Prussian Civil Servant Bureaucracy and Local Self-Government: Village Decision-Making in the Prussian Province of Westphalia in the 19th and early 20th centuries (C15 [C05])

• Subject Area: Modern and Contemporary History
• Term: from 2015 to 2019
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 252080619

The project examines the origin and development of urban committees as a particular form of decision-making organisation in modernity. Three case studies (Berlin, Hamburg and Essen) over selected time periods (1853-1866; 1890-1910; 1924-1930) from the Wilhelmine Empire to the Weimar Republic will be studied in order to sketch the connection between decision-making and committees. The project will illustrate the conditions under which the committees were created, analyse their practices and methods and examine their functions in the process of decision-making.

• DFG Programme: Collaborative Research Centres
• Subproject of: SFB 1150: Cultures of Decision-Making
• Applicant Institution: Universität Münster
• Project Head: Professor Dr. Werner Freitag