Günter Dinhobl (Hrsg.): Sonderband 7. Eisenbahn/Kultur – Railway/Culture (2004)
IV. Die Eisenbahn-Technik / Railway-technics - Manfred E. A. Schmutzer: Iron Rules Rule Iron Rails. Cultures and Their Technologies
Iron Rules Rule Iron Rails. Cultures and Their Technologies Culture, as we argued above, is closely linked to the cherished idols of social structure. And social structure is embedded in technologies. It becomes re-presented and reenforced also by shaping and furnishing space, as H. Lefebvre has shown in detail.22 * Escape Routes The period of the expansion of the railway systems, i.e. the later two thirds of the 19th century, was marked by a radical difference of political systems in Europe and in the US. The continent, France and Germany, was driven to re-establish and strengthen monarchical rule, the US moved on to the peak of democratization, liberalism and free enterprise.21 Comparing the impact of this political difference with respect to the development of passenger carriages also sheds some light on our theme. A distinct class system, - up to four different classes of carriages -, developed quickly in continental Europe, in which the fourth class, that for the lower social strata, sometimes resembled cars for animal transport. Generally lower class-coaches were highly uncomfortable, equipped with bare wooden seats only. Segregation of classes was so severe that in many cases coaches were not just divided into a number of small compartments, but each compartment could be entered only by a separate door from outside. A more luxurious furnishing of seats etc. was reserved exclusively for the upper classes. In contrast to this, American coaches were uniformly comfortable for all passengers. The one and only distinction made was between women and men, which in practice also served to separate smokers from non-smokers.24 The basic principle was that every passenger should have access to the same kind of comfort at the same price, i.e. no distinction according to social status or income was tolerated. Blacks were, as one should expect, not included in this egalitarian principle. The original American attitude also found its expression in another most telling detail. In the early period compartments were unknown even in sleeping cars, and coaches were connected such that one could move from one car to the next. Giedion explains this by pointing to the widespread American practice of the time to leave 22 L e fe b v re , Henry: The Production of Space. Oxford 1995 (Orig. 1974). 21 1 am grateful to the anonymous reader of this essay for the following remark: “But controlled by the states: e.g. by giving concessions for building & operating”. 24 Giedion, Siegfried: Die Herrschaft der Mechanisierung. Ein Beitrag zur anonymen Geschichte. Frankfurt am Main 1987 (Orig. 1948). 315
