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Wolfgang Schivelbusch (26 November 1941 – 26 March 2023) was a German scholar of
cultural studies Cultural studies is an academic field that explores the dynamics of contemporary culture (including the politics of popular culture) and its social and historical foundations. Cultural studies researchers investigate how cultural practices rel ...
, historian, and author.


Early life

Wolfgang Schivelbusch was born on 26 November 1941 in
Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...
. He studied literature, sociology, and philosophy. He lived in New York from 1973 to 2014, before relocating to Berlin.


Career

Schivelbusch was an independent scholar, not affiliated with any academic institution. He studied the history of mentalities, perception and cultural history more broadly. In 2003, he was awarded the
Heinrich Mann Prize The Heinrich Mann Prize () is an essay prize that has been awarded since 1953, first by the East German Academy of Arts, then by the Academy of Arts, Berlin. The prize, which comes with a €10,000 purse, is given annually on 27 March, Heinrich ...
of the Academy of Arts in Berlin. He has cited
Norbert Elias Norbert Elias (; 22 June 1897 – 1 August 1990) was a German-Jewish sociologist who later became a British citizen. He is especially famous for his theory of civilizing/decivilizing processes. Life and career Elias was born on 22 June 1 ...
as one of his main influences and inspirations.


''The Railway Journey''

Schivelbusch's 1977 book, ''Geschichte der Eisenbahnreise: Zur Industrialisierung von Raum und Zeit im 19. Jahrhundert,'' was published in English as ''The Railway Journey'': ''The Industrialization of Time and Space in the Nineteenth Century'' in 1986 and updated with a new preface in 2014. Per the publisher, "Schivelbusch discusses the ways in which our perceptions of distance, time, autonomy, speed, and risk were altered by railway travel." In other words, Schivelbusch describes how the
railroad Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...
not only transformed the natural landscape but also our very perceptual experience of nature itself. Schivelbusch notes that the “annihilation of space and time” was the early nineteenth-century characterization of the effect of railroad travel, due to the speed the new means of transportation was able to achieve. The diminished time it took to cross the distance between two spatial locations (such as two cities) by railway meant that these locations no longer ''seemed'' so distant, even though the distance between them remained unaltered. Additionally, as the railroad network expanded and its reach lengthened, ever more distant places became newly and widely accessible. Thus, Schivelbusch describes two contradictory sides of the same process:
the one hand, the railroad opened up new spaces that were not as easily accessible before; on the other, it did so by destroying space, namely the space between points. That in-between, or travel space, which it was possible to 'savor' while using the slow, work-intensive eotechnical form of transport, disappeared on the railroads. The railroad knows only points of departure and destination.
The denizens of the nineteenth century, who were used to traveling by
stagecoach A stagecoach (also: stage coach, stage, road coach, ) is a four-wheeled public transport coach used to carry paying passengers and light packages on journeys long enough to need a change of horses. It is strongly sprung and generally drawn by ...
or horseback (and consequently had time to "savor" their journey and contemplate the surrounding landscape), suddenly found themselves remarkably dissociated from their surroundings while sitting in a railcar. The speed of the train precluded the ability to focus on aspects of the landscape around them for any great length of time, and many early passengers often became physically distressed or even ill as a result of their exposure to the rapid change of impressions while looking out the railcar window. What Schivelbusch terms the “panoramic gaze”—the ability to look out into the distance and enjoy the passing landscape—had at first to be gradually developed. The modes of perception formed by traditional travel were thus thrown into crisis by the need for an entirely new perceptual posture, one that could enable enjoyment or at least tolerance of the new landscape created by the railroad. Such a shift in perception had subtle ramifications in many sectors: for instance, book publishers enjoyed an increased demand for reading material by train travelers, as something they could easily and at length give their attention to and focus their eyes on.


