The Project "Berlin Intellectuals 1800–1830" between Research and Teaching

Abstract

Research on literary, artistic, and scholarly activity in Berlin in the late 18th and early 19th centuries has been gaining traction over recent decades (Wilhelmy-Dollinger 2000; Ziolkowski 2002; Preußen-Zentrum 1 and its publications). The massive influence of political events (the French Revolution, political and economic reforms, and the Napoleonic Wars) on literary and scholarly activity throughout Europe constitutes the premise of the DFG-funded junior research project "Berlin Intellectuals 1800-1830." The constitution of a structured public sphere during the 18th century and the intensity of political life turned scholars and writers into intellectuals eager to transport a political message connected to the way they conceived their social position, especially in the context of the Prussian capital city (Berding 1994; Giesen 1993). 2 The project "Berlin Intellectuals 1800-1830" explores specific aspects of this research area. It aims at reconstructing intellectual networks through four focuses. These focuses on the one hand add to existing research projects (such as "Berliner Klassik" 2 , based at the Academy of Sciences) and on the other hand are in themselves representative of major tendencies. The four focuses are: • the influence of French culture (mainly through Huguenot refugees, scholars invited by Frederick II, and post-revolution emigrants) in the constitution of these networks • communication strategies developed by men and women writers and their differences • the presence of political questions in literary or scholarly debates • the role played by the creation of the University of Berlin in 1810 in the development of local and European networks