Performing Ruhe: Police, Prevention, and the Archive

Abstract

At the dawn of the nineteenth century, under the influence of that new historical actor the masses, the supervision and surveillance of theatre in the German-speaking world was turned over to the institution that already possessed a certain biopolitical expertise: the police.¹ To understand why theatre censorship fell under the jurisdiction of the police authorities, it is important to clarify the role of Policey for the constitution of the modern state. The rediscovery of the antique thematic of politeia and politia in the late fifteenth century allowed the German terms Policey, Policei, or Pollicei to appear in urban laws of German territorial states. In the administrative language of the six-teenth century, the notion of Policey suggested good public order in the city and country, including, for instance, moral and religious life. In the German use of administrative language, Policey is initially understood as a broadly formulated reference to the interdependency of city, state, and constitution. The Early Modern notion of police primarily suggests an internal-political view of order that can be summed up in three definitions:² first, Policey describes a condition of good order for a polity; second, Policey represents law for the respective polity; and third, Policey describes methods for the production and circulation of this good condition or law.