.…”

“…25 The actual pleasure of smoking seems to be off-centre in these explanations. 26 However, pleasure stands central in discussions around tobacco use in the Dutch Republic as reconstructed by Van Deursen and later by Simon Schama. In their view, in a society dominated by Protestant Calvinism, enjoyment itself was suspect and by many considered as sinful.…”

“…58 To studious people doctors such as Cornelis Bontekoe advised smoking. 59 In 1643 tobacco was incorporated in the Amsterdam pharmacopeia. It was administered in syrups, balms, bandages, powders, and extracts.…”