Adresscomptoir

Anlässlich des nächstwöchigen Kongresses Cultures of Surveillance habe ich Dank Roswitha Fraller nun eine englische Version der Galerie der Hausnummern online gestellt, abrufbar unter:

http://housenumbers.tantner.net

Der Ankündigungstext lautet wie folgt:

The year 1770 saw a large-scale, in terms of both resources and time, procedure being launched across the Bohemian and Austrian lands of the Monarchy – the introduction of house numbering. Aimed at facilitating the recruitment of soldiers, this measure went hand in hand with the taking of a census, a so-called "conscription of souls". During several months, commissions specially set up for this purpose travelled every corner of the respective territories taking surveys of the inhabitants and numbering their houses.
Remnants of these numbers – some of them carefully restored, some left to decay – can be found on house walls up to the present day. The Gallery of House Numbers brings together and makes accessible more than 100 photographs from 28 locations a selection of which is described in more detail. In addition, short texts specially compiled for this web presentation are to illustrate various aspects of the history of house numbering.
It is the aim of the Gallery to make perceptible the historicity of order. For as little as we can imagine everyday life without house numbers yet there is a history behind them, their introduction having been accompanied by fervent debates and at times even the object of resistance.
Opulent though it is the Gallery seeks to comply with academic standards, providing source articles and literature in regard of each piece of information given. It has been conceived in close connection with a PhD thesis completed under the supervision of professors Dr. Edith Saurer und Dr. Karl Vocelka and submitted to the Department of History at the University of Vienna entitled "The Order of Houses, the Description of Souls: House Numbering and the 'Conscription of Souls' in the Habsburg Monarchy".