Ansichten – Raumdarstellungen um 1800 Didaktische Impulse für eine kulturwissenschaftlich ausgerichtete Germanistik

The essay deals with the thematic complex of space in aesthetic and scientific discourses at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries by referring to the spatial turn: a tendency in cultural studies that has persisted for over three decades. The German term “Ansicht” (Eng.: view) is chosen as the conceptual guide: “Ansichten” are understood here as the most comprehensive and extremely thoroughly composed textual descriptions of sections of rural or urban space. The evolution of the term is outlined using two works as examples: Georg Forster’s ‚Ansichten vom Niederrhein‘ (1794) and Alexander von Humboldt’s ‚Ansichten der Natur‘ (1807). The analysis focuses on three perspectives or functions that “Ansichten” fulfil: 1) coping with the information overload about space at the time; 2) harmonising between written description and modes of visualisation that were typical of the visual arts around 1800; 3) gaining newer political insights into post-revolutionary society. Finally, didactic desiderata are synthetically addressed, stimulated by the comparison between Forster’s and Humboldt’s spatial regime and that of the students. This is still an unexploited potential in research and teaching for German studies with a focus on cultural studies.