Patrick Müller

since January 2022
PhD scholarship holder, Junior Research Centre "Wissensgeschichte der Neuzeit", University of Erfurt

May 2024 – June 2024
JSPS research fellowship for doctoral candidates, research stay in Tōkyō at the Institute of Comparative Culture, Sophia University Tōkyō

2018 – 2019
JASSO scholarship holder at Sophia University Tōkyō

2017 – 2021
Master's degree programme in History at the University of Erfurt

2017 – 2021
Student assistant at the Chair of History of Western Asia with Dr Mara Albrecht

2014 – 2017
Bachelor's degree programme in Global History at the University of Erfurt

Bruno Hassenstein's Works on Japan. A History of Knowledge Between Japanese Studies and Cartography (1879–1887)

In the 19th century, European interest in Japan increased significantly in scientific, economic, and artistic terms. On an economic level, the Unequal Treaties of 1858 and 1861 between Japan and several European nations marked a turning point in relations between these societies. In the preceding period of limited exchange (1639–1858), Japan had been only marginally accessible from a European perspective. In the decades following the signing of the treaties, research travelers, diplomats, and geologists journeyed to Japan to study its society, language, and economy. These developments triggered profound political, social, and cultural transformations within Japan that left a lasting impact on the country.

Against this backdrop, and driven by both professional and personal interest in Japan, the cartographer Bruno Hassenstein began mapping Japan in the Thuringian residence city of Gotha. Between 1879 and 1887, he primarily produced individual map sheets depicting the modern Tokyo region and Mount Fuji. He also created a topographical atlas of Japan, for which he developed his own system of transliteration. These works were produced as part of his position at one of the leading European map publishers of the 19th century: Justus Perthes in Gotha. Hassenstein relied on an extensive network of European research travelers, Japan scholars, diplomats, geographers, foreign contract workers in Japan, as well as Japanese exchange students and envoys. This network supplied him with European and Japanese cartographic materials, assisted him in translating Japanese nomenclature, and collaborated with him on refining the atlas’s transliteration system.

To date, historical scholarship has not critically examined Bruno Hassenstein’s Japan work. This is all the more surprising given that his extensive working estate has been largely preserved in the Perthes Collection. In addition to the published maps and atlas, it is above all the letters, working notes, travel reports, map sketches, and Japanese maps that offer deep insights into the working methods of the Gotha-based cartographer. Using this multi-layered body of source material, the dissertation project investigates how Hassenstein’s Japan came into being. At the center of the research are not only the maps and their production but also the actors from Europe and Japan who were involved in the process. Key questions naturally arise: How did Japanese maps circulate between Europe and Japan? And how was it negotiated within the transnational network what constituted valid geographical knowledge about Japan?

Methodologically, the project is situated at the intersection of global history, the history of knowledge, and critical cartography. These perspectives make it possible to analyze both the collaborations between actors and the political and economic conditions shaping the production of cartographic knowledge. The goal of the project is to uncover how European Japan scholars and cartographers collaborated on Hassenstein’s Japan work and how colonial, scientific, and economic knowledge became embedded in the resulting cartography.

• History of Knowledge and Science in the 19th and early 20th Century
• Global History
• History of Japan

Essays: 

In preparation: Leuchttürme für Japan. Richard Henry Brunton und die britische Überseeexpansion in Japan (1868–1876), in: Themenportal Europäische Geschichte. open access

smaller contributions:

Mapping Japan: Bruno Hassenstein's Map of the "Surroundings of Tokyo Bay and of the Volcano Fuji-No-Yama" (1879), in: Mapping Africa and Asia, 08.05.2024. open access

Japan sammeln: Bruno Hassensetin und die Sammlung japanischer Karten in Gotha, in: Blog der Forschungsbibliothek Gotha, 15.03.2024. open access

Conference report: HT 2021: Palestine in the Era of British Mandate - Conflicting Interpretations of Places, Objects and Symbols, in: H-Soz-Kult, 04.12.2021. open access

July 2025
Chinese Coal for the German Empire: Bruno Hassenstein's Map of Shandong (1898), VIII Symposium of the International Society for the History of the Map,09-11 July 2025, Campus Condorcet, Paris.

November 2024
Bruno Hassensteins Japan: Eine Wissensgeschichte zwischen Kartographie und Japanforschung (1879–1887), VSJF Annual Conference of the Fachgruppe Geschichte,15-17November 2024, Japanese-German Centre Berlin.

June 2024
From the Thuringian Province to Tokyo: Bruno Hassenstein's Atlas of Japan (1885/1887)Seminar Modern Japanese History, 24 June 2024, Sophia University Tōkyō.

March 2024
Ein heiliger Berg in Japan. Der Fuji-san in Bruno Hassensteins Karten, event series Perthes im Gespräch, 20 March 2024, Perthes Collection Gotha.

July 2023
Japan kartieren. Die transeuropäische geographische Japanforschung während der Meiji-Zeit (1868–1912), 2nd Aachen Workshop for Young Researchers in the History of Knowledge, 7 July 2023, RWTH Aachen.

June 2023
Seismische Kartierung Japans. Bruno Hassensteins Atlas von Japan als visuelle Grundlage für die transnationale Erdbebenforschung im späten 19. Jahrhundert, Studientag Wissensgeschichte  – Wissenschaftsgeschichte, 30 June 2023, Perthes Collection Gotha.

June 2023
Deutsch-japanischer Wissenstransfer in der Kartographie des späten 19. Jahrhunderts. Bruno Hassensteins erste Japankarte, Lange Nacht der Wissenschaften at the University of Erfurt, 23 June, 2023, University of Erfurt.

June 2023
Jenseits von Hepburn. Bruno Hassensteins Transkription des Japanischen (1870–1890), Nordlichter Tagung: Europäische Geschichte des 19. und 20. Jahrhunderts, 09 June 2023, University of Flensburg.

Association for Social Science Research on Japan (VSJF)Member since 2022

PhD student representative of the University of Erfurt Member from 2022-2024