The Communicative Construction of Space-Related Identities. Hamburg and Leipzig Between the Local and the Global

Abstract

The chapter analyzes the communicative construction of space-related identities in mass communication from a historical point of view. Focusing on the 1950s, it deals with the medial construction of space-related identities in Hamburg and Leipzig. The main question is how the changing cities’ media ensembles relate to the transformations in urban collectivity building. Elaborating to what extent the local in Hamburg and Leipzig was constantly constructed by discourses on the global, we argue that the constructions of global images are very stable umbrella notions, even though the changing media ensembles and the worsening Cold War during the 1950s had some impact on gradually emerging new formations of space-related identities. Finally, the chapter discusses the idea of an entangled perspective, which could enrich the historical view of communicative figurations.