Journeys into the Past: History as a Tourist Attraction in the 19th and 20th Centuries
Conference at the University of Siegen
November 6-8, 2014
Conveners: Univ.-Prof. Dr. Angela Schwarz, Dr. des. Daniela Fleiß
Lately, there is much talk about "history tourism" or travels to cities and sites for their qualities as witnesses of 'the past'. Over 65,900 results, provided after a key word search for the German term via Google, indicate a decided interest in the phenomenon. However, these websites cover only use of the term referring to present-day tourism. So far, historiography has neither shown a particular interest in the phenomenon nor developed a concept of 'history tourism'. Although studies on certain historically significant sites and their popular fascination exist, especially on memorials of military conflicts or former battlegrounds, studies dealing with history tourism in the past or reflections on its character, role and functioning are almost non-existent. However, both are extremely important when it comes to finding reasons why people in the past - and the present - sought out places in their spare time, which were seen as echoing the past or sites of important historical events. Which role does history play for the touristic experience? What characterizes the touristic quality of localizing the past in a specific place? What are the effects of looking at the past from a tourist’s perspective? How and to what purpose does this process generate conceptions of the past or even of history?
Such considerations indicate that history tourism is in fact a popularization of history. However, the forms of history popularization analyzed so far - forms that fulfilled various functions particularly since the 19th century, including the negotiation of national, ethnic and regional identities - do not include history tourism. This is surprising in the light of the popularity of the phenomenon. It is even more so in light of the upsurge of research on commemorative culture.
There are plenty of similarities between the functions of tourism and those of history popularization. Both provide an experience, an adventure, an encounter with the other, both start out with the aim to entertain. Both construct or invent history, provide elements for the search for identity. For the individual as well as for the social group, history is crucial in order to determine the present position as it provides individual, regional or national self-affirmation as well as social and political legitimization. Tourism fabricates an artificial world, to experience it helps to define identity much more clearly. Both, the popular construction of history as well as tourism, seek the extraordinary, assist in the urge to leave everyday life behind and exchange it for something more alluring, set apart in time and space.
Valentin Groebner recently pointed to the connection between history and tourism. He studies tourism primarily as a phenomenon of the present, based on the assumption that it is a present-day phenomenon because it requires a well-developed historical consciousness - which he takes as a creation of the (post-)modern age. In contrast, the conference which is to take place at the University Siegen in November 2014 starts out from a different hypothesis: history tourism is much older. In fact, the desire to seek out ‘sites of the past’ in order to enjoy an extraordinary experience runs through the ages. Nonetheless it may be stated that the social, economic, media as well as technological developments since at least the 19th century generated a distinct form of production and distribution of historical knowledge which in turn boosted a form of history tourism characteristic of roughly the last two centuries.
The conference approaches this phenomenon, its forms, characteristics and functions. It is to bring together approaches from multiple disciplines. Contributions are expected to address journeys into the past in various stages of European and North American modernity and to analyze how contemporary sources exposed the motives for and the experience of history tourism.
Presentations may address:
- fashions of touristic attraction and their changes over time
- categories of sites and monuments that were visited as well as their characteristics
- individuals or groups promoting history tourism in different times and countries
- perceptions and behaviors that turned relicts of the past into tourist attractions
- social and political objectives of a touristic use of the past
- representations of history tourism in various media formats
- specific types of history (political history, social history, history from a national perspective) created by the tourist use of the past.
As the aim is not only to record and describe forms of “journeys into the past”, contributors are requested not to lose sight of the conceptual thrust of the conference. Presentations should not exceed 25-30 minutes and are followed by a 15-20 minute discussion. Depending on the degree of international participation, the conference will be held in English or German. Information about the conference language will be included in the notification.
The conference proceedings are to be published.