The correspondence of the German Empress Augusta. Role, self-conception, political scope of action.

书信是19世纪政治传播研究的丰富素材。然而，人们关注的焦点主要是“伟人”之间的通信。该研究项目试图以德国女皇奥古斯塔(1811-1890)的书信为基础，探索女性对政治世界的看法，以及外交、代表和日常政治之间的潜在行动范围。作为“第一夫人”，奥古斯塔处于政治权力的中心。由于她经常反对政府政策，奥古斯塔的书信为19世纪的政治交流提供了多方面的创新见解。她与她那个时代的伟大政治和知识分子的书信大约保存了3000封。利用定量方法(历史网络研究)和定性方法(语义学、解释学、传记和人口学方法)，可以收集关于发信人和收信人圈子以及信件中涉及的主题的详细信息。对谁、与谁、何时和就什么进行沟通的分析，可以得出关于这个网络内的政治机制和战略、信息流动、意见形成过程和个人职能的结论。通过利用奥古斯塔作为一名与政府有着长期、有时是对立联系的女性的独特视角，该研究项目将产生新的动力，以研究19世纪的政治和社会发展和变化，例如1848/49年的革命、德国统一战争、文化斗争和反社会主义法律。此外，奥古斯塔作为一个人脱颖而出。该项目将调查迄今被忽视的一些方面，如太子妃、女王和皇后的职能、自我概念和政治行动范围。

Letters serve as a rich source material for the research on nineteenth century political communication. However, it is primarily the correspondence of "great men" that has been in the centre of interest. The research project wants to explore the female perspective on the world of politics and the potential scope of action between the poles of diplomacy, representation and daily politics based on the correspondence of the German Empress Augusta (1811-1890). As "First Lady" Augusta was at the centre of political power. Due to her often oppositional stance to government policies, Augusta's letters provide multifaceted and innovative insight into nineteenth century political communication. Roughly 3,000 letters of her correspondence with the great political and intellectual minds of her day have survived. Using quantitative (historical network research) as well as qualitative methods (semantic, hermeneutic, biographical and prosopographic approaches), detailed information can be gathered on sender and receiver circles as well as on topics addressed in the letters. The analysis of who, with whom, when and on what communicated allows for conclusions about political mechanisms and strategies, flows of information, processes of opinion forming and individual functions within this network. By drawing on Augusta's unique perspective as a women with longstanding and sometimes oppositional connections to the government the research project will generate new impulses for examining political and social developments and changes during the nineteenth century, for instance the revolution of 1848/49, the Wars of German Unification, the kulturkampf (culture struggle) and the Anti-Socialist Laws. Also, Augusta as a person comes to the fore. The project will investigate aspects hitherto ignored such as the function, self-conception and political scope of action of a crown princess, queen and empress.