Potemkin Stairs

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Potemkin Stairs on a 19th century postcard
Odessa stairs.JPG
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The Potemkin Stairs ( Ukrainian Потьомкінські східці / Потьомкінські сходи Potjomkinśki S'chidzi / Potjomkinśki S'chody , Russian Потёмкинская лестница Potjomkinskaja Lestniza ) is a mid-19th-century staircase with 192 steps in the Ukrainian port city of Odessa on the Black Sea . It connects the city center, which is located on a plateau, with the port , also known in the city as the Freemason Staircase, as it is built in the highest Freemason degree - 30 °, is characterized by its upwardly tapering construction through the intended perspective distortion and has become the landmark of the City. By Sergei Eisenstein's film Battleship Potemkin in 1925 it was "probably the most famous staircase in the world" and one of the icons of the 20th century.

investment

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Perspective from below: only steps, no paragraphs
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Perspective from above: only paragraphs, no steps
City view from the sea
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before construction began in 1837
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after completion in 1850
Construction with side retaining walls

The planning for the staircase as a representative main entrance to the city was initiated in 1826 by the governor Mikhail Vorontsov . The staircase was built from Trieste sandstone from 1837 to 1841 according to the plans of the Sardinian or Ticino architect Francesco Boffo in collaboration with various other architects and engineers . The construction cost the enormous sum of 800,000 rubles and almost drove the executing entrepreneur Zabatskij to ruin, as the city did not pay the fee owed him in full until 1848.

The 142 meter long staircase overcomes the 30 meter difference in height between the port and the town on a plateau and originally consists of 200 steps , each of which is interrupted by a large landing between 20 steps. Large vaults carry the weight load in the form of 36 columns connected by round arches, between which passageways as "space to connect free traffic" were maintained on the bank level. When the port was expanded in the course of the 19th century, a six-meter-high quay was built in front of the stairs to transport shiploads in and out. The bottom eight steps of the stairs were filled in, so that there are still 192 steps and ten landings today. In the 1930s, the stairs were completely restored, replacing the corroded sandstone with marble from the southern bow .

The construction is designed to have a perspective effect: from above only the landings (and no steps) can be seen, from below only the steps (and no landings). Since the stairs are 21.7 meters wide at the bottom than at 13.4 meters at the top, they look the same across the entire length when viewed from above. The city is optically drawn to its port and the Black Sea. From below, this perspective trick makes the stairs look as if they were considerably longer and as if the urban backdrop at the top of the stairs were more powerful. This calculated distortion of perception underscores the effect that, viewed from below, the flight lines of the stair surrounds end in a vanishing point in the sky and the buildings framing them at the top of the stairs take up their lateral expanse, the impression of leading straight into the sky: “like a an endless sea of ​​steps, the short distance in height is increased to the insurmountable, Odessa seems to be enthroned in the sky. "

Ensemble: on the left the upper end of the staircase, on the right the square with a statue enclosed in a semicircle

The staircase forms an ensemble together with the two buildings built by the Petersburg architect Avraam Melnikow from 1827 to 1830 , which form a semicircular square at the outer edge of the city plateau as the center of the sea boulevard (“Primorsky” boulevard, Russian for “by the sea”) enclose. In the middle of this square is a statue of Armand Emmanuel du Plessis, duc de Richelieu , who was the first governor of Odessa for eleven years from 1803 and who drove the city's cultural and economic rise. His statue, created by Iwan Martos and erected here in 1828, faces the port and stands in the central axis of the stairs that adjoin the outer edge of the square. The anthropologist Caroline Humphrey interpreted the gesture of the outstretched right hand of the statue at the top of the stairs, which is clad in a Roman toga , as a greeting to the visitors who came into the city via the stairs. The staircase as a "maritime facade" completes the administrative and cultural center of the then young city, which was planned and harmoniously coordinated since the 1820s and which was largely designed by Francesco Boffo in the form of a "complex system of interconnected and rhythmically merging rooms" and its "central axis", the sea boulevard, emphasizes the harbor stairs.

and display information about the image
Drawn view of the city plateau with the stairs (No. 6) in the central axis between the two harbor basins ( Die Gartenlaube , 1855)

The stairs also serve to protect the steep slope between the city plateau and the harbor level from landslides . When the slope at the center system and the bank embankment was removed 1825-1835 building material, the edge began to slip. Therefore, the staircase was on 400 tree stakes founded and thus stabilized the loose material has become. Retaining walls on both sides of the stairs secure this solidified base; more walls stabilize the upper part of the slope between the stairs and the Vorontsov - Palace to the city level with the along the leading edge of the sea Boulevard secure. Since then, a drainage system has also protected the slope from storms.

