Wie wurde Paris zur Metropole? Überlegungen zum Konzept vormoderner Metropolität

Abstract

This article examines Paris as an outstanding example of the process of metropolisation in the pre-modern era. It asks what made a city a metropolis in the age before European industrialisation. How can this concept learn from modern metropolitan studies and vice versa? What are the opportunities and problems for a new research con-cept interested in the 'longue durée' of the European metropolis? While Paris grew from a mid-sized episcopal see of approximately 20,000 inhabitants in 1150 to the largest European metropolis of over 250,000 inhabitants in 1350, its (self-)understanding as a metropolis also evolved from the heterogeneous construct of the rapidly growing city. Therefore, the analysis focuses on the accumulation of significance that Paris experienced as a capital, university city and economic centre from around 1200.