tandfonline.com – Technical nation building: German professional organisations and their journals in the nineteenth century

During the long nineteenth century, the German States saw an exceptionally large number of technical journals published by equally numerous professional organisations as a means of supporting the scientific interaction among their respective members. As the political fragmentation of the German Federation into thirty-nine states hindered the exchange of technical knowledge, these journals promoted the communication between practitioners all over the German States. They aimed to unite the increasingly specialised professionals on a scientific and technical level. This article discusses these associations and their journals in a cultural and technical context, considering the following processes: the professionalisation of the building industry in the nineteenth century; the evolution of an independent technical educational system in the German-speaking countries; and the increasing specialisation of engineering disciplines in the course of industrialisation. These coincided with the shift of interest within the associations from the polytechnical publication to specialised magazine for an increasingly diverse readership. On a political level, the article compares the different publication strategies of architects’ and engineers’ professional organisations, and their professional policies to construct a national sensibility in the fragmented German States before their unification in 1871.