The Early Modern City Facing Natural Hazards and Scarce Resources: Braunschweig, Utrecht, Würzburg in the 17th and 18th Centuries

• Applicant: Dr. Ansgar Schanbacher
• Subject Area: Early Modern History
• Term: from 2019 to 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 417026284

In central Europe the early modern city, which still was shaped by medieval structures, had to face political and economic changes and challenges. The growing number of inhabitants needed food and energy and the city not only had to deal with military conflicts but also with natural hazards such as fire, inundations and storms and their consequences. The project at hand explores these topics, which have not yet been researched comprehensively, with the help of the case studies of Braunschweig, Würzburg and Utrecht between 1650 and 1800.In a holistic view the project analyzes the reactions of city lords, city administrations and ordinary inhabitants to natural hazards and the scarcity of natural resources and links the local level to scientific and scholar discourses of the time. Additionally, the project emphasizes how the way natural resources were managed and natural hazards were dealt with, was connected with the social status of city inhabitants and scientists, their rationality, vulnerability and their range of perception. Explanations for the different views on and handling of scarce resources and natural threats can be found in the geographical situation, in political and economic developments on the regional level, in the different involvement in military conflicts and in differing predominant denominations. At large, the project aims at a novel and comprehensive view on the environmental history of the central European city of the early modern period and integrates and completes previous research on political, economic and social topics in urban history with the basic category of the environment (Siemann/Freytag).

• DFG Programme: Research Grants