Universität Wien

070301 SE Global histories of transport and mobility during the 20th century (2026S)

8.00 ECTS (2.00 SWS), SPL 7 - Geschichte
Continuous assessment of course work
Moodle
Mo 18.05. 09:45-13:00 Seminarraum 2, Institut für Zeitgeschichte, 1090 Wien, Spitalgasse 2-4, Hof 1

Registration/Deregistration

Note: The time of your registration within the registration period has no effect on the allocation of places (no first come, first served).

Details

max. 25 participants
Language: German

Lecturers

Classes (iCal) - next class is marked with N

Important additional information about the course: This course will be held in blocks (180 minutes with a 15-minute break) and in person on the following dates:
2 March, 9 March, 16 March, 20 April, 27 April, 11 May, 18 May.
Please ensure that you are available on these dates from 9:45 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.
To pass the course, you may only miss one session with a valid excuse.
The seminar requires a significant amount of reading and the completion of an assignment over the Easter holidays (between 16 March and 20 April).
There will be no more in-person sessions after 18 May. Final papers can be submitted by 20 July 2026 at the latest.

The course will be held in German.
The weekly assignments must be submitted in German or English.
Approximately half of the research literature will consist of English-language and German-language works.
Both English-language and German-language primary sources will be discussed in the seminar.
The final thesis can be submitted in either German or English.

  • Monday 02.03. 09:45 - 13:00 Seminarraum 2, Institut für Zeitgeschichte, 1090 Wien, Spitalgasse 2-4, Hof 1
  • Monday 09.03. 09:45 - 13:00 Seminarraum 2, Institut für Zeitgeschichte, 1090 Wien, Spitalgasse 2-4, Hof 1
  • Monday 16.03. 09:45 - 13:00 Seminarraum 2, Institut für Zeitgeschichte, 1090 Wien, Spitalgasse 2-4, Hof 1
  • Monday 20.04. 09:45 - 13:00 Seminarraum 2, Institut für Zeitgeschichte, 1090 Wien, Spitalgasse 2-4, Hof 1
  • Monday 27.04. 09:45 - 13:00 Seminarraum 2, Institut für Zeitgeschichte, 1090 Wien, Spitalgasse 2-4, Hof 1
  • Monday 11.05. 09:45 - 13:00 Seminarraum 2, Institut für Zeitgeschichte, 1090 Wien, Spitalgasse 2-4, Hof 1

Information

Aims, contents and method of the course

Following approaches and considerations regarding the global history of transport and mobility (Huber 2013, 2016; Liebisch-Gümüş 2022; Mom 2015, 2020), this course examines transport and mobility as areas of cross-border connections between Austria and its neighbouring countries (Germany, Italy and the former Yugoslavia) with other regions of the world, with a particular focus on East and Southern Africa.
Using relevant research literature and selected primary sources, we examine both the material infrastructures and social practices of transport, transportation and mobility, focusing on five interrelated themes:
1. the creation of transport infrastructures (railways, roads) and the production of vehicles (trains, cars, trucks, buses, bicycles) in different political and economic contexts;
2. maintenance, repair and spare parts management as prerequisites for mobility – and as historical processes in which breakdowns, shortages and immobility become visible;
3. the transnational organisation of transport projects, including technology transfer, procurement and expert exchange;
4. the life experiences of passengers, drivers and transport workers, including the gender-specific dimensions of mobility in the 20th century;
5. processes of technological innovation, local, creative processes of adaptation and transformation.
Each session (see dates above) combines academic literature on source criticism and thematic orientation with the analysis of primary sources provided by the lecturer. Students develop skills in source criticism by analysing who created certain sources, under what circumstances, for what purposes and for which target groups. Specialist literature on archival institutions, types of sources and methodological approaches to archives complement the empirical case studies that serve as the basis for source analysis.
Empirically, the course is divided into a series of interrelated modules. We begin with the global connections of the Austrian manufacturer Steyr, focusing on trucks and bicycles in the 1950s and 1960s, drawing on company brochures and contemporary press reports. We then examine the W50 truck manufactured in the GDR as an important export commodity of the 1970s and 1980s, trace its use and modifications in the transport and agricultural sectors in Tanzania, Zambia and Mozambique, and evaluate issues of reliability, maintenance and spare parts supply using archival sources from the Federal Archives (Berlin-Lichterfelde), SAPMO inventory.
Another module deals with the Tanzania-Zambia Railway (TAZARA) as part of the Lusaka-Kapiri Mposhi-Dar es Salaam transport corridor. We analyse the political economy of the infrastructure, the procurement of Chinese and West German rolling stock (including diesel locomotives) and the management of repairs and spare parts in the 1970s and 1980s. The primary materials are based on archival correspondence (including the UNIP archives and the Zambian National Archives) and selected documentary films.

