Göttingen’s global modernity: Cultures of belonging in a provincial German town, 1775-1815

This dissertation examines how residents of the small university town of Göttingen imagined their place in an increasingly interconnected world during the Sattelzeit era—the critical period of transformation between the early modern and modern eras in Europe. By tracing the circulation of material cultures between Göttingen and global spaces, it argues that local definitions of belonging were inextricably tied to Enlightenment theories of temporality and modernity. Chapter one examines the local reading economy, showing how the circulation of print fostered cross-class sociability and expanded Göttingen’s intellectual horizons beyond its borders. Chapter two analyzes the Göttinger Taschen Calender, arguing that its blend of sacred and natural temporalities led readers to embrace stadial theories of progress that positioned themselves as modern and others as non-modern. Chapter three explores women’s classicist and Orientalist dress, revealing how women’s fashion materialized European ideals of modernity while encoding gendered and imperial hierarchies. Chapter four traces the journeys of Polynesian artifacts into Göttingen’s Academisches Museum, illustrating how their meanings shifted from culturally disruptive to museum-bound affirmations of Western progress. Finally, chapter five turns to anatomical collections and individuals’ global resistance to being objectified in the name of science. It argues that local communities—from Hanover to Aotearoa—defended alternate understandings of death and humanity, challenging the universalizing impulses of modern science. Together, these chapters show how Göttingen’s residents grappled with various temporal and spatial disruptions of modernity, forging local forms of global belonging through the entangled circuits of reading, fashion, science, and material exchange.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

History

Grantor

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2025

Author dc:creator

• Hein, Rhiannon

Contributors dc:contributor

• Fritzsche, Peter
• Burton, Antoinette
• Koslofsky, Craig
• Symes, Carol
• Ton, Mary

• Material culture
• gender and sexuality
• race
• nationalism
• empire
• global
• Enlightenment
• science
• digital humanities
• community

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2025 Rhiannon Hein

Language dc:language

en, eng

Handle dc:identifier

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/129692

OAI record oai:identifier

https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=etdms&identifier=oai%3Awww.ideals.illinois.edu%3A2142%2F129692