„Welch ein Wirrsal ist die Welt!“

Abstract

Abstract Berthold Auerbach’s Schwarzwälder Dorfgeschichten can be read as an early example of observations on the notion of time-space compression. In these provincial tales, the new technology of the railroad often functions as both a literary theme and a narrative device that links the microcosm of the village with the macrocosm of the world at large, thereby enabling a specific perspective on the processes of globalization in the 19th century.