Украина, Одесса - Потемкинская лестница 10.jpg
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Today's rack railway

Next to the stairs, the Odessa funicular overcomes the height difference mechanically. The means of transport was designed by engineer NI Pyatnitsky, opened in 1902 and equipped with two passenger cabins from Paris for 35 people each. After more than 60 years, operations were stopped in the Soviet era and the system was replaced by an unadorned elevator. It was not until the 2000s that the cog railway was restored to its original shape and put into operation.

Symbolic meaning

landmark of the city

Stylized stairs as a hallmark of the city: postage stamp (2002)
Léon Benett's illustration of the novel Keraban the stubborn head by Jules Verne (1882)

The staircase quickly became the young city's main visual symbol. According to the historian Guido Hausmann, the impressions of Odessa in the 19th century were "very different", depending on whether you came to the city on the arduous land route like most little people or how the wealthy (whose memories dominate ) by ship, who climbed the stairs after leaving the quarantine facility and thus got directly to the city center. According to Caroline Humphrey, the staircase also stood for social separation and stratification: it separated the aristocratic, sprawling city above from the wicked, dirty port buildings and their users, despised by the authorities; Deviance and crime were assigned to the underground and the port facilities in the city. The staircase has retained its status as a splendid entrance to this day, as “the stage for a city that was destined to become the backdrop for a grandiose world theater” ( Karl Schlögel ). Odessa became "the city with the stairs".

This is reflected in travel reports from the 19th century. During the construction phase, criticism of the expensive, useless and oversized design outweighed the concern that the building would not be stable. The English officer William Jeese wrote of a “stair monster” (escalier monstre) in 1841 : “It is a poorly thought-out design if it is supposed to be used for decoration; its use is more than dubious and its execution so poor that one is waiting for decay. ”In 1842, the French Xavier Hommaire de Hell made a similarly negative comment about the“ gigantic staircase ” (escalier gigantesque) ,“ an expensive and useless staircase Toys "that will never serve a purpose except for the strollers of the boulevard."

After the completion, the descriptions became euphoric. For the German traveler Karl Heinrich Koch , the staircase was "of a beauty that no other city in the world has to show, ... here, where ... thousands of people are employed to establish the connection between the west and east of Europe." 1869 showed also Mark Twain impressed: "a huge flight of stone steps leading down to the harbor ... It is a magnificent staircase, and from a distance appear the people up toil, like insects." the American teacher Mabel Sarah Emery ruled in 1901, when the stairs see, “one wonders involuntarily why such an idea is not carried out more often? It is precisely the simplicity of the design that gives it a monumental character; the effect is certainly worthy and majestic. "

An automobile pioneer climbing the stairs (1906)

In addition to these functions as the culmination of visitor expectations and resident pride, the staircase also became a magnet for popular culture and leisure entertainment at the turn of the century . The bicycle racing and aviation pioneer Sergei Utochkin (1876–1916) rode his bike down the stairs in a show event . The Soviet film In Der Todesschleife (1962), which tells the story of Utochkin in the context of other Russian aviation pioneers, staged a similar event in which Utochkin drove down the stairs violently on a motorcycle. In 1906 one of the first automobiles of the Oldsmobile Curved Dash type climbed the steps - and thus an incline of about 30 degrees - automatically in front of an audience.

Armored cruiser Potemkin

Film scene with Cossacks on the march down the stairs

Internationally, the staircase has been known since 1925 from Sergei Eisenstein's film Battleship Potemkin , in which these stairs serve as the setting for the bloody suppression of an uprising and in the key scene a baby carriage rolls down the stairs. Eisenstein and his film of the mutiny on the battleship "Prince Potemkin of Tauris" ( Russian Knyaz Potemkin Tavrichesky ) during the revolution of 1905 a monument. This battleship was named after the Russian prince Grigori Potjomkin (1739-1791), who had significantly promoted the settlement of the Black Sea region .

The scene was not planned in the original shooting schedule and was only developed on location “from the moment, from the chance encounter,” as Eisenstein explained: “It was mainly nothing other than the 'run' of the steps that created this plan and with its 'upswing' inspired the director's imagination for a new 'flight'. And the panicked 'run' of the crowd, which 'flies' down the stairs, is, viewed properly, only the material realization of these sensations during the first encounter with the stairs themselves. ”It is unclear what the stairs mean for them historical uprising in 1905. At that time, an Italian newspaper had published a (possibly retouched) photo of citizens cheering on the mutineers from the steps of the stairs in July 1905. The literary scholar Daniel Gerould mentions evidence of a "terrible slaughter"; On the night of July 28, 1905, citizens fled up the stairs from the burning port area under fire. The staircase scene was based more on the historical template than von Eisenstein admitted, but was dramatized: Instead of the nocturnal shelling and the upward movement of the refugees, Eisenstein staged the massacre as a downward movement of an innocent, happy crowd in bright daylight. This production, in turn, takes up the St. Petersburg Bloody Sunday of January 1905 and synthesizes the scene into a general statement about the revolution itself. In addition, the bloody repression in Baku in 1905 was processed in this scene.

