Diverging perceptions of danger. The foundation of the first professional fire brigade in Germany (1851)

• Applicant: Privatdozent Dr. Olaf Briese
• Subject Area: Modern and Contemporary History ; General and Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies
• Term: from 2014 to 2017
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 262539189

In the nineteenth century, city fires were deeply embedded in the collective memory, while new fire dangers emerged through urban development. The category of endangerment must, however, be subjected to theoretical analysis. Dangers are not simply facts. They are both conceptualisations that react to real challenges and products of the interaction between the collective imagination, media presentation and state-administrative influences. This planned cultural historical project investigates the varied perceptions of danger on the example of the first professional fire brigade in Germany. It first shows how period-specific prototypival endengerment (master tropes of endengerment) emerge from the heterogeneous interaction of imagined, performed and power-based perceptions of danger. On this basis, it traces the development of the Berlin professional fire brigade from its beginnings in 1851. Created as a purely state and policing institution with an explicitly military organisation, the fire brigade reacted not only to the needs of fire protection in a growing metropolis. The particular institutional dynamic of the fire brigade also emerged from its function as an element of order within an authoritarian state regiment that, after the events of 1848, evoked the threat of revolutionary arson attacks through media propaganda and show trials.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants