UrbanMetaMapping

UrbanMetaMapping is a research consortium which brings together scholars from different countries and of different academic backgrounds to examine war damage maps of European cities as an interdisciplinary historical source. Initiated in November 2020 under the leadership of Dr. Carmen M. Enss (Otto-Friedrich-Universität Bamberg), the group brings together several academic institutions in Germany and cooperates with partners abroad.

This international and interdisciplinary group of scholars not only reexamines the familiar historical sources from previously overlooked perspectives, but also aims to bring to light other understudied maps and make them available to the academic community. The research will offer original and comparative insights that will contribute to the scholarship of European urban history, wide beyond the narrow limits of the case studies.

• gathers damage maps from the Second World War and other thematic urban maps covering Central and Central Eastern Europe
• investigates urban mapping as a cultural practice of transformation
• unlocks knowledge about the social and spatial development of post-war cities
• observes how heritage was mapped and historical consciousness was formed
• traces how maps were perceived and reinterpreted after the end of the war
• explores the visual programme of maps and information graphics