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1. AllgemeinDen R. verbindet eine stoffliche Verwandtschaft mit dem Routenhandbuch und dem Itinerar, aber auch mit dem Stadtführer. Anders als die nüchterne Wegskizze älterer Routenverzeichnisse legen R. den Schwerpunkt auf die Beschreibung unterwegs anzutreffender Orte und ihrer Sehenswürdigkeiten. Die um Itinerarien erweiterten Städtebücher entwickelten sich seit dem späten 16. Jh. zu praktischen Reisehilfsmitteln.Klaus Beyrer2. Das 17. und 18. JahrhundertFür die Kombination aus Weg- und Stadtbeschreibung steht als einer der ersten dt. schreibenden Autoren…

1. BegriffDer Begriff T. dient seit dem frühen 20. Jh. als Sammelbezeichnung für verschiedene Formen der Nachrichten-Übertragung. Eine Schrift des Franzosen Édouard Estaunié von 1904 ( Traité pratique de télécommunication électrique) bündelt in dieser Wortprägung Entwicklungen der Telegraphie und der Telephonie [8. 965]. Unter dem Einfluss nachrichtentechnischer Innovationen erfuhr das Substantiv Kommunikation (lat. communicatio, engl./franz. communication) im 20. Jh. einen Bedeutungswandel zu »Verständigung, Informationsaustausch«. Das Wortbildung…

Als W. wird die Verbindung zweier Orte bezeichnet: eine Strecke, die ein Reisender bzw. Passant »durchmiszt um zu einem ziel zu gelangen« [1. 2852]. W. und Straßen erschließen und strukturieren den Lebensraum der Menschen und vermitteln eine Vorstellung von seinen Dimensionen. Sie sind Adern menschlicher Kommunikation. Die nzl. W. lassen sich nach ihrer Herkunft (Römerstraße, Hell-W.) und nach ihrer Beschaffenheit (Hohl-W., Passstraße) untergliedern, nach ihrer Konstruktionsart (Bohlen-W., Chaussee) und auch ihrer Nutzun…

In nzl. Erörterungen zu einer allen Zwängen des Landverkehrs enthobenen Telekommunikation überwog lange das Interesse an Vorrichtungen zur Optischen Telegraphie. Am Ausgang des 18. Jh.s in ganz Frankreich eingeführt, vermittelte der Balkentelegraph erstmals eine Idee von den Möglichkeiten beschleunigten Nachrichtentransfers. Dagegen erwies sich Samuel Thomas von Soemmerings 1809 in München konstruierter Elektrolyt-Telegraph aufgrund der zahlreichen, zwischen Sender und Empfänger analog zu den Buchstaben des Alphabets getrennt geführten Leitungs…

1. IntroductionThe establishment of the mail has a particular prominence among the accomplishments in early modern communication. From the 16th century until well into the 19th, the mail was crucial to the infrastructure of all land transportation, and thus for the transportation and conveyance of letters and news, monies, goods, and passengers (Land transport; Passenger transportation). Founded by the future Emperor Maximilian I for the purpose of conveying government dispatches, the mail soon d…

1. Definition and origins 1.1. Development in the Middle AgesIn antiquity and the Middle Ages, messenger services transmitted news using messengers on foot or on horseback (rarely in a horse-drawn vehicle). From the late Middle Ages, they took on an increasingly organized form. Like the institution of the mail, which it predates (though it did not directly supersede it), the messenger system forms part of the history of communication. The occupation of messenger emerged in the course of the late Middle A…

1. Early modern eraThe robber bands in the era of the stagecoach took their first form in the Middle Ages as robber barons and marauding bands of soldiers. At this point, travel no longer connoted “departure for war” but carried the implication of roving and plundering “cohorts of knights” (Soldier). The arsonist bands of the 16th century were responsible for the first high point in the history of brigandage. For a token fee, out-of-work mercenaries (Landsknecht) ransacked farms and entire villages…

1. OverviewBy a signal we mean a specific sign, normally generated mechanically, whose meaning is based on a previously adopted agreement. The word was borrowed in the 14th century from Old French  signal (from Latin  signum, “sign”). Signals have been in use since antiquity, but usually limited to rudimentary content. An agreed signal could warn of the incursion of a foreign army or report a victory. Visual transmission of a message at night employed light and fire, and a column of smoke in the daytime; besides the human voi…

Early modern discussions of telecommunications freed from all constraints of land transportation (Land transport), interest was long focused on systems for optical telegraphy. Introduced across France in the late 18th century, the semaphore line first conveyed an idea of the possibilities of high-speed information transfer. The  Elektrolyt-Telegraph built by Samuel Thomas von Soemmering in 1809 at Munich, on the other hand, was still impracticable, consisting as it did of many individual lines, corresponding to letters of the alphabet…

