German History Research Articles

It’s All in the Backfill: Scrap Heaps, Explosives, and Nausea. Stirring the Soil of a Former WWII Military Base

ABSTRACT Within an archaeology of the contemporary, sites and material remains of the Second World War have in recent years been set more prominently on the agenda of European heritage archaeology. This article presents observations made during archaeological site monitoring of the conversion and remediation of a former WWII military base in Germany. In the course of the project, the sensitivity of the site and its find material against the backdrop of the German history of World War II had to be constantly assessed. Archaeological methods and practices had to be adapted to the specific requirements of the site. Conflicting agendas of various actors and stakeholders involved had to be evaluated, as well as the risks posed by the site’s contamination with unexploded ordnance. Indeed, the backdirt itself, just like the find material it contained, turned out to be a contested and hazardous entity.

CONSTRUCTION, DEMOLITION, EXTIRPATION? THE PALAST DER REPUBLIK AND THE CONFLICTING DESIRES OF GERMAN UNIFICATION

ABSTRACTOpened in 1976, East Berlin's Palast der Republik stood until its demolition in 2003 among and against the other buildings on Berlin's Museumsinsel. This article examines the circumstances surrounding the construction and demolition of the GDR's prestige construction and its storied location, now the site of the Stadtschloss and Humboldt Forum. This narrative analysis acknowledges recent vigorous debates concerning Germany's colonial history but focuses in particular on the East German past. In examining the iconoclastic impulse and the corresponding resistance to extirpation in the period since unification, the article questions the social power of the buildings at that site, their political symbolism and what the acts of demolition and reconstruction tell us about political desires and especially about Germany's unsteady handling of history since unification. Had the Palast remained, it is suggested, its awkward presence (whether as renovated structure or as ruin) might have better served the future as a reminder of uncomfortable pasts, a historical monument and a catalyst for ongoing, necessarily difficult discussions about history and heritage rather than an attempt to side‐step East German history.

The Contribution of the History of Concepts to the Critical Understanding of the State

The paper develops the problems of critical understanding of the phenomenon of the state. The author comprehends the contribution of the German history of concepts (Begriffsgeschichte) and the British Conceptual History to the critical understanding of the emergence of the state as a concept and social phenomenon in Modern times. Representatives of these lines of thought trace the appearance of the English State and the French État to the 17th century, the German Staat to the second half of the 18th century. Russian followers of these traditions explore the historical and ideological context of the emergence of the state in the 15th– 18th centuries. The researchers emphasize that in Germany the concept of the state is formed two centuries later than that in France, but it immediately becomes political and subordinates the rest of the meanings of the word, creating a theoretical basis for the development of state studies and public law, while the French état and English state in the meaning of the state have long been used in relation to non-state political and even nonpolitical phenomena. An important contribution of the history of concepts was the search for the ideological and social foundations of modern state legal terms and models — state sovereignty, citizenship, legal and social state, endowed with meaning primarily in the continental tradition. The author continues the study of the problems of critical understanding of the state, which began in the article «Critical Concepts of the State and their Significance for Russian Jurisprudence: Introduction to the Problem» (Lex russica. 2020;6:122-138).

Sacred Rubble and Humble Shelters: German Church Building after the Second World War

Abstract This article centres on the cultural politics behind the feverish construction of new houses of worship in West Germany, as well as the restoration of damaged cathedrals and churches, in the first two decades after 1945. At issue is how and why ecclesiastical architecture took on heightened cultural significance at the time, attracting a star-studded group of international architects. After the war, church-building resumed its leading historical role from before the Industrial Revolution as the avant-garde of innovative international architecture, although its comeback has been largely overlooked by architectural and cultural historians alike. While these changes reflected broader international trends, the German situation took on special significance in light of the Nazi legacy of defeat, destruction and dislocation, as well as the pressing need to fabricate new churches for survivors and the millions of expellees arriving in western Germany. Discussions of ecclesiastical architecture therefore touched on broader issues of German history, identity and Christian renewal, and the very form of these houses of worship reflected a unique blend of avant-garde architecture and Christian theology in the aftermath of war.

