Dagmar Ellerbrock

Gun Violence and Control in Germany 1880–1911: Scandalizing Gun Violence and Changing Perceptions as Preconditions for Firearm Control

At the end of the nineteenth century, Germany faced a new form of violence based on new gun technologies. Almost uncontrolled by social or legal norms, gun violence emerged from the juncture of technological advances in weaponry with historically rooted patterns of behavior. It was socially and geographically widespread, but especially strong among young men in urban areas. A control gap arose before controls were finally put in place. The following factors were important for successful control of gun violence in Germany at the beginning of the twentieth century: changing perceptions about violence, the scandalizing of gun violence in the press and in parliamentary debates, and an intense debate within the German government, which had to identify, assess, and understand the new emerging violence in order to become able to control it—mainly by new legal norms.

Old games - new meanings? Understanding modern gun violence in the light of nineteenth century habits

Cultural practices are part of everyday life. This paper analyzes the link between violence and cultural practice. Via an analytical focus on social practices and interaction theory it argues that cultural patterns of interaction form a set of routines which link micro structures of daily encounters with macro effects (1). It shows that these habitual patterns are closely linked to historical ancestors and gender constructions (2). Finally it explains how habitual patterns and rituals can be linked to the process of historical transformation (3). The paper analyses historical examples of violent behavior in order to offer a fresh perspective on certain widespread behaviors. It demonstrates that in order to understand gun violence of the early 20th century, the reconstruction and understanding of historical antecedents of contemporary interactions is necessary. Through a close reading and comparison of weaponry practice in the 19th and 20th centuries, it becomes clear that modern rituals incorporated elements of the historical habitus. Thus it becomes evident that ritual forms of interaction have the potential to fuse historical patterns with new elements. This is the reason rituals prove essential to modern societies, as they combine elements of continuity and stability with the dynamics of change.