Beyond Functionality. Technological Fascination and the German Public 1890 to 1914

该项目旨在分析德国大众媒体在威廉时代（1890 - 1914/18）如何增强公众对新技术的迷恋。因此，它将改变学者们对当时德国技术创新的普遍看法，即对技术创新持批评和敌对的态度。定量方法旨在确保高度的代表性，而以前被忽视的技术史研究课题成为焦点。该项目将区分两种不同形式的技术热情，即“技术崇高”和个人对速度的迷恋。因此，它将超越批评与迷恋的简单二分法。指导性的问题是，在“世纪的漫长转折”中，是否出现了一种德国特有的“技术崇高”形式，特别是在飞艇、土木工程和大型远洋轮船方面。这些技术是否是民族特性的象征，它们是否表现出对集体美德而不是个人美德的某种偏好？基于当代对各行各业“机械化”的批评，以及关于公众接受技术的社会学研究，该项目将提出这样一个论点，即在这个现代化的特定时期，迷恋而不是功能性主导了对技术的文化感知和挪用。

The project aims at an analysis of how German mass media during the Wilhemine era (1890 - 1914/18) enhanced the general public's fascination with new technologies. It will thus revise the common perception among scholars of a largely critical and hostile stance towards technological innovation in Germany during that time. The quantitative approach seeks to ensure a high degree of representativity while previously neglected topics of research in the history of technology come into focus. The project will differentiate two distinct forms of technological enthusiasm, namely the "technologically sublime" and the individual fascination for speed. It will thus go beyond the simplistic dichotomy of criticism vs. fascination. The guiding question is whether during the "long turn of the century" a specifically German form of the "technologically sublime" came into being, especially with respect to airships, civil engineering, and large ocean steamers. Were these technologies symbols of a national identity, and did they display a certain preference for collective instead of individual virtues? Building on contemporary criticism concerning the "mechanization" of all walks of life and with regard to sociological research dealing with the public acceptance of technology, the project will propose the thesis that during this particular period of modernization fascination rather than functionality has dominated the cultural perception and appropriation of technology.