This contribution is devoted to the work of the Austrian naturalist Franz Unger (1800–1870) in popularizing geological knowledge. His efforts to extend his geological knowledge beyond a small circle of naturalists and communicate it to the general public can be understood in the context of his fundamental political stance. He considered popularizing and communicating earth history to be an essential form of emancipation for the liberal bourgeoisie.
This contribution focuses on Die Urwelt in ihren verschiedenen Bildungsperioden, a folio atlas published in 1851 containing 14 lithographs and a bilingual German-French commentary volume. Through this series of landscape images, Unger and the landscape painter Joseph Kuwasseg (1799–1859) – in collaboration with numerous other naturalists, artists, and explorers – created an innovative and highly successful medium for disseminating knowledge. These images quickly took on a life of their own, being copied, adapted and combined. They were reproduced thousands of times and spread around the world, where they had a lasting impact on the perception of the prehistoric world in the 19th century. They also inspired numerous other naturalists, such as the Bohemian palaeontologist Antonín Frič, to create their own geological images.
This contribution aims to trace the development of the atlas in detail using archival material, highlighting the various translation processes involved.