Overview
In the early modern period, all German cities were fortified places. Because contemporary jurists have defined 'city' as a coherent social body in a protected place, the urban environment had to be physically separate from the surrounding countryside. This separation was crucial to guaranteeing the city's commercial, political and legal privileges. Fortifications were therefore essential for any settlement to be termed a city. This book tells the story of German cities' metamorphoses from walled to de-fortified places between 1689 and 1866. Using a wealth of original sources, The Defortification of the German City, 1689–1866 discusses one of the most significant moments in the emergence of the modern city: the dramatic and often traumatic demolition of the city's centuries-old fortifications and the creation of the open city.
Full Product Details
Author: Yair Mintzker (Princeton University, New Jersey)
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Imprint: Cambridge University Press (Virtual Publishing)
ISBN: 9781139162166
ISBN 10: 1139162160
Publication Date: 05 August 2012
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
Professional & Vocational
Format: Undefined
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: Available To Order 
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Table of Contents
Part I. Beginnings, 1689–1789: 1. The city and its walls; 2. The French model and the German case, 1689–1789; Part II. A Perfect Storm, 1791–1815: 3. The great defortification surge, 1791–1815; 4. The road to Lunéville, 1791–1801; 5. Collapse, 1801–15; Part III. After the Deluge, 1815–66: 6. Restoration's boundaries: fortress, hometown, metropolis, 1815–48; 7. A modern city, 1848–66.
Reviews
'A unique and fascinating examination Mintzker explodes commonly held historical myths while simultaneously placing what seems almost a historical footnote - the demolition of city walls - at the center of a massive transformation from an early modern world to a modern one. He seamlessly weaves together social, cultural, architectural, and political history [This is] an original historical work of astonishing power and scope. [He] relentlessly queries old verities and probes the 'true foundations' of cities by asking not what kinds of fortifications communities built but rather what kinds of communities fortifications constructed. It is a startlingly original and productive insight [he] also deconstructs historical boundaries, allowing his sharp analytical insights to flow across centuries a book that anyone interested in the sweep of European history will read with great profit and equal enjoyment.' Mary Lindemann, University of Miami
Author Information
Yair Mintzker is Assistant Professor of European History at Princeton University. His PhD dissertation won the Elizabeth Spilman Rosenfield Prize of Stanford's Department of History in 2009 and the Friends of the German Historical Institute's Fritz Stern Dissertation Prize in 2010. His articles have been published in History of European Ideas and Reflexions historiques.
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