The boots of the Cossacks

Lion Feuchtwanger verbalized the staircase scene in 1930 in his novel Success in a written assembly technique similar to Eisenstein's visual method:

[A] There are stairs. A huge staircase, it doesn't stop. On it, in infinite procession, the people carry their sympathies with the mutineers.
[B] But it doesn't last long; for they are on these stairs, the others. A swarm line of Cossacks, down the stairs, rifle under their arm, slow, threatening, inevitable, blocking the entire width of the stairs. ...
[A] And now they no longer walk on the stairs, now they fall, what their legs and lungs give away. …
[A] And the boot of the Cossack always strides steadily.
[B] and more and more rumble, roll down.

The rolling pram

Shortly after the premiere, Eisenstein described that this setting should primarily arouse emotions: “Take the scene in which the Cossacks slowly and deliberately run down the stairs of Odessa and shoot into the crowd. By consciously combining legs, steps, blood, people as elements, we create an impression. Which? The observer does not imagine he was present at the Odessa berth in 1905. But as the soldiers' shoes push forward, it rebounds. He tries to get out of the line of fire. When the stroller tips over on the pier, he holds on to his cinema seat. He doesn't want to fall into the water. ” Siegfried Kracauer described such an impression in a film review:“ The imagination, filled with indignation, horror and hope ... sees the automatic movements of the Cossack legs and flies over the faces of the crowd in order to cling to a pram . You merge the people of Odessa and the great staircase to an inseparable unity ”.

A homage to the stairs and the film scene with the pram can be found in over a hundred other films such as Woody Allen's Bananas , Brian De Palma's The Untouchables or Terry Gilliam's Brazil , indirectly also in comedies such as The Naked Cannon 33⅓ . The motif has become so independent that it appears completely decontextualized in a beer advertisement. Because of this film-historical effect, the staircase was included in the list of treasures of European film culture by the European Film Academy in July 2015 .

The stairs were permanently linked to the images in the film. In 1927, Wiktor Schklowski said that it was "recently invoked so often that it seems high time to dismantle it and transport it to the museum." The literary scholar Anna Makolkin is of the opinion that Eisenstein's iconic adaptation was the first to create the stairs to the "unique urban Sign “Odessas did. For the documentary filmmaker and journalist Ulla Lachauer , this cinematic reverence superimposes every idea of ​​the actual city in Western eyes: "A movie legend shaped the image of Odessa, ultimately overgrown the horizon of the real city, which has fallen out of the experience of the Westerner, beyond recognition."

The reality of the mythically transfigured staircase, on the other hand, is often described as sobering: “Anyone who visits them because they want to see in reality what has inspired them in the cinema will inevitably be disappointed. … [R] affinitely, Eisenstein used editing and editing to give the location something dramatic and expressive that it… doesn't suit it in reality. ”And while Karl Schlögel points out that the young people of Odessa no longer know the film, What Oliver Näpel finds for the cultural memory of the present in general, fame for the journalist Konrad Schuller pales in view of the profit orientation of the present: “It is not that far away with the legendary staircase…. Down at the harbor, after the fall of the Soviet Union at times a maze of rust, wrecks and human excrement, a hotel tower including a nightclub in the glass-and-plastic style of the wild nineties obstructs the view. "

20th century icon

The staircase has been called an " icon of the 20th century"; Karl Schlögel said in 2001 that the staircase “ceased to be an icon of the 20th century.” The historian Alexis Hofmeister characterized it as one of the “emblematic scenes of modernity”. The steps of this staircase also served the historian Dan Diner in 1999 as an imaginary standpoint for his universal historical interpretation of the ( short ) 20th century , Understanding the Century : “The view starts from the European border. It wanders from the Baltic Sea over the Black Sea to the Aegean Sea. Such a peripheral perspective could be taken up by a virtual narrator who sits on the steps of the traditional Odessa staircase and looks to the south and west. ... The view from the steps in Odessa that guides the illustration leads across the Black Sea, via Constantinople and Byzantium to the straits, to Troy. The gaze wanders through the historical space ... densely layered times of extraordinary historical importance. ”And specifically with reference to the 20th century:“ From 1919, the fictional viewer on the steps of Odessa turns his gaze to the west, to Central Europe. ... London and Paris are rather remote. ... Seen from Odessa, history takes place in East Central Europe. "According to Matthias Middell , Diner's perspective is exemplary for the German historians of the first years after the collapse of the Eastern bloc , as" the interest in the exotic experiences of those who intruded into institutionalized Europe " was knowledge-guiding. The English version of the book from 2008 shows an old picture of the stairs on its cover.