Fighting over Churches: Augsburg and Multiconfessional Cities in the Thirty Years War

Abstract The religious overtones of the Thirty Years War (1618–1648) resonated in particular in multiconfessional towns and cities like Augsburg. Not only were churches destroyed, desecrated or reassigned in deliberate acts of war, but the military supremacy of one side or the other could mean a permanent end to the ability of a portion of the city’s inhabitants to practise their religion. In 1648 the Peace of Westphalia recognized the existence of multiple confessions and clarified ownership of church properties, allowing minority confessions to rebuild their churches and schools. In some multiconfessional towns such as Heidelberg and Hanau, Lutheran congregations took advantage of the provisions of the peace to build elaborate churches where none had existed before. Lingering fear of confessional annihilation drove postwar fundraising efforts for the building or rebuilding of churches. The memory of the trauma of war was expressed in confessionally specific ways until the significance of religious coexistence in German history was reassessed after the Second World War.

Forum: Authority, Sovereignty, Interpretation … Subtext? Controversies in Recent German Historiography

Like other historiographical fields, that of German history has been defined through most of its existence by the things historians argued about. We could go back well over a hundred years to the Methodenstreit over Karl Lamprecht's efforts to write multidisciplinary history, follow the line through the work of Eckart Kehr, Fritz Fischer, Hans Ulrich Wehler, and the Sonderweg debate, and continue on through the Historikerstreit and the Historikerinnenstreit of the 1980s, and the Goldhagen and Wehrmacht exhibit fights in the mid-1990s, to recent debates over the relative weight of colonial and Holocaust memory.

Knowledge for the unknown? A history of the future in Swedish higher education and research policy, 1970–2020

AbstractThis article analyses how the future has been discussed in Swedish higher education and research policy, providing an overview of public inquiries during the period 1970–2020. Expanding on the conceptual framework of German historian Reinhart Koselleck, the article approaches discourses on the future through the analytical lens of sociology of expectations. The findings demonstrate that all inquiries that attempt to advance arguments for policy change address the future—with temporal perspectives usually limited to the coming 15–20 years—whereby the future is conceptualised as an unknown and complex ‘knowledge society’, characterised by acceleration, high demands and fierce competition. A number of inquiries discuss the future development based on empirical data like shrinking age cohorts among potential students, while others describe threats and challenges based on needs for creating a sense of urgency. Inter- and multidisciplinarity, with respect to such future needs in both research and education, is consequently a key area of discussion throughout the period in question. Several other themes emerge as prevalent, including technological change and digitalisation as well as broader issues of how to organise the curriculum and lifelong learning. The historical analysis presented in this article is crucial for ongoing university debates, as it is demonstrated that temporal dynamics and future imaginaries have been highly formative for the development of Swedish higher education and research.

Addressing diversity: An analysis of German curricula for history

AbstractThis article analyses the extent to which German history curricula address aspects of diversity. The curricula are analysed in terms of whether they include diagnostic phases to identify students' individual interests. It also examines whether the historical experiences of minorities and the agency of subaltern groups are addressed. The extent to which the curricula abandon a Eurocentric perspective and integrate global historical aspects will also be considered. Methodologically, the curricula of two main school types in all German states were analysed by means of a qualitative content analysis. The focus was on curricula for lower and upper secondary schools. The results show that diversity is usually addressed only from the perspective of established narratives. A national and Eurocentric history continues to dominate the curricula. Only a few curricula explicitly address the diagnosis of students' performance and ideas. Finally, the paper discusses the evolving nature of curricula, influenced by societal needs and growing sensitivity to social diversity. It highlights the need for future research on diversity in teacher education and the practicality of implementing complex concepts such as postcolonial thought in the classroom. More empirical research is needed on current curricula and the teaching of history in different regions and types of school.

Recognize Max Weber's Social Action Theory in Individual Social Transformation

Every individual in his social reality always performs social actions, whether in a state of realization or not, these actions continue to run dynamically along with the dynamics of self-situation with the reality of his life. This paper uses narrative literature review to recognize Max Weber's Social Action Theory. It is found that Weber's social action theory originated from the formation of a cultural tradition of thought by his father and mother as well as the formal formation of his learning process and was certainly influenced by the German historian, philosopher, economist and political theorist Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) as well as influenced by Nietzsche (1844-1900). It is found that social action always has motives (Intention) and meaning (Meaning) directed to others and to oneself. Transformational social action can be rational which he calls instrumental rationality and value rationality. As well as being Non-Rational. He called it Affection-oriented social action and Traditional Orientation.