Works

* ''Rückzug. Geschichten eines Tabus.'' (Retreat. Histories of a taboo). Carl Hanser Verlag, München (2019) * ''Das verzehrende Leben der Dinge. Versuch über die Konsumtion.'' (The Consuming Life of Things). Carl Hanser Verlag, München (2015) * ''Three New Deals: Reflections on Roosevelt's America, Mussolini's Italy, and Hitler's Germany, 1933–1939'' (2006) * ''Entfernte Verwandtschaft: Faschismus, Nationalsozialismus, New Deal 1933 – 1939'' (Distant Relationship: Fascism, National Socialism, New Deal 1933–1939). Carl Hanser Verlag, München (2005) * ''Die Kultur der Niederlage: Der amerikanische Süden 1865, Frankreich 1871, Deutschland 1918.'' (The Culture of Defeat: The American South 1865, France 1871, Germany 1918) Fest, Berlin (2001) * ''In a Cold Crater: Cultural and Intellectual Life in Berlin, 1945–1948.'' University of California Press, Berkeley (1998) * ''Eine Ruine im Krieg der Geister.'' (A Ruin in the War of Ghosts) Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verl., Frankfurt (1993) * ''Licht, Schein und Wahn: Auftritte der elektrischen Beleuchtung im 20. Jahrhundert.'' (Light, Shine and Delusion: Scenes of Electric Illumination in the 20th Century) Ernst, Berlin (1992) * ''Die Bibliothek von Löwen. Eine Episode aus der Zeit der Weltkriege.'' (The Library of
Leuven Leuven (, , ), also called Louvain (, , ), is the capital and largest City status in Belgium, city of the Provinces of Belgium, province of Flemish Brabant in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is located about east of Brussels. The municipalit ...
: an episode from the time of the World Wars) München 1988 * ''Eine wilhelminische Oper.'' (A Wilhelmine Opera) Insel, Frankfurt (1985) * ''Lichtblicke: Zur Geschichte der künstlichen Helligkeit im 19. Jahrhundert.'' (English translation published as ''Disenchanted Night: The Industrialization of Light in the Nineteenth Century'' by University of California Press 1995) Hanser, München/Wien (1983) * ''Das Paradies, der Geschmack und die Vernunft: Eine Geschichte der Genussmittel.'' (English translation published as ''Tastes of Paradise'' by Pantheon 1992) Hanser, München/Wien (1980) * ''Geschichte der Eisenbahnreise: Zur Industrialisierung von Raum und Zeit im 19. Jahrhundert.'' (English translation published as ''The Railway Journey'' by Urizen 1979 and University of California Press 1986) Hanser *"The Industrialized Traveller"
''Telos''
21 (Fall 1974). New York: Telos Press.


Awards

* 2003
Heinrich Mann Prize The Heinrich Mann Prize () is an essay prize that has been awarded since 1953, first by the East German Academy of Arts, then by the Academy of Arts, Berlin. The prize, which comes with a €10,000 purse, is given annually on 27 March, Heinrich ...
* 2013 Lessing Prize of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg


References


External links


Literature by and on Wolfgang Schivelbusch
in the Catalog of the
German National Library The German National Library (DNB; ) is the central archival library and national bibliographic centre for the Federal Republic of Germany. It is one of the largest libraries in the world. Its task is to collect, permanently archive, comprehens ...

In a Cold Crater (full text)
available for free via the
University of California Press The University of California Press, otherwise known as UC Press, is a publishing house associated with the University of California that engages in academic publishing. It was founded in 1893 to publish scholarly and scientific works by faculty ...

Vapourtrain
a
BBC Radio 3 BBC Radio 3 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It replaced the BBC Third Programme in 1967 and broadcasts classical music and opera, with jazz, world music, Radio drama, drama, High culture, culture and the arts ...
programme featuring interviews with Wolfgang Schivelbusch {{DEFAULTSORT:Schivelbusch, Wolfgang 1941 births 2023 deaths Heinrich Mann Prize winners 20th-century German historians German male non-fiction writers Independent scholars 21st-century German historians Writers from Berlin