designation

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Duque de Richelieu Odessa.jpg


Richelieu's statue at the top of the stairs

For a long time, the most diverse names were used for the stairs. The names Boulevard stairs ( Russian Bul'varnaja lestnica ) and Richelieu stairs come from the 19th century . The first name refers to the sea boulevard at the top as the prelude to the prosperous business and social center of the city, the second name to the first governor of Odessa, Armand Emmanuel du Plessis, duc de Richelieu . This is the name given to the staircase by the statue of Richelieu, towards which it runs at its upper end.

In 1955, on the 50th anniversary of the mutiny and in reference to Eisenstein's film, the building was renamed Potemkin Stairs . Today this intention has been forgotten, which is why it is often assumed that the staircase is named immediately after Potjomkin .

literature

  • Frederick W. Skinner: City Planning in Russia. The Development of Odessa, 1789-1892. Ann Arbor, MI 1974, also dissertation , Princeton University , 1973, p. 191 f.
  • Patricia Herlihy: Odessa. A History, 1794-1914. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA 1986, ISBN 0-916458-08-3 , p. 140.
  • Patricia Herlihy: Commerce and Architecture in Odessa . In: William Craft Brumfield, Boris V. Ananich, Yuri A. Petrov (eds.): Commerce in Russian Urban Culture, 1861-1914. Woodrow Wilson Center Press, Washington, DC 2001, ISBN 0-8018-6750-9 , pp. 180-194, especially pp. 184 f.
  • Anna Makolkin: A History of Odessa. The Last Italian Black Sea Colony. Edwin Mellen Press, Lewiston, NY 2004, ISBN 978-0-7734-6272-4 , pp. 22 and 93.
  • Charles King: Odessa. Genius and Death in a City of Dreams. WW Norton & Co., New York 2011, ISBN 978-0-393-07084-2 , see Register, p. 332 f. , Keywords “Odessa steps” and “Potemkin steps”.
  • Caroline Humphrey: Violence and Urban Architecture: Events at the Ensemble of the Odessa Steps in 1904–1905. In: Wendy Pullan, Britt Baillie (eds.): Locating Urban Conflicts: Ethnicity, Nationalism and the Everyday. Palgrave Macmillan, London 2013, pp. 37-56 (preview) .
  • Rebecca Stanton: “A Monstrous Staircase”: Inscribing the 1905 Revolution on Odessa. In: Julie Buckler, Emily D. Johnson (Eds.): Rites of Place: Public Commemoration in Russia and Eastern Europe. Northwestern University Press, Evanston, IL 2013, ISBN 978-0-8101-2910-8 , pp. 59-80 (PDF) .

