The afterlife of the Enlightenment – continuities and networks between the late 18th and early 19th centuries

The period between 1770 and 1820 marks a phase of profound social, political and intellectual upheaval: the transition from the Ancien Régime, characterised by the estates, to bourgeois society, from the absolutist state to early liberalism, but also from Enlightenment rationalism to the Romantic search for meaning made this "saddle period" (Reinhart Koselleck) a hinge of modernity. At the same time, it is becoming increasingly clear in research that this period of upheaval was characterised not only by ruptures, but also by long continuities and complex transitions.

Particularly in the area of late Enlightenment networks, institutions and ideas, it is possible to recognise a continued impact beyond the caesura of the French Revolution of 1789. Biographical developments show how Enlightenment actors reacted to new political realities - be it through withdrawal, reorientation or the continuation of Enlightenment practice in a different form. The transformation processes from secret societies to political associations, from informal salons to organised societies or from religious-philosophical circles to editorial and journalistic platforms also raise new questions.

The aim of the conference is to analyse these transitions from an interdisciplinary perspective. The researchers are interested in biographical trajectories as well as institutional reorganisations, ideational changes and network dynamics that determined the afterlife of the Enlightenment between the late 18th and early 19th centuries.