Historik der Ungleichzeitigkeit: Zur Temporalisierung politischer Erfahrung im Europa des 19. Jahrhunderts 1

Abstract

Historicity of «Non-simultaneity»: On Temporalization of European Political Experience in the Nineteenth Century

Behind the problem of «non-simultaneity» lays the question of what has been «non-simultaneous» in terms of the chronology of the historical times. In this context, the article tries to use the «non-simultaneity» in a not-normative manner like «early pioneers» and «latecomers», but by analysing the fundamentaly different temporal structures which are hidden behind the contemporary attempts to establish political power since the French Revolution. The comparison between France, Germany and Great Britain shows how different European societies experienced «non-simultaneity» as a sign for the tensions between the particular historical experiences. It was not a specific German development but the normal case of European societies in the post-revolutionary situation after 1800. Thus the variety of experiences cannot be reduced to one unifying concept of Europe.