During the second half of the 19^th century, an immense growth of cities took place in much of Europe. Often, traditionally rural municipalities were incorporated into big municipalities, as was the case of Zurich in 1893. One consequence of such processes was a radical transformation of living contexts, which was also accompanied by a huge number of technical innovations (electricity, railway, public transportation…). Such developments affected people’s all-day lives directly. One specific consequence was the growing number of new types of individuals, which were associated directly with the urban context. These were often the so-called ‘nervous’ persons, suffering from one of the multiple symptoms of neurasthenia.

It is particularly interesting that the urban context of immense and often unsystematic growth and transformation created new ‘emotional styles’ (Peter N. Stearns). Figures of ‘nervous’ persons were often male, which was a new experience. As it was a characteristic of the time, the ambivalence towards such developments was huge. So, the intellectual discussion was besides the avant-garde often conservative, proclaiming the ‘decline’ of culture and warning of the corrosion of society.

One way to react to these feared developments was urban planning, because these developments were directly linked to the influence of the urban context. In Zurich, in the first years after the turn of the century, the ‘Heimatschutz’ association, established in 1905 among others, was influential and supported a conservative architectural reform, which led to paradoxically anti-modern modernization. This movement planned to integrate rural elements into the city, like new interpretations of traditional architecture instead of Belle-Epoque-Style, or the realization of cottages. Such planning activities were primarily driven by moral arguments and not by technical possibilities. Via disciplining the city, people and their ‘emotional styles’ should be disciplined.

In my presentation I would like to discuss this relation between urban planning and moral education. ‘Reform’ was not exclusively a topic within educational institutions or with regard to children after the turn of the century. Reform-pedagogical motives were driven forward by multiple processes, of which the urban development as described above was one crucial aspect. My argument is that the morality underlying the discussions around urban planning was educational itself, and both were reacting to the fear of loss of identity by rapid change and immigration and their human analogy in form of nervous persons. Urban planning was in the Zurich experience at the turn of the century a form of ‘navigation of feelings’ (William M. Reddy). 

Beard, G. (1880). American Nervousness. Its Causes and Consequences. New York Hegemann, W. (Ed.) (1911 & 1913). Der Städtebau nach den Ergebnissen der allgemeinen Städtebau-Ausstellung in Berlin nebst einem Anhang: Die internationale Städtebau-Ausstellung in Düsseldorf. 2 Bände. Berlin Koselleck, R. (2006). Begriffsgeschichten. Studien zur Semantik und Pragmatik der politischen und sozialen Sprache. Frankfurt a. M. Kurz, D. (2008). Die Disziplinierung der Stadt. Moderner Städtebau in Zürich 1900 bis 1940. Zürich Reddy, W.M. (2001). The Navigation of Feeling. A Framework for the History of Emotions. Cambridge Stearns, P.N. (1994). American Cool. Constructing a Twentieth-Century Emotional Style. New York