PhD Student

Madline Fischer 1.StEx

Contact

work +49 6151 16-28579

Work S4|22 302
Dolivostr. 15
64293 Darmstadt

Research Interests

  • History of infrastructure
  • Environmental history
  • History of technology
  • Warning and alerting
  • Civil protection

PhD Project

The Warning of Natural Hazards. Critical warning infrastructures in 20th century in Germany (Working Title)


Warnings against natural hazards are and were essential for survival. In order to manage them effectively, smoothly functioning warning systems are needed to transport hazard information from warning parties to a population in order to avert imminent damage. In the course of the 20th century, various warning systems developed into a very complex, technical warning infrastructure in Germany. The research objective of this dissertation project is to examine the construction of warning infrastructures and the civil protection, as well as the dynamics of the warning process in 20th century Germany.

First, this project examines the imperial or federal level, where higher-level warning structures were introduced and legally established. Therefore, it is to be asked to what extent different political systems in 20th century Germany developed, organized and used different warning systems to warn against different types of hazards, as well as to what transformations and interdependencies these warning systems were subject to.

Based on this investigation, secondly, the praxeological perspective will be shown how hazard information circulated in warning systems in urban space. For this purpose, the technical framework from the observation instruments to the signal paths and warning means will be constructed and the sequence of the communication process will be analyzed. Because warning systems are considered as a product of social organization, this dissertation project aims to identify the different actors and their responsibilities in the warning process in order to show hierarchical sequences of information production, dissemination and acceptance to the threatened population on the one hand, and to analyze the operations of the civil protection organizations and the reaction of the population in terms of a warning response on the other hand.

At the center of all these considerations is the warning of natural hazards, because they will be given a high priority in the future in connection with anthropogenically accelerated climate change.

04/2018 – 04/2022 Teaching profession, history and biology, degree: 1. Staatsexamen, Technische Universität Darmstadt
10/2015 – 04/2018 Biology studies, Technische Universität Darmstadt
09/2014 – 08/2015 Social year, Ernst-Elias-Niebergall Schule in Darmstadt
Since 10/2022 Research Associate at the Research Training Group KRITIS, Technische Universität Darmstadt
05/2022 – 9/2022 Research Associate at the Institute of History, History Didactics, Technische Universität Darmstadt
08/2021 – 09/2021 Trainee at the Hessisches Staatsarchiv Darmstadt
12/2019-12/2021 Student Assistant at the Institute of History, History Didactics, Technische Universität Darmstadt
01/2019 – 09/2019 Employee in the project „Digitalisierung und Archivierung von zeitgeschichtlichen Dokumenten der studentischen Selbstverwaltung“, AStA of the Technische Universität Darmstadt

Co-Speaker for the talk „Digitalisierung als Querschnittsthema in der Lehrer*innenbildung“ von Marcella Haller at the online congress „MINTplus² – Digitalisierung, Vernetzung und Umgang mit Heterogenität in der Lehramtsausbildung der TU Darmstadt“, Technische Universität Darmstadt from 25.-26.02.2021

Chat support at the online congress „MINTplus² – Digitalisierung, Vernetzung und Umgang mit Heterogenität in der Lehramtsausbildung der TU Darmstadt“, Technische Universität Darmstadt on 25.-26.02.2021

Preparation and support of the talk „APP ins Museum! – ,Geschichte vernetzt´ (Lehramtsstudierende der TU Darmstadt)“ von Miriam Grabarits at the congress „2. Digital Phänomenal – Perspektiven in der Lehrer_innenbildung“, Technische Universität Darmstadt on 06.11.2020

Speaker with the talk „Das ePortfolio als Methode zur Umsetzung des Präsenz-Distanz-Lernens – eine theoriegeleitete Handlungsalternative“ at the congress„2. Digital Phänomenal – Perspektiven in der Lehrer_innenbildung“, Technische Universität Darmstadt on 06.11.2020

Fischer, Madline: Der Alice-Frauenverein für Krankenpflege im Großherzogtum Hessen im 19. Jahrhundert, unpublished exam thesis at the institute for history, Technische Universität Darmstadt 2022.