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An urban–rural continuum? A spatial comparison in mid-eighteenth-century northern Germany
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 17 April 2020
Abstract
The spatial growth of German cities in the years of upheaval in the nineteenth century has been, and remains, the subject of intense historical research. However, the origins of the socio-economic processes underlying these transformations actually predate the epochal transition into the modern era. This article deals critically with the popular conception of a ‘town–country dichotomy’ by comparing, on an empirical basis, urban, semi-urban and rural settlements in a sub-region of the north-west of Germany in the mid-eighteenth century. With the aid of a Geographical Information System (GIS), the cartographic and serial material of the ‘Brunswick Land Survey’ is evaluated in terms of its relevance to a socio-topographic comparison of the spatial micro-structures of the three respective settlement segments. The comparison focuses on the general morphology of the settlement segments, the conditions accompanying the growth of the settlements and the spatial structures of the agricultural activities pursued. In addition, it identifies the factors which led to the erosion of differences between town and country.
- Type
- Research Article
- Information
- Urban History , Volume 47 , Special Issue 3: Thinking spatially: new horizons for urban history , August 2020 , pp. 421 - 447
- Copyright
- Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2020
Footnotes
Higher resolution, colour versions of the figures in this article can be viewed online as supplementary material. Follow the URL at the end of this article.
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I would like to thank Textworks Translation (Manchester), David Hugh McComb (Bremen) and Michael Thomas Taylor (Berlin) for their translation and correction work.
References
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23 These include older inheritance registers (NLA-WO 19 Alt), descriptions of contributions (NLA-WO 23 Alt), official invoices (NLA-WO 21/22 Alt), the poll tax description of 1678 as well as the land registry of fire insurance (NLA-WO 4 Ldsch).
24 Karte des Landes Braunschweig im 18. Jahrhundert, ed. by the Historische Kommission für Niedersachsen, 23, editorial assistance by Hermann Kleinau (Wolfenbüttel, 1962–78).
25 ESRI ArcView 8.3/9.3.
26 See the simulation of the magnetic declination of the earth between 1550 and 1950 with an animated isogonic map at http://geomag.usges.gov/products/models.php, accessed 2 May 2016. In the eighteenth century, central Europe was in a corridor of between 10 and 20 degrees of deviation.
27 März, O., Fließende Übergänge zwischen Stadt und Land: Ein wirtschafts- und sozialräumlicher Vergleich in Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel im 18. Jahrhundert (Historische Geographie/Historical Geography 4) (Berlin and Münster, 2017), 87Google Scholar, Table 2.
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34 Ibid., see map appendix.
35 Ibid., 415–43. Since the available source material has thus far not been analysed comprehensively, further research is needed.
36 Ibid., 280–8.
37 Ibid., ch. 4.5.
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41 Ibid., 227 (Figure 20).
42 Ibid.
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49 A deep map is ‘a platform, a process and a product’; for a detailed definition, see Ibid., 537: ‘A deep map, in short, is a new curated and creative space that is visual, structurally open, genuinely multi-media, and multi-layered. It seeks to provoke negotiation between insiders and outsiders, experts and contributors, over what is presented and how.’
50 See, for example, A vision of Britain through time, www.visionofbritain.org.uk, accessed 9 Oct. 2017; MESH Edinburgh, http://mesh.ed.ac.uk, accessed 9 Oct. 2017 (under construction at the moment); GIStorical Antwerp, www.uantwerpen.be/en/projects/gistorical-antwerp, accessed 9 Oct. 2017; HISGIS Netherlands, www.hisgis.nl, accessed 9 Oct. 2017; Streamproject Belgium, http://streamproject.ugent.be/en/stream_start.php, accessed 9 Oct. 2017; FNZGIS Staatenwelten Mitteleuropas, www.digihist.de/html/fnzgis/welcome.html, accessed 9 Oct. 2017.
März supplementary material
März supplementary material
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