State of the Field: Histories of the Future

AbstractIn the last decade, future thinking has rapidly gained importance as a topic of historical study. This article provides an overview of the existing historiographies of future thinking as well as the actions and practices that follow such thoughts. We trace the pedigree of histories of the future back to the German historian of ideas Reinhart Koselleck and show how his conceptual framework has been adopted and adapted by later scholars. We highlight the sources and methods that are typically used. A particularly fruitful approach that emerges from our meta study revolves around the concept of pluritemporality – the coexistence of different layers of time. The article also seeks to uncover some weaknesses and biases that are still present in the field. The most urgent issue being probably the lack of consensus on a conceptual apparatus; other blind spots concern the relationship between future thinking and its linguistic expression in historical sources, the question of whose future thinking we are talking about, how future thinking relates to human action in the past, and how short‐term futures interact with their long‐term futures equivalents. Overall, however, the aim of this survey is to emphasise the potential of this burgeoning field for future historical research. Much is to be gained from new theories of historical time which are themselves the consequence of ideas about climate change and the dangers of the Anthropocene, human extinction and trans‐ and post‐humanism and about artificial intelligence and the digital world.

World Domination and Genocide: The ‘Lochner Version’ of Hitler’s Speech from 22 August 1939, a Key Document of National Socialist Ideology

ABSTRACT On August 22, 1939, only days before the German invasion of Poland, Adolf Hitler delivered an infamous secret speech before the leading Wehrmacht generals at the Obersalzberg. The American foreign correspondent Louis Lochner, as head of the Berlin bureau of Associated Press, was a key figure in securing, spreading, and publishing this speech during the World War II. Despite Lochner’s presence throughout the Nuremberg trials 1945/1946 as a reporter for AP, he was not called as witness to testify regarding the document which today is usually referred to as ‘Lochner Version’ of the secret Hitler speech. Later, while verifying this source during the 1960s, Lochner’s role was too underappreciated and even distorted by German historians. Therefore, until today, the Lochner Version of Hitler’s speech is either unknown, underestimated or misjudged. To reassess this central source for Hitler’s worldview and the global aspirations of National Socialist ideology, this article reconstructs its historical background and context for the first time. It argues that the Lochner Version is indeed the most authentic and reliable version available of this speech by Hitler. Only the Lochner Version reflects Hitler’s two ultimate goals: World conquest and genocides of all ‘inferior races’. Furthermore, it proves that all leading German generals knew of Hitler’s planned crimes against humanity even before World War II started.

A Study on Critical Exploration of Nietzsche’s View of Liberal Arts Education

At the invitation of the Basel Education Committee, the young Nietzsche, who was a professor at the University of Basel, offered five lectures on education. The collection of these lectures is called “On the Future of Our Educational Institutions.” In this lecture, Nietzsche critiqued German schools at the time, particularly their liberal arts education, and proposed alternatives. The goal of this research is to uncover the significance of Nietzsche's view on liberal arts education as presented in his speech, as well as to investigate its applicability and limitations to liberal arts education in Korea today. Chapter II provides an overview of 19th-century Germany relevant to the lectures, Chapter III analyzes the main contents of Nietzsche's view on liberal arts education as demonstrated in the lecture, and Chapter IV investigates the potential of Nietzsche's views in the context of today's universities. Nietzsche identified the problems of mass education caused by education expansion policies, as well as the fragmentation and practicalization of knowledge caused by education diminution policies, and proposed an educational view based on the ‘metaphysics of genius’ as an alternative. Nietzsche saw the purpose and goal of liberal arts education as acquiring a sense of ancient Greece and the ability to think like a Greek in order to create a new German culture. While Nietzsche’s view on the elite education and the ancient Greek culture implicit in his discourses of liberal arts education is difficult to accept for twenty-first-century universities, Nietzsche's point regarding fragmentation and practicalization of knowledge that arise from viewing universities as academic institutions rather than liberal arts institutions allows us to critically reflect on the nature of liberal arts education in today's universities.

CREATION AND ACTIVITY OF «ELITE» SCHOOLS IN GERMANY (1933–1945)

