Wolfgang Goederle
Wolfgang is a historian of knowledge, interested in people, infrastructures and technologies and in the ways, in which these interact, from c. 1700 to the present. He has a background in electrical engineering and is particularly interested in putting his technical expertise to a good use in the context of his research.
He completed his doctoral thesis on the production of ethnicity by the census in Central Europe between 1848 and 1910 in 2014, the book was published with Wallstein, Göttingen in 2016. His approach regards the population census as a bureaucratic as well as a scientific operation and integrates the methodology and the theory of History of Science as well as that of New Imperial History, which provides a good framework for the analysis of the processes under scrutiny. The general procedure of the census is analyzed as a History of Knowledge.
Currently, Wolfgang is pursuing two larger research strands: His second book is dealing with Knowledge, semiconductor-industry and regional development in Germany and Austria (and beyond) in the second half of the 20th and the beginning of the 21st century.
Further he is preparing a larger collaborative research project into imperial infrastructures in the 18th and early 19th centuries.
He completed his doctoral thesis on the production of ethnicity by the census in Central Europe between 1848 and 1910 in 2014, the book was published with Wallstein, Göttingen in 2016. His approach regards the population census as a bureaucratic as well as a scientific operation and integrates the methodology and the theory of History of Science as well as that of New Imperial History, which provides a good framework for the analysis of the processes under scrutiny. The general procedure of the census is analyzed as a History of Knowledge.
Currently, Wolfgang is pursuing two larger research strands: His second book is dealing with Knowledge, semiconductor-industry and regional development in Germany and Austria (and beyond) in the second half of the 20th and the beginning of the 21st century.
Further he is preparing a larger collaborative research project into imperial infrastructures in the 18th and early 19th centuries.
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have delivered fresh insights, which suggest to fundamentally re-evaluate and reconsider the first half of the 19th century in Europe. Particularly the role and the agency of mem- bers of the rising middle-classes in the rebuilding of imperial rule all over Europe appear to necessitate an update in the light of newer research. When a quarter century of war destroyed centuries-old social fabrics, securities and certainties, it was particularly well educated members of the middle-classes, who became the most valuable allies of imperial rulers in their project to rebuild their empires. However, what was sold as a “restoration” to contemporaries and subjects frequently realized large-scale, knowledge-driven mod- ernization projects, which centralized administrations, put rulers into stronger positions and marginalized older social elites. Yet, with the middle-classes and their education, ideas of enlightenment and emancipation entered the centers of calculation of imperial rule, which triggered an ongoing process of negotiation between rulers and their new, bourgeois imperial intermediaries.
have delivered fresh insights, which suggest to fundamentally re-evaluate and reconsider the first half of the 19th century in Europe. Particularly the role and the agency of mem- bers of the rising middle-classes in the rebuilding of imperial rule all over Europe appear to necessitate an update in the light of newer research. When a quarter century of war destroyed centuries-old social fabrics, securities and certainties, it was particularly well educated members of the middle-classes, who became the most valuable allies of imperial rulers in their project to rebuild their empires. However, what was sold as a “restoration” to contemporaries and subjects frequently realized large-scale, knowledge-driven mod- ernization projects, which centralized administrations, put rulers into stronger positions and marginalized older social elites. Yet, with the middle-classes and their education, ideas of enlightenment and emancipation entered the centers of calculation of imperial rule, which triggered an ongoing process of negotiation between rulers and their new, bourgeois imperial intermediaries.
Die Volkszählungen im späten Habsburgerreich waren eine zentrale Praxis der Wissensherstellung und Durchethnisierung. Was wurde dabei genau gezählt? Welche kollektiven Identitätsvorstellungen sollten daraus hervorgehen? Welchen Beitrag leisteten wissenschaftliche Weltbilder und Idealvorstellungen von Objektivität? Wie wurde das erzeugte Wissen in modernen Gesellschaften verbreitet und wirksam?
Die Studie ist als Wissensgeschichte an der Schnittstelle von Verwaltungs-, Wissenschafts-, und Imperialgeschichte konzipiert. Mit der Konzentration auf Wissenschaft, Administration und mediale Repräsentation kommt Wolfgang Göderle zu überraschenden Ergebnissen: Weder waren staatliche Institutionen völlig frei in ihrem Handeln, noch waren Bürgerinnen und Bürger passive Subjekte im Zensus. Die moderne Volkszählung entwickelte sich mit den wissenschaftlichen Idealen der zweiten Hälfte des 19. Jahrhunderts. Ihr reibungsloser Ablauf konnte nur gewährleistet werden, wenn hohe Anforderungen erfüllt waren. Insbesondere musste dazu Raum territorial gedacht und administrativ unter Kontrolle gebracht werden. Die Herstellung dieser Vorbedingung wirkt bis in die Gegenwart nach.