Great Exhibition (1851, London): Die Weltausstellung von 1851 und ihre Folgen = The Great Exhibition and its legacy

Message from HRH The Duke of Gloucester KG GCVO ## Kensington Palace It is a great pleasure for me to learn that The Duke of Gloucester's Essay Prize has been awarded now for twenty years. The purpose for which I initiated it was to encourage young German people to become interested in Anglo-German relations. The essays submitted -both those that won prizes and those that did not -suggest that the original aim for awarding the Prize has been more than fulfilled, however much work in this field remains to be done and, I hope, prizes to be awarded! Such success has also gone hand-in-hand with the achievements of The Prince Albert Society, which has not only staged its own international conferences in Coburg but also held others jointly with the Victorian Society, of which I am Patron, and latterly with The Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce of which The Duke of Edinburgh is President. I take pride in knowing that The Duke of Gloucester's Prize has played its part in encouraging young people to remain literate in an age which places so much emphasis upon visual as opposed to literary skills. I wish your conference every success and congratulate the winners of this year's The Duke of Gloucester's Essay Prizes. ## HRH The Duke of Gloucester And part of the Council put in a bid for a portion of the profit from the Exhibition, out of which, it was felt, the Society had been cheated. Albert, however, in August 1851, was instrumental in dismissing all these: "We have," he wrote, "distinctly pledged ourselves to expend any surplus, which may accrue, towards the establishment of future Exhibitions or objects strictly in connexion with the present Exhibition [...] The purchase of the Crystal Palace for the purpose of establishing a Winter Garden, or a Museum of Antiquities, or a public Promenade Ride, Lounging place &c &c, has, in my opinion, no connexion whatever with the objects of the Exhibition." He carried on: "I consider that we have not the power to divert any part of the surplus towards providing the London or even English public with a place of recreationThough it may sound as if Albert was a spoil-sport, it was not prudery which prevented him accepting this type of plan. Nor was it an aversion to the Crystal Palace -even though there had been problems enough with it, and Joseph Paxton, its architect, had a nasty habit of exploiting his new-found fame to embarrass the Royal Commission with populist statements about free entry tickets and that sort of thing. It was simply that Albert, like many others, saw the Exhibition as part of a long-term and ambitious strategy to educate industrialists and the new industrial classes about science and art. Albert's plans in this regard were more ambitious and idealistic than most: he foresaw using the money to buy the estate in South Kensington directly opposite the Exhibition, and the setting up of an international industrial university there. This would comprise of four new institutions, based on the four sections of the Great Exhibition -raw materials, machinery, industrial produce and art. All London's intellectual and learned societies would be encouraged to move there, to create a great centre of learning gathered round an arcadian botanical garden. Moreover, this would be a centre of international excellence, and members of the university would be drawn from around the globe. Industrialisation, greater application of science and art, and international understanding were to be the results. Albert's plans involved institutionalising the cosmopolitan discourse of the Great Exhibition. On the one hand, the kind of superuniversity, drawn from the best of all nations, is redolent of the visionary, "panopticon"-like thinking of Jeremy Bentham. On the other, its idealism was drawn from the same well as Richard Cobden's. Albert's insistence on keeping the profits for the purposes of the Great Exhibition did produce the South Kensington complex. Walking round South Kensington today, Albert's proposal does haunt the mind: the fountain court of the Victoria and Albert Museum, the large number of institutes clustered together, the great raw materials, technology and art collections of the Natural History, Science and Victoria and Albert museums, are all reminiscent of Albert's idealistic dream. The Royal Commission, because of his decision, still exists today to provide support for educational projects linked to the purposes of the Great Exhibition -and has given generously to support the conference which is the basis for this volume. Albert's vision for South 1 Memorandum by the Prince on the Appropriation of the Surplus, Inhalt/Contents Abbildungsverzeichnis/List of Illustrations Vorwort Preface Message from HRH The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, KG KT Message from HRH The Duke of Gloucester KG GCVO Introduction Kulturgeschichtliche Aspekte/ Cultural History “Quelle fatigue ... quelle barbarie!”: The Visitor’s Torment The Musical Legacy of the Great Exhibition Jewellery at the Great Exhibition Ethnic Identities at the Great Exhibition Prinz Albert und die Society of Arts/ Prince Albert and the Society of Arts “A Duty and a Pleasure”: Prince Albert and the Society of Arts Prince Albert, the Society of Arts and the Great Exhibition of 1851 The True Albert Memorial Wissenschaft und Wirtschaft/ Science and Economy The Crystal Palace: A Legacy in Science The Great Exhibition, Exhibitions, and Technology Transfer “Clothing” Britain’s “Legions” with “Intellectual Weapons” and “Sound Science”: The Industrial Education Movement, the Artisan Exhibition Tours, and the Early Formation of Modern Educational Travel, 1867–18891 Inszenierung des Freihandels als weltgesellschaftliche Entwicklungsstrategie: Die „Great Exhibition“ 1851 und der politische Kulturtransfer nach Kontinentaleuropa 1851 – The Economic Context of Design. Design Made a Difference – That Counted. Economic and Aesthetic Aspects of Consumer Taste Politischer und sozialer Kontext/ Political and Social Context America at the Great Exhibition Popularisierung, Standardisierung und Politisierung: Wissenschaft auf den Weltausstellungen des 19. Jahrhunderts The Model Lodging House: Window onto the Underworld “Nothing Can Be More Successful”: Were the Political and Cultural Aims of the Great Exhibition Fulfilled? Deutsche Beteiligung/ German Participation Der Weg nach London: Das deutsche Ausstellungswesen vor 1851 und die Great Exhibition The Representation of the German States at the Great Exhibition Die Herzogtümer Coburg und Gotha und die Londoner Weltausstellung Krupp und die Weltausstellungen im 19. Jahrhundert Architektur/ Architecture Gottfried Semper and the Great Exhibition South Kensington’s Forgotten Palace: The 1862 International Exhibition Building Architektonische Richtungskämpfe auf Weltausstellungen von 1851 bis zur Gegenwart 1851-2001 The International Legacy of the Great Exhibition Weltausstellungen – Weltbilder – Geschichtsbilder Reflections on Exhibitions and their History, 1851–2001 The Mid-Nineteenth Century British and French World’s Fairs: A Paradoxical Comparison Zwischen Wirtschaft und Kultur: Probleme kollektiver Selbstdarstellung From the Crystal Palace to the Greenwich Dome – 150 Years of Progress? Autorenverzeichnis/List of Contributors Abbildungen/Illustrations

Die Prinz-Albert-Gesellschaft hat sich zur Aufgabe gemacht, die britisch-deutschen Beziehungen in Wissenschaft, Kultur und Politik zu pflegen. Alljährlich finden unter dieser Prämisse Tagungen statt, deren Beiträge in den Prinz-Albert-Studien veröffentlicht werden und die viele interessante Aspekte der britisch-deutschen Beziehungen verdeutlichen.