SAECULUM. Jahrbuch für Universalgeschichte

Volume 68 (2018), number 1

Contributions

Peter Haslinger und Dirk van Laak: Sicherheitsräume. Bausteine zu einem interdisziplinären Modell
The spatial turn has been present as a concept in historiography for the last twenty years. However, theoretical reflection on the spatial dimensions of security remains an underdeveloped area of study because historical research on the paradigm of security itself has also only come into focus in the last few years. The aim of the article is therefore to stimulate further development in this field of research, distinguish the relevant theoretical discussions and investigate how these relate to each other. The theory of securitization serves as a starting point, but a dialogue is formed by combining this with approaches and concepts taken from sociology, political science and the spatial sciences. A number of perspectives have been taken into consideration, namely spatial security measures, geopolitics, border demarcations and the development of national security, as well as spaces of flow, mobility and security in religious, secular and private spaces. In historicizing the spatial aspects of securitization processes, a promising field for future research is thus opened up. This article provides not just a definition of "security spaces" but also an indication of interconnected subject areas and thereby presents an approach that will prove fertile ground for future research.

Christine G. Krüger: Slums und Villenviertel. Städtische Grenzziehungen und Sicherheitsentwürfe in London und Hamburg im ausgehenden 19. Jahrhundert
Taking the harbor cities of Hamburg and London as case studies, this article examines the correlation between urban security designs, inner-city border demarcations and the factors that determined affiliations with particular urban areas in the late 19th century. The article begins with an analysis of the way in which increasing socio-spatial segregation was perceived at the time, and then investigates instances of "frontier crossing", both out of the slums into more affluent areas as well as the reverse. It also looks at ways in which police acted as guardians of these urban borders and investigates the city planners' reactions to the segregation tendency that took hold in these two cities. In both Hamburg and London, a security paradox manifested itself whereby inner-city borders that were introduced to guarantee safety at the same time created a new sense of unease. However, the intensity of this social conflict differed in each city, which meant that clearly divergent ways of dealing with the dilemma were opted for in each place.

Christina Reimann: Soziale Sicherungssysteme als Bewältigung des Raums? Rotterdam und Antwerpen im späten 19. und frühen 20. Jahrhundert
This article investigates to what extent the port cities Rotterdam and Antwerp, due to their spatial specificities, remained places of "Eigensinn", when "the insurance principle" became common usage in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It analyses the production of social security in the port cities as space related practice by using the term space in two different ways: On the one hand the article sees port cities as border spaces in practice, situated at the edge of the territorialisation process, which encompassed the creation of national security schemes. On the other hand it investigates in what way different insurance actors were participating in the construction of port cites as specific social spaces. These spaces were not only characterised by openness and fluidity but also by strict demarcations of e.g. socio-cultural boundaries. These and other strategies of "coming to terms" with the space that actors used to cope with the particular contingencies in port cities unfolded within statutory as well as private social security schemes.

Ulrich Schütte: Sicherheitsarchitekturen und Raumkonzepte in der Frühen Neuzeit
During the Early Modern period, the fortified bastion ranked among the essential architectural features of the epoch. Using this fact as a starting point, the article aims to address questions relating to concepts of security in urban centers and sovereign territories. Towns and territories were spheres of political activity and thus it was imperative that ideas be developed for their security and defense against both real and potential threats. With regard to military operations and fortifications, individual urban centers, for example capital and residence cities, were just as significant as the relations between towns and cities, within border regions, and to urban centers in neighboring regions. A prime example of this is the way in which territorial security policy was carried out in the Brandenburg-Prussian and Swedish areas of the Old Empire. Royal fortifications (citadels) often came to play a contributing role in internal conflicts rather than providing a solution to the security dilemma caused by the security measures being put in place by the ruling lords, on the one hand, and the continual threat posed by the commoners on the other. A further aim of the article is to show how important visualization strategies were in the Early Modern period, and how newly invented means of replication (printed pictures and books) were used to present the fortification as a symbol of territorial rule and also as a guarantee that towns and countries were safe places.

Kai Ruffing: Von Menschen und Mauern. Zur Wahrnehmung von Bedrohung in der römischen Kaiserzeit und der symbolischen Funktion von Stadtbefestigungen und ihren topographischen Gegebenheiten
The late antique author Vegetius states in his epitoma rei militaris that the oldest cities were built in open terrain and were made unconquerable by means of expertise and hard work. Taking Vegetius's statement as a point of departure the paper aims to have a paradigmatic look at the defensive capacities of four Roman cities: firstly the Roman settlement in Waldgirmes (Hessia), secondly and thirdly the Roman colonies Augusta Praetoria (modern Aosta) and Nicopolis Epiri in Greece, and finally the municipium Munigua in Spain. It will be demonstrated that the walls of these cities were rather useless for defending the towns. On the contrary, the walls had a clear function in the self-staging of the civic society as well as in the communication of military security. Interestingly, building inscriptions as well as dedicatory inscriptions in context with the archaeological remains clearly demonstrate that Augustus in particular used the building of city walls and gates for his propaganda of military success, even though the walls and the gates had not the defensive capacities to prevent enemies from conquering the towns. Thus the construction of city walls and other monumental buildings in the public space contributed to the militarization of the public imagery and thus the communication of military success and as matter of consequence of the Augustan peace, which created a new Golden Age of the Roman res publica.

Florian Kühnel: Chamäleon oder Chimäre? Rollen und Intersektionen des frühneuzeitlichen Gesandten
In recent years research has paid great attention to the Early Modern envoy's 'variety of roles'. Besides being the representative of the king, envoys were also patrons, clients, friends, heads of their houses, etc. However, it is emphasised that in diplomatic practice these roles always overlapped and caused conflicts. To describe the 'inevitable coexistence' of categories within diplomacy, this article suggests using intersectionality as a concept that - unlike role theory - includes overlaps and intersections from the beginning and even makes them their main object.
Using the example of English diplomat William Trumbull, the article shows on the level of social structure how Early Modern diplomacy was based on the intersection of the categories rank, office and patronage. After that, the constellation of categories is analysed on the level of identity construction, focusing mainly on the role of religion for the 'diplomatic self'. The third part offers a prospect on the categories gender, nation and party.