ABSTRACT
By now, the history of communication science in the German-speaking world has been thoroughly studied. Various time periods have been examined, and attempts at periodization have been made (see Averbeck and Kutsch 2002). The interplay of ideas, social structure, and milieu (see ibid. and Meyen and Löblich 2006 following Kaesler 1984) has been analyzed, and theoretical foundations, reorientations, as well as political instrumentalizations have been considered. Although “structures”, institutions, and decisions in science policy and trends of internationalization have not been ignored, the main focus of German research on the history of the field has been on individuals and generations. A significant amount of both the positive and negative developments in the field have been attributed to the actors, in part with reference to Pierre Bourdieu’s theories on field, habitus, and capital. However, structures do not attract as much attention within the scientific community as the frequent references to Bourdieu might lead one to hope. In the German-speaking world, field-specific historiography is closely tied to the actors, a link of which the great number of commemorative publications and lexicon entries is indicative.