Web links

Commons : Potemkin Stairs  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files
  • Video of the film Battleship Potemkin on YouTube by the rights holder Mosfilm with the famous film scenes (from 46:29 - Odessa citizens cheer from the stairs to the rebels; from 47:55 - "And suddenly": appearance of the Cossacks, the crowd up the stairs drift down; from 52:32 - the pram comes into view, the nanny is shot, and soon the pram begins to roll down the stairs)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Elfie Siegl: Odessa is Ukrainian and again multilingual. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , Magazin, August 7, 1998, p. 14.
  2. ^ Marija B. Michajlova: Le città meridionali dell'impero russo. Il contributo degli architetti italiani. In: Nicola Navone, Letizia Tedeschi (eds.): Dal mito al progetto. La cultura architettonica dei maestri italiani e ticinesi nella Russia neoclassica (= Archivio del Moderno. Volume 10). Accademia di Architettura, Mendrisio 2004, ISBN 88-87624-22-4 , Volume 2, pp. 665-676, here p. 670.
  3. ↑ The origin has not been finally clarified, see Vitalij Aleksandrovic Bogoslovskij: Boffo, Francesco (Franc Karlovič). In: Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani. Volume 11, 1969, online edition. According to Marija B. Michajlova: Le città meridionali dell'impero russo. Il contributo degli architetti italiani. In: Nicola Navone, Letizia Tedeschi (eds.): Dal mito al progetto. La cultura architettonica dei maestri italiani e ticinesi nella Russia neoclassica (= Archivio del Moderno. Volume 10). Accademia di Architettura, Mendrisio 2004, ISBN 88-87624-22-4 , Volume 2, pp. 665-676, here p. 669, Francesco Boffa [!] Came from Arasio in Ticino, a statement that can be found in some Swiss publications finds, see Annuario della Repubblica e Cantone del Ticino: per l'anno 1859–60. Tipografia e litografia cantonale, Locarno 1859, p. 230 . Boffa is named together with Torricelli as a Ticino in Odessa by L. Vulliemin: Les Suisses en Russie. In: Revue Suisse . Volume 16, 1853, pp. 226-242, here p. 240.
  4. ↑ The information on this is contradictory: According to Patricia Herlihy: Odessa. A History, 1794-1914. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA 1986, ISBN 0-916458-08-3 , p. 140, it was two Russian engineers, AI Melnikov and Pot'e, who carried out the construction. On p. 338, note 132, she refers to PG Sperandeo: Gli Italiani nel Mar Nero. La colonia di Odessa. In: Rivista d'Italia. Volume 9, 1906, No. 2, pp. 325–342, here p. 331 , according to which the two Italian architects Rossi and Torricelli designed the stairs. Marija B. Michajlova: Le città meridionali dell'impero russo. Il contributo degli architetti italiani. In: Nicola Navone, Letizia Tedeschi (eds.): Dal mito al progetto. La cultura architettonica dei maestri italiani e ticinesi nella Russia neoclassica (= Archivio del Moderno. Volume 10). Accademia di Architettura, Mendrisio 2004, ISBN 88-87624-22-4 , Volume 2, pp. 665–676, here p. 670, mentions Francesco Boffa as the architect “Van der Sckruf” and as an engineer “S. Upton ". Possibly it is John Upton, who worked in Russia as a student of Thomas Telford in the 1830s. See Mike Chrimes: Upton, John. In: Alec Skempton (Ed.): A Biographical Dictionary of Civil Engineers in Great Britain and Ireland. Volume 1: 1500 to 1830. Thomas Telford, London 2002, ISBN 0-7277-2939-X , pp. 734 f.
  5. ↑ This contradicts Anthony LH Rhinelander: Prince Michael Vorontsov. Viceroy to the Tsar. McGill-Queens University Press, Montreal et al. 1990, ISBN 0-7735-0747-7 , p. 119 ; sandstone from the urban underground itself was used as the material. See endnote 63, p. 242: Rhinelander proves this with a travel guide, namely USSR Nagel Travel Guide Series. McGraw-Hill, New York 1965, p. 616.
  6. ↑ See as a summary of the currently secured state of knowledge (except for the wrong year of construction 1842) Patricia Herlihy: Commerce and Architecture in Odessa. In: William Craft Brumfield, Boris V. Ananich, Yuri A. Petrov (eds.): Commerce in Russian Urban Culture, 1861-1914. Woodrow Wilson Center Press, Washington, DC 2001, ISBN 0-8018-6750-9 , pp. 180-194, here p. 184.
  7. ^ PG Sperandeo: Gli Italiani nel Mar Nero. La colonia di Odessa. In: Rivista d'Italia. Volume 9, 1906, No. 2, pp. 325-342, here p. 331 .
  8. ^ Frederick W. Skinner: City Planning in Russia. The Development of Odessa, 1789-1892. Ann Arbor, MI 1974, also dissertation, Princeton University, 1973, p. 192.