1. GeneralThe term  infrastructure is a modern coinage [7. 370]. Borrowed from military usage, in the 1960s it also became established in economic contexts; it denotes the necessary organizational foundation needed for a country’s economy. In today’s usage, infrastructure includes facilities for transportation and supply, communication links, and in a broader sense social and cultural institutions. Providing and maintaining infrastructure is primarily the responsibility of the government of the state, …

1. Introduction The sense of a lack of time in the early modern period arose from the loss of a rhythm of human life that had been rooted in natural cycles. In its place, a linear measure of time determined by clocks took hold. In the words of Christian Fürchtegott Gellert, “My life ticks by, / hour by hour I hasten towards the grave” (“Meine lebenszeit verstreicht, / stündlich eil ich zu dem grabe”) [1. 459]. The transience of life was symbolized by the hourglass, which directly displayed the irretrievable passing of the observer’s time. The hourglass, in the for…

From the late Middle Ages onwards, traffic regulations were introduced to control shipping, but especially land transport. The Hamburg navigation law of 1270 established binding principles of liability in cases of collision, while traffic ordinances introduced by government authorities treated aspects of road and street use and gave recommendations regarding overtaking, priority in traffic, and speed. A “simple road traffic ordinance” [6. 1241] was already contained in the Sachsenspiegel (Saxony, circa 1220) and a similar one in the  Schwabenspiegel (Swabia, 1275)…

1. Introduction The aspect of encrypted communication that was most relevant in the early modern period was cryptography. For centuries, confidential letters and dispatches were written in secret scripts that denied third parties access to their content. Encryption was first done using numerals, then quickly with ordinary letters and invented symbols. Competent cryptoanalysts were increasingly sought-after in absolutist territories and states, and became figures of high renown at courts…

1. ConceptThe word “telecommunications” was adopted in the early 20th century as a general term for various forms of information transmission (News). A 1904 treatise by the Frenchman Édouard Estaunié ( Traité pratique de télécommunication électrique, “Practical Treatise of Electrical Telecommunication”) used it to encompass developments in both telegraphy and telephony [8. 965]. The influence of innovations in information technology in the 20th century shifted the meaning of the noun “communication” (Latin  communicatio, French  communication, German Kommunikation…

The semaphore was a mechanical contrivance in the late 18th and 19th centuries that served to transmit messages within visual range (Optical telegraphy). It usually consisted of a mast with movable (transverse) arms, controlled by levers and cables, whose positions represented a character set. Aided by the use of telescopes, the positioning of the semaphores as a chain of relay stations – preferably on heights – made it possible to cover substantial distances in almost no timeThe techniques of signaling practiced since antiquity (smoke, light, fire) were limited to rud…

1. Europe 1.1. Concept and researchThe verb “travel” in the sense of “go from one place to another” or “make a journey,” is unique to English, deriving from the Middle English  travailen, which originally meant “to toil” or “to labor,” suggesting an association with the difficulty of travel in the Middle Ages. The Romance languages express the concept with terms derived from the Latin  via (road, way, travel; e.g. French  voyager; Italian  viaggiare). German evolved the verb  reisen from an original sense (OHG  reisa, MHG  reise; compare English “rise”) of “to get up and go,”…

In Germany in the early 19th century, the term Eilwagen (literally “rapid carriage”) denoted a specific organizational form in scheduled postal passenger transportation. Its basis was the principle of optimized conveyance at the greatest possible speed. This acceleration, which was achieved through organizational measures alone, long attracted no attention from scholars, who were preoccupied with the accomplishments of railroad-related industrialization. Yet the fact that horse power can only be accelera…

1. Concept and researchThe word “tourism,” derived from “tour” and “tourist” (French  tour, tourisme), has since the 1950s denoted all manifestations of a broad, leisure-related mobility, and represents “travel as an industry” [1. 321]. The stem of the word, “tour-,” has had the sense of a turned circle, originally in dance, since the 17th century. The Grand Tour in the European Age of Enlightenment was a tour undertaken for personal edification. In his 1785 letters from Switzerland, the Göttingen history professor Christoph…

1. Origins Optical telegraphy refers to techniques of transmitting messages across distances by visual means ( News). Its history runs from forms of simple signaling (e.g. beacons) to large-scale, systematic networks of mechanical telegraph apparatuses. The invention of the telescope in the 17th century inspired the first discussions of long-distance communication. In a 1616 treatise, Franz Kessler proposed using a telescope to read code numbers off a “number plate” (“Ziffer Täffelein”) at a distance [1. 97–99]. In the 1680s, the English physicist Robert Hooke wa…

1. Genre history 1.1. Genre and mediumThe letter is an individually addressed, written communication that is usually sent sealed. As an elementary form of interaction-free communication, it is characterized by the separation of the communication from the concrete situational context and the alternating absence of the reader during writing and the writer during reading. “Letter” is attested in English since the 13th century, derived from the Latin  littera (“written document,” “epistle”) via Old French. Another Latin derivation is found in the German  Brief, from the Vulgar…