Brandbekämpfungstechnologie und Feuerwehren – Das Zusammenspiel von Technologie und Gesellschaft am Fallbeispiel Tirol

The following seminar-paper is about the impact technology had on the development of fire fighting institutions in the 19th century. Along with the Industrial Revolution the urge to be protected from fire catastrophes was growing. In this paper I argue that the invention and use of new technologies in fighting fire lead to the development of institutions such as “Freiwillige Feuerwehren”. But, as will be shown, the new form of organization overtook the spread of the new technologies rapidly, especially in rural areas. Due to the expensive and train-extensive technology fire fighters in rural areas had to operate with primitive technology far up in the 20th century.