  9. ↑ Odessa. In: Sailor's Magazine & Naval Journal. Volume 10, May 1838, No. 9, p. 382.
  10. ^ A b Karl Heinrich Emil Koch : The Crimea and Odessa. Travel memories from the diary of Professor Dr. Karl Koch. Karl B. Lorck, Leipzig 1854, p. 173.
  11. ↑ To the various stages of the extension of the Travaux d'agrandissement du port d'Odessa. In: Nouvelles Annales de la Construction. Volume 32, 1886, No. 382, ​​Col. 145-151.
  12. ↑ EA Cherkez, OV Dragomyretska, Y. Gorokhovich: Landslide Protection of the Historical Heritage in Odessa (Ukraine). In: Landslides. Volume 3, 2006, No. 4, doi: 10.1007 / s10346-006-0058-8 , pp. 303-309, here p. 304 (PDF) .
  13. ↑ Patricia Herlihy: Odessa. A History, 1794-1914. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA 1986, ISBN 0-916458-08-3 , p. 140. Accordingly, the stairs were gradually repaired.
  14. ↑ On the effects of perspective distortion as a whole, Charles King: Odessa. Genius and Death in a City of Dreams. WW Norton & Co., New York 2011, ISBN 978-0-393-07084-2 , pp. 94 f.
  15. ↑ Wolf Loebel: Up to the Potemkins stairs. By car to Odessa - experiences with the Soviet Union and its people. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , April 6, 1989, p. R5.
  16. ^ Frederick W. Skinner: City Planning in Russia. The Development of Odessa, 1789-1892. Ann Arbor, MI 1974, also dissertation, Princeton University, 1973, p. 191.
  17. ↑ Caroline Humphrey: Odessa. Pogroms in a Cosmopolitan City. In: Caroline Humphrey, Vera Skvirskaja (Ed.): Post-cosmopolitan Cities: Explorations of Urban Coexistence. Berghahn, New York, Oxford 2012, pp. 17–63, here p. 48.
  18. ↑ Vitalij Aleksandrovic Bogoslovskij: Boffo, Francesco (Franc Karlovič). In: Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani. Volume 11, 1969, online edition.
  19. ↑ AD Ben'kovskaja: The Architecture of Odessa. In: Walter Koshaben (ed.): Odessa. Chapter from the cultural history (= series of publications of the East European Institute Regensburg-Passau. Volume 15). Lassleben, Regensburg 1998, ISBN 3-7847-3165-1 , pp. 61–70, here p. 65 (from the Russian by Karin Warter and Erwin Wedel ).
  20. ↑ EA Cherkez, OV Dragomyretska, Y. Gorokhovich: Landslide Protection of the Historical Heritage in Odessa (Ukraine). In: Landslides. Volume 3, 2006, No. 4, doi: 10.1007 / s10346-006-0058-8 , pp. 303-309, here p. 304 (PDF) .
  21. ↑ Oleg Gubar, Alexander Rozenboim: Daily Life in Odessa. In: Nicolas V. Iljine, Patricia Herlihy (eds.): Odessa Memories. University of Washington Press, Seattle 2004, ISBN 0-295-98345-0 , pp. 49–122, here p. 95 (translated by Antonina W. Bouis); Patricia Herlihy: Odessa Memories. In: ibid., Pp. 3–37, here p. 12.
  22. ↑ Guido Hausmann: University and municipal society in Odessa, 1865-1917 (= sources and studies on the history of Eastern Europe. Volume 49). Steiner, Stuttgart 1998, ISBN 3-515-07068-0 , p. 51 .
  23. ↑ Caroline Humphrey: Odessa. Pogroms in a Cosmopolitan City. In: Caroline Humphrey, Vera Skvirskaja (Ed.): Post-cosmopolitan Cities: Explorations of Urban Coexistence. Berghahn, New York, Oxford 2012, pp. 17–63, here pp. 25 f. and 59 .
  24. ↑ See the illustrations of the stairs on the titles of the following books: Nicholas V Iljine, Patricia Herlihy: Odessa Memories . University of Washington Press, Seattle 2003; Anna Makolkin: A History of Odessa. The Last Italian Black Sea Colony . Edwin Mellen Press, Lewiston, NY 2004; Charles King: Odessa. Genius and Death in a City of Dreams . WW Norton & Co., New York 2011.
  25. ↑ Karl Schlögel: On the stairs of Odessa. A city in a time of great expectations. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , February 17, 2001, p. 11. Reprinted as: Oh Odessa. A city in a time of great expectations. In: ders .: Promenade in Yalta and other cityscapes. Carl Hanser, Munich, Vienna 2001, ISBN 3-446-20005-3 , pp. 185–198, here p. 185.
  26. ↑ Alexander Schmidt: Odessa, the city with the stairs. In: Die Zeit , October 14, 1988.
  27. ↑ This puts this in a larger context: Trude Maurer : The "northern" and the "southern Palmyra". Reports from Western Europeans about Saint Petersburg and Odessa in the first half of the 19th century. In: Northeast Archives. Volume 12, 2003, pp. 11-42.
