Historical Scientific Displays during the German Empire: The Role of Science, National Identity, and Bourgeois Culture in the Growth of the History of Science as a Discipline (2018)
Kalbach, Harrison Levan (Author)
Waller, John C. (Advisor)
Michigan State University
Waller, John C.
Publication date: 2018
Language: English
Physical Details: 448 pp.
The dissertation locates the start of the institutionalization of the discipline of the history of science in Germany during the Empire. Primarily using examples of scientific historical exhibitions and displays, history of science scholarship at conferences, and memorials to scientists, I trace how Germany led other nations in the discipline’s early, or proto-, institutionalization, according to five criteria for institutionalization I define at the outset. In addition, the dissertation explores the social and political circumstances during which these developments transpired. It emphasizes the centrality of exhibitions presenting the history of science to the wider German public as a unifying element to help build a new national German identity. It also argues that Germany’s leading role in starting to form the discipline of the history of science can in part be explained by the strong historical consciousness of nineteenth century Germany, the strength of contemporary German science, and the desire of members of the bourgeoisie to make science history one of the cultural goods it provided the nation. A few permanent exhibitions relating to the history of science, most notably those at Kassel and Dresden, had long existed in German lands. However, during the German Empire, these were augmented by a number of others. Temporary displays of the history of science were a relative novelty before the 1870s. After German participation at the International Exhibition of Scientific Apparatus in London in 1876, the first such international exhibition, Germans launched a succession of events displaying and exhibiting the history of science both domestically and internationally that exceeded the range of the counterparts of any other nation before the end of the First World War. By itself, this was a notable phenomenon. When the other activities involving the history of science performed during the Empire are joined to its displays and exhibitions, Germany during the Empire stands out as having taken a unique role in the formation of the discipline of the history of science.
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