The article highlights the activities of elite schools and their creation. It has been revealed that from the very beginning of its existence, the Nazi regime in Germany sought absolute power over all spheres of German life. The field of education and upbringing had a specific importance in the ideology of the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (hereinafter NSDAP).
 Significantly, the ideologues of the Third Reich emphasized the non-class nature of their movement, and the main criterion for achieving personal growth of social peaks was not belonging to a particular class, not property qualifications, but a person’s own abilities and personal qualities. However, the main qualities were blind faith in the Führer, ruthlessness towards enemies, and cooperative personality. For the first time in the entire existence of Germany, young people had a sense of their importance. Never before in German history have youth been so needed, and, at the same time, so criminally used. Social selection began to play a fundamental role in society, so it is not surprising that it also affected the sphere of school and youth education. The emergence of elite schools that educated future generals, Gauleiters, and party officials was a logical reaction to the current regime in Germany.
 In Hitler’s elite schools, the dream of educating new German people-lords was to become a reality. In schools named after Adolf Hitler, national-political educational institutions, and Reich schools of the NSDAP, the regime wanted to raise capable performers who, as Hitler’s heirs, should have the future. Children were drilled, taught military affairs, and formed their worldviews. They were obliged to “believe, obey and fight”, to fulfill the role of political fighters. Young people, attracted by the opportunity to engage in various sports, to have rich leisure time, and to have a promising future career, entered elite boarding schools. There, they were brought up with unconditional loyalty to the regime. During the war, graduates of Hitler’s schools were often fanatics. Only one in two survived.

Clifford Geertz'in Yorumlayıcı Antropoloji ve Kültürel Görecelik Pratiği Yaklaşımı ve Yapılan Eleştiriler

We believe that one of the important contributions of anthropology to humanity is to present some ways which help to understand the “other”. Therefore, various approaches and paradigms present various epistemological and methodological ways. Some problematics and debates such as particularism versus universality, the empirical versus the theoretical- were somehow present within philosophy and science before cultural anthropology existed as a discipline. Positioning in these kinds of debates can inform us about the relation which a social/cultural scientist constitutes with the notion of culture. The cultural views of Max Weber and Franz Boas, two thinkers with particularism/cultural relativism tendencies, inspired our study. Dilthey's approach to the concept of culture is also looked at due to the relations of these thinkers with hermeneutics and the German History School, in this article the approaches of Clifford Geertz, who is mostly known for his influence on the practice of interpretive anthropology and cultural relativism. Finally, some criticisms of cultural relativism in terms of reflexive anthropology have been made by us, focusing particularly on Geertz's approach.

L’approche diachronique en analyse du discours contrastive

Starting from the observation that diachronic approaches are rare in discourse analysis and that synchronicity poses the problem of neglecting both the historicity of discourse production and inter-discourse, the author presents a methodological reflection on what distinguishes “geographical” and diachronic approaches in Contrastive Discourse Analysis. This reflection is illustrated by some of the results of a contrastive analysis of the treatment of National Socialism and the World War II in German history textbooks between 1955 and 2016.

History of proximal femur fractures in the German literature.

German-speaking surgeons have left a deep imprint on the history of diagnostics and treatment of proximal femur fractures. Some of the studies published in German have fell into oblivion, others are cited until today, although sometimes quite inaccurately. The cause of such inaccuracies are citations from secondary sources due to unavailability of the original or inability to read it because of a language barrier. In the current literature, globally predominated by English articles, the "German history" of treatment of proximal femur fractures remains undervalued. The aim of the present article is to point out its contribution. Literature search was performed in original publications and historical sources. The German-speaking surgeons have considerably contributed to the development of the treatment of proximal femur fractures. The analyzed period between 1847 and 1970 may be divided into three basic periods. In the first period (1847-1896), the German-speaking surgeons (Langenbeck, Trendelenburg, König, Heine, Dolinger)were the first worldwide to start treating the fractures of proximal femur operatively. In the second period (1897-1935),mainly in the 1930s,the initiative in Europe was taken over by surgeons publishing studies in Franceand in Belgium. Overseas, American surgeons were coming to the forefront. In Germany, onlyPauwels developed the first biomechanical classification of femoral neck fractures. In the third period (1936-1970), mainly in the 1940s and 1950s, implants were designed (Pohl, Künstcher), based on close collaboration betweenGermanengineers and surgeons, that served as a model for a dynamic hip screw and a proximal femoral nail, which are currently the implants of choice in the treatment of trochanteric fractures. The historical contribution ofGerman-speaking surgeons to understanding the issue of proximal femur fractures and their operative treatment is far more significant than presented in the historical studies published in English.

The Sermon as Discursive Frame for the Nazi Past: Preaching about the German History Exhibition Neue Anfänge nach 1945?

Abstract When the history exhibition Neue Anfänge nach 1945? about the transition from National Socialism to democracy toured Lutheran churches in northern Germany in the 2010s, preachers were invited to address it in their Sunday sermons. Like the speeches regularly given by civic dignitaries at German history museums, the sermons drew on democratic traditions of speaking about National Socialism. They