  28. ↑ William Jeese: Notes of a Half-pay in Search of Health. Or, Russia, Circassia, and the Crimea in 1839-40. Volume 2. James Madden & Co., London 1841, p. 183. In the original: “From the center of the Boulevard, a staircase called the 'escalier monstre' descends to the beach. The contractor for this work was ruined. It is an ill-conceived design if intended for ornament; its utility is more than doubtful, and its execution so defective, that its fall is already anticipated. "
  29. ↑ Xavier Hommaire de Hell: Steppes de la mer Caspienne, le Caucase, la Crimée et la Russie méridionale. Voyage pittoresque, historique et scientifique. Volume 1. P. Bertrand, Paris 1842, p. 23. In the original: “On travaille depuis deux ou trois ans à construire un escalier gigantesque, qui, s'ouvrant sur le Boulevard, descendra par une pente très-douce jusqu'au bord de la mer. Cette construction, fantaisie also dispendieuse qu'inutile, a déjà absorbé des sommes énormes ... mais de fortes lézardes sont déjà craindre la destruction prochaine de ce grand escalier, qui du reste ne servira jamais qu'aux seuls promeneurs du Boulevard. "
  30. ^ Mark Twain: The Innocents Abroad . American Publishing Company, Hartford, CT 1869, p. 389. In the original: "a vast flight of stone steps led down to the harbor - two hundred of them, fifty feet long, and a wide landing at the bottom of every twenty. It is a noble staircase, and from a distance the people toiling up it looked like insects. "
  31. ^ Mabel Sarah Emery: Russia through the Stereoscope. A Journey across the Land of the Czar from Finland to the Black Sea. Underwood & Underwood, 1901, p. 210. In the original: “Seeing it, don't you involuntarily wonder why such an idea is not oftener carried out? The very simplicity of the design gives it a monumental character; the effect is certainly dignified and majestic. "
  32. ^ Tanya Richardson: Kaleidoscopic Odessa. History and Place in Contemporary Ukraine. University of Toronto Press, Toronto et al. 2008, ISBN 978-0-8020-9837-5 , p. 3.
  33. ↑ V myortvoy petle in the Internet Movie Database (English)
  34. ↑ В мёртвой петле (In the Death Loop). Video. In: YouTube (scene starts at 8:37 am).
  35. ↑ Clyde Kelly Dunagan: Bronenosets Potemkin at Filmreference.com with further information (English).
  36. ↑ Christine Engel : The stairs of Odessa. The key scene in Eisenstein's armored cruiser Potemkin. In: Gerhard Paul (ed.): The century of pictures. Volume 2: 1900 to 1949. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2009, ISBN 978-3-525-30011-4 , pp. 316–323.
  37. ↑ On the role of Odessa in the revolution see Robert Weinberg: The Revolution of 1905 in Odessa. Blood on the Steps. Indiana University Press, Bloomington 1993, ISBN 0-253-36381-0 , especially "The Battleship Potemkin and the Odessa Uprising", pp. 132-138, and Robert Weinberg: Workers, Pogroms, and the 1905 Revolution in Odessa. In: The Russian Review. Volume 46, 1987, pp. 53-75 (PDF) .
  38. ↑ Sergei Eisenstein: Twelve Apostles. In: ders .: Writings 2: Battleship Potemkin. Edited by Hans-Joachim Schlegel . Carl Hanser, Munich 1973, ISBN 3-446-11793-8 , pp. 91-109, here p. 104. In addition, DJ Wenden: Battleship Potemkin - Film and Reality. In: KRM Short (Ed.): Feature Films as History. University of Tennessee Press, Knoxville 1981, ISBN 0-7099-0459-2 , pp. 37-61, here p. 50.
  39. ↑ Pictured at Daniel Gerould: Historical Simulation and Popular Entertainment. The "Potemkin" Mutiny from Reconstructed Newsreel to Black Sea Stunt Men. In: TDR. The Drama Review. Volume 33, 1989, No. 2, pp. 161-184, here p. 174.
  40. ↑ Daniel Gerould: Historical Simulation and Popular Entertainment. The "Potemkin" Mutiny from Reconstructed Newsreel to Black Sea Stunt Men. In: TDR. The Drama Review. Volume 33, 1989, No. 2, pp. 161-184, here 176.
  41. ↑ Christine Engel: The stairs of Odessa. The key scene in Eisenstein's armored cruiser Potemkin. In: Gerhard Paul (ed.): The century of pictures. Volume 2: 1900 to 1949. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2009, ISBN 978-3-525-30011-4 , pp. 316–323, here p. 318.
  42. ↑ Quoted from: Irene Markus: Lion Feuchtwanger's success. Film Technique and the Modern Historical Novel. Master thesis, McMaster University, Hamilton 1994, p. 46 f. (Digitized version).
  43. ↑ Quoted from Charles King: Odessa. Genius and Death in a City of Dreams. WW Norton & Co., New York 2011, ISBN 978-0-393-07084-2 , p. 195.