Assessment and permitted materials

Three sessions focus on African bus and minibus systems, which are essential for everyday urban mobility. Using examples from Nairobi, Dar es Salaam and Lusaka, we analyse bus fleets, working conditions, passenger perspectives and the transnational supply chains that connect state and private bus companies with European manufacturers, mechanics and spare parts suppliers, while also highlighting local improvisation and adaptation. Finally, and connecting the past to the present, we look at the recent expansion of bus rapid transit (BRT) systems in cities such as Dakar, Lagos and Dar es Salaam, evaluate debates on efficiency, social (in)justice and urban transformation, and examine the involvement of Austrian companies in the provision of infrastructure, using Strabag as an example. Policy papers, newspaper articles and oral history interviews serve as primary sources.
The aim of the course is to familiarise students with a wide range of sources and source criticism in the field of global transport and mobility history. In triangulation with research literature, they are encouraged to critically reflect on primary sources and classify their significance. These skills are practised in regular assignments. In the final thesis, a chosen topic should be addressed using at least two primary sources.
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Assessment and permitted materials

Participation in the units (i.e. reading and discussing specialist literature, commentary) = 20 points

Timely and proper submission of weekly assignments on the source exercises (approx. 1 page) in the corresponding Moodle forums, regular presentation of these documents in plenary or in groups = 30 points

Writing a final paper on a topic of your choice, approx. 6000 words including bibliography (±10–15%), using at least two primary sources (deadline: 15 July 2026) = 50 points

Minimum requirements and assessment criteria

1 (Very good) 90–100 points
2 (Good) 81–89 points
3 (Satisfactory) 71–80 points
4 (Sufficient) 56–70 points
5 (Insufficient) 0–55 points

Regular attendance at the course; only one unit may be missed with justification.
Complete and timely submission of the 1-page assignments.
Short presentations on the source exercises.
Active, well-read participation in the seminar.

Examination topics

This is a course with continuous assessment.

Reading list

Brownell, Emily. Gone to Ground: A History of Environment and Infrastructure in Dar Es Salaam. Intersections: Environment, Science, Technology. University of Pittsburgh Press, 2020.

Beck, Kurt. „The art of truck modding on the Nile (Sudan): An attempt to trace creativity“. In The Speed of Change. Motor Vehicles and People in Africa, 1890-2000, herausgegeben von Jan-Bart Gewald, Sabine Luning, und Klaas van Walraven. Brill, 2009.

Fava, Valentina, und Luminita Gatejel. „East–West Cooperation in the Automotive Industry: Enterprises, Mobility, Production“. The Journal of Transport History 38, Nr. 1 (2017): 11–19. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022526617698157.

Ference, Meghan E. Matatu work: gender, labor, and mobility in Nairobi. Making and Remaking the African City: Studies in Urban Africa Series 3. James Currey, 2024.

Grace, Joshua. African motors: technology, gender, and the history of development. Duke University Press, 2021.

Greiner, Andreas, Carolin Liebisch-Gümüş, Mario Peters, und Roland Wenzlhuemer. „Roads to Engagement: A Roundtable Discussion with Jennifer Hart, Peter Norton, Anke Ortlepp, Heidi Tworek, and Roland Wenzlhuemer“. The Journal of Transport History 45, Nr. 3 (2024): 757–67. https://doi.org/10.1177/00225266241295597.

Hart, Jennifer A. Ghana on the Go: African Mobility in the Age of Motor Transportation. Indiana University Press, 2016.

Heinze, Robert. „A History of the Future. Colonial Transport Systems in Africa and Their Heritage“. In Transport Planning and Mobility in Urban East Africa, 1. Aufl., herausgegeben von Nadine Appelhans, Wolfgang Scholz, und Sabine Baumgart. Routledge, 2020. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003011149.

Huber, Valeska. Channelling Mobilities: Migration and Globalisation in the Suez Canal Region and beyond, 1869-1914. Cambridge University Press, 2013.

Huber, Valeska. „Multiple Mobilities. Über den Umgang mit verschiedenen Mobilitätsformen um 1900“. Geschichte und Gesellschaft 36, Nr. 2 (2010): 2.

Krebs, Stefan. The Persistence of Technology: Histories of Repair, Reuse and Disposal. 1st ed. With Heike Weber. Science Studies. Transcript, 2021.

Liebisch-Gümüş, Carolin. Mobilität/en und Mobilitätsgeschichte. 2022. https://doi.org/10.14765/ZZF.DOK-2370.

Mom, Gijs. Atlantic Automobilism: Emergence and Persistence of the Car, 1895-1940. Explorations in Mobility, vol. 1. Berghahn Books, 2015.

Mom, Gijs. Globalizing Automobilism: Exuberance and the Emergence of Layered Mobility, 1900-1980. Berghahn Books, 2020.

Monson, Jamie. Africa’s Freedom Railway: How a Chinese Development Project Changed Lives and Livelihoods in Tanzania. Indiana university press, 2009.

Mutongi, Kenda. Matatu: A History of Popular Transportation in Nairobi. University of Chicago Press, 2017. https://doi.org/10.7208/chicago/9780226471426.001.0001.

Nanchengwa, Lilian Kasamba Kasoma. „A History of Public Road Transport in Lusaka, 1889-1987“. Master Thesis, University of Zambia, Lusaka, 1990.

Preimel, Barbara. „Die österreichische Automobilindustrie nach 1945 unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der Lkw-Produktion. Eine betriebshistorische Untersuchung.“ Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz, 2014.

Rizzo, Matteo. Taken for a ride: grounding neoliberalism, precarious labour, and public transport in an African metropolis. Critical frontiers of theory, research, and policy in international development studies. Oxford University Press, 2017.

Schier, Hubert. Die Steyrer Automobil-Geschichte: von 1865 bis 1945. Ennsthaler Verlag, 2015.

Suhr, Christian. Laster aus Ludwigsfelde. Verlag Kraftakt, 2015.

Association in the course directory

MA Geschichte: Seminar aus Geschichte, PM4.
MA Globalgeschichte und Global Studies: SE-Teil, PM3/2.
IDMA Zeitgeschichte und Medien: Seminar, PM4a / Seminar aus dem Bereich Zeitgeschichte, PM4b.

Last modified: Mo 02.03.2026 07:06