Deutschsprachige Vorlesungen und ihr textuelles Umfeld in historischer Perspektive: Systematisierungsaspekte und Fallbeispiele

Abstract The history of German-language lectures has been unfolding since the 18th century. However, it is not well researched with regard to many aspects of language use and text use, although lectures have played and continue to play a central role in the history of academic education. This paper focuses on four perspectives: the role of language and text use for knowledge organisation in lectures (in their respective multimodal and performative contexts); the interplay of lectures with forms of preparation and reception, which together constitute a systematically organised „communicative ecology“; the question of the specific tasks and conditioning factors of language use in the lectures of different disciplines and subject zones; and finally, the question of historical developments, which can be determined, among other things, by media developments and by changes in scientific principles. The discussion of examples from the history of German-language lectures, varied according to time and subjects, will illustrate the research programme.