  44. ^ Siegfried Kracauer: The Jupiter lamps continue to burn. For the Frankfurt screening of the Potemkin film. In: Frankfurter Zeitung , May 16, 1926, quoted from ders .: Small writings on film. Volume 6.1: 1921-1927. Edited by Inka Mülder-Bach . Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 2004, ISBN 3-518-58336-0 , pp. 234–237, here p. 235.
  45. ↑ Christine Engel: The stairs of Odessa. The key scene in Eisenstein's armored cruiser Potemkin. In: Gerhard Paul (ed.): The century of pictures. Volume 2: 1900 to 1949. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2009, ISBN 978-3-525-30011-4 , pp. 316–323, here pp. 320–323; Vadim Rizov: "Suddenly ...". Seven Different Salutes to the Odessa Steps Scene . In: Ifc.com (English).
  46. ↑ a b Oliver Näpel: 'Strangeness' and 'History'. Identity and alterity through stereotyping the 'other' and the 'history' from ancient vase painting to contemporary comics and films. In: Saskia Handro , Bernd Schönemann (Ed.): Visuality and History (= history culture and historical learning. Volume 1). Lit, Berlin 2011, ISBN 978-3-643-10566-0 , pp. 109-134, here p. 128.
  47. ↑ Christine Engel: The stairs of Odessa. The key scene in Eisenstein's armored cruiser Potemkin. In: Gerhard Paul (ed.): The century of pictures. Volume 2: 1900 to 1949. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2009, ISBN 978-3-525-30011-4 , pp. 316–323, here p. 321.
  48. ↑ In the original: "the unique urban sign". Anna Makolkin: A History of Odessa. The Last Italian Black Sea Colony. Edwin Mellen Press, Lewiston, NY 2004, ISBN 978-0-7734-6272-4 , p. 93.
  49. ↑ Ulla Lachauer : Odessa - color and light. In: Die Zeit , August 12, 1994.
  50. ^ A b Karl-Markus Gauß: The incessant hike. In: Katharina Rabe, Monika Sznajderman (Ed.): Odessa Transfer. Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 2009, ISBN 978-3-518-42117-8 , pp. 186–197, here p. 191.
  51. ↑ Karl Schlögel: On the stairs of Odessa. A city in a time of great expectations. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , February 17, 2001, p. 11. Reprinted as: Oh Odessa. A city in a time of great expectations. In: ders .: Promenade in Yalta and other cityscapes. Carl Hanser, Munich, Vienna 2001, ISBN 3-446-20005-3 , pp. 185–198, here p. 198.
  52. ^ Konrad Schuller: Searching for traces in the Moldovanka. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , October 6, 2007, p. 3 (beginning online).
  53. ↑ So related to the film Otto Karl Werckmeister : "Linke Ikonen". Benjamin, Eisenstein, Picasso - After the fall of communism. Hanser, Munich 1997, ISBN 3-446-19136-4 , pp. 59-101. See also the review by Andreas Platthaus : The stairs of Odessa are being cleaned. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , May 29, 1998.
  54. ↑ Karl Schlögel: On the stairs of Odessa. A city in a time of great expectations. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , February 17, 2001, p. 11. Reprinted as: Oh Odessa. A city in a time of great expectations. In: ders .: Promenade in Yalta and other cityscapes. Carl Hanser, Munich, Vienna 2001, ISBN 3-446-20005-3 , pp. 185–198, here p. 198.
  55. ↑ Alexis Hofmeister: Self-Organization and Bourgeoisie. Jewish associations in Odessa around 1900 (= writings of the Simon Dubnow Institute. Volume 8). Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, Göttingen 2007, ISBN 978-3-525-36986-9 , p. 53.
  56. ↑ Dan Diner: Understanding the Century. A universal historical interpretation. Luchterhand, Munich 1999, ISBN 3-630-87996-9 , p. 13 and p. 16. See also the review by Ernst-Otto Maetzke: The great stairs of Odessa. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , June 23, 1999.
  57. ↑ Matthias Middell: European history or "global history" - "master narratives" or fragmentation? Questions to the leading texts of the future. In: Konrad H. Jarausch , Martin Sabrow (Hrsg.): The historical master story. Lines of interpretation of German national history after 1945. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2002, ISBN 3-525-36266-8 , pp. 214–252, here p. 215. Cf. Karl Schlögel: Europa neu measured. The return of the east to the European horizon. In: Helmut König , Julia Schmidt, Manfred Sicking (eds.): Europe's memory. The new Europe between national memories and a common identity (= European horizons. ). Transcript, Bielefeld 2008, ISBN 978-3-89942-723-3 , pp. 147-165 (preview on Google Books).
  58. ↑ Dan Diner: Cataclysms. A History of the Twentieth Century from Europe's Edge . University of Wisconsin Press, Madison 2008.

Coordinates: 46 ° 29 ′ 18.4 ″  N , 30 ° 44 ′ 30.6 ″  E