Dr. René Waßmer

German Department PhD student (01/2017–10/2020) in sub-project R2 Urban Otium in the Late Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Century. Flânerie in German Literature

Dissertation project

Muße (otiose leisure) in the metropolis. Flânerie in German Journalism and Travel Literature in the Late Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Century

The project analysed German correspondent and travel reports from London and Paris. Its focus was on the journal London und Paris (1798–1815), edited by Friedrich Justin Bertuch, and several travel reports from the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century (Arndt, Börne, Kotzebue, Lichtenberg, Rebmann). The project was the first to systematically discuss urban ways of life and behaviour patterns in German literature and journalism in the late 18th and early 19th century. Centring on forms of Flânerie as well as their history and their discursive negotiation, the project more specifically analysed the literary encoding of urban experience, perception of space and time, the confrontation between individuals and society, the tension between otiose leisure and idleness and also patterns of national self-perception and external perception.

Publications relevant to the project

Search for publications in the CRC's bibliography