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SUMMARY:A History of the World in One Cathedral  - Professor Astrid Swenso
 n (Professor of History\, Bath Spa University)
DTSTART:20211109T180000Z
DTEND:20211109T191500Z
UID:TALK165241@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Julian Siebert
DESCRIPTION:The talk investigate the extraordinary global history of Germa
 n’s most national monument: Cologne Cathedral. Its nineteenth-century co
 mpletion\, after more than 600 years of construction\, ‘as a monument to
  the German nation’ has often come to stand for the course of German nat
 ionalism from popular movement to top-down Prussian enterprise. Yet this n
 arrative not only edits out the more complicated interactions between loca
 l and national forces during the period of completion\, it also side-lines
  an important transnational\, and indeed global\, dimension. The talk high
 lights the multidirectional ways in which the cathedral was fashioned\, an
 d the impact it had beyond the borders of Germany. It examines how persona
 l networks helped initiate the nineteenth-century completion\, looks at in
 ternational financial support (as well as the global and colonial dimensio
 n of local money)\, the place of the cathedral in cultural diplomacy and f
 oreign heritage policies\, and analyses the broader reception by internati
 onal audiences beyond the completion in the twentieth century\, with parti
 cular attention to the two world wars and processes of reconciliation. The
  last part gives an outlook onto recent decades – a time in which the ca
 thedral has played less of an international role despite its newly acquire
 d world heritage status – and discusses how it has been used to mediate 
 global themes – in particular climate change –\, before discussing its
  recent uses by the European far right\, the anti-racist responses as well
  as echos of the second world war and reconstruction in the wake of the pa
 ndemic. The cathedral’s unique eminence in popular and historiographical
  consciousness makes the building a particular pertinent example to rewrit
 e the history of heritage in Germany as a microhistory of the global. It a
 llows us to go beyond the highlighting of ‘connections’ to investigate
 s their specificities and embodied realities. Drawing on extensive archiva
 l research in Germany\, France and the UK\, and published primary sources 
 from further afield\, the talk reflects on how recent debates and methodol
 ogies about global microhistory can be linked to sensory and emotional his
 tories. As such\, the proposes how recent controversies over memory in Ger
 many and the UK\, can be addressed through complex and nuanced histories o
 f a single monument to better understand\, critique and shape the role of 
 the built environment in processes of belonging. \n\n"Register to receive 
 zoom webinar access details":https://wolfson-cam-ac-uk.zoom.us/webinar/reg
 ister/WN_t5-ELuw0TEmbS_KHDQ4BGg.\n
LOCATION:Wolfson College Zoom webinar
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