Mitleid machen. Die Nutzung von Emotionen in der Hungersnot 1770–1772

Abstract

This contribution analyses the evocation, framing and use of compassion in times of food shortages. It focuses on the European famine of 1770–1772 where different emotional regimes intersected. Established rituals of consolation met with new ways of dealing with sentiment and emotion. In the Holy Roman Empire, Patrioten and Menschenfreunde used the mobilisation of compassion to establish new forms of relief during the breakdown of local governance. With the help of the new genre of famine newspapers (Hungerzeitschriften) they acquired donations and initiated momentous shifts in welfare and education. Their evocation of compassion made emotions work at a distance and reveals the entanglement of feeling and acting in early modern societies.