2007, Alle, Katrin, Braun, Iris, Brenner, Daniel, Gassmann, Cristina, Gerber, Gerold, Glocker, Suzanne, Jurchen, Sabrina, Kaifel, Andrea, Koch, Katharina, Krämer, Sebastian, Kühn, Lisa, Lagumdzija, Emina, Luchsinger, Tobias, Martin, Christina, Mütz, Sebastian, Richter, Dajana, Skrypchenko, Viktoriya, Troll, Stefanie, Vogel, Stefan, Wehinger, Jolanda

The empirical study results from fieldwork on two South German castles, Burg Hohenzollern and Meersburg. Its aim is to inquire into the social construction of tourism, i.e. to grasp touristic experiences in statu nascendi. Starting with the assumption that modern travelling is linked to the search of the sacred, the central question was how exactly the crossing from everyday life to festivity happens. The collected data suggest, however, that a journey, at least a journey to a medieval castle in Southern Germany, is not just a singular transcendence from the ordinary to the extraordinary. Tourists can rather be observed how they permanently shift between everyday life and festivity. In this sense order and chaos, fact and fiction, and seriousness and playfulness constitute each other.