Global Cityscapes of Modernity and Post Modernity: Vienna and Berlin 1900-2000
in German Politics and SocietyThe focus of this volume is broad, both historically and topically.
Berlin and Vienna, modernity and postmodernity, the twentieth century
and two incisive Wenden of a tumultuous millennium offer an
opportunity to examine central issues in the relationship among
European culture, history, and politics. Cities provide a rich location
to examine expressions of creativity, growth, and change over the
course of one hundred years. As a transit point of entry and exit, the
city becomes a site for exchange and cross-fertilization of peoples,
ideas, and commodities. Cities are nodes in a network whose spokes
extend beyond their metropolitan borders and bring intellectual and
physical nourishment to surrounding areas. This European century
will be known for its great cities and the production of cultural
objects that spread around the globe. Less dramatically, nevertheless
significant for the transfer of knowledge, academic figures will also
be remembered for the dissemination of these intellectual traditions
to generations of students who were fortunate to cross their paths.
Hinrich C. Seeba, professor of German at the University of California,
Berkeley, from 1967 to the present, is one such person.