Saddle time

Saddle time is a term coined by Reinhart Koselleck in connection with the metaphor of the ' mountain saddle ' to designate a transition period or epoch threshold between early modern times and modern times .

meaning

What is meant is the late Enlightenment and the time before and after the French Revolution , from around 1750 to 1850 or 1870, in which, in connection with the socio-political upheavals of this period, key terms for the political thought of modernity experienced a profound change in meaning ( e.g. state , citizen , family ) or as neologisms (e.g. imperialism , communism , class ) were introduced in the first place. According to Koselleck, the change in meaning is to be understood in such a way that, in connection with a changed historical experience of time, the historical development is accentuated in a new way as change and movement, the meanings of political key concepts would also have shifted from temporally static to future-oriented, anticipatory contents.

In addition to and expansion of the conceptual historical concept according to Koselleck, other processes of change are seen in historical research as characteristic of the Sattelzeit , which results in the proximity to assumptions of modernization theory :

• demographic change ,
• social change from the feudal to bourgeois society ,
• Transport revolution through new means of transport (e.g. railroad , steamship ),
• Beginning of industrialization ,
• Development of new forms of culture and consumption .

In historical and cultural studies, the term Sattelzeit is sometimes applied analogously to other periods of social and cultural upheaval.

literature

• Elisabeth Décultot , Daniel Fulda (Ed.): Saddle time. Historiography-historical revisions (= Hallesche Contributions to the European Enlightenment 52). Berlin: Oldenbourg Verlag 2016. ISBN 978-3-11-044968-6 Review on hsozkult
• Reinhart Koselleck: Introduction , in: Otto Brunner , Werner Conze , Reinhart Koselleck (eds.), Geschichtliche Grundbegriffe , Vol. 1, Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 1979, p. XV
• Reinhart Koselleck: About the need for theory of historical science , in: Werner Conze (Ed.), Theory of historical science and practice of history teaching , Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 1972, pp. 10–28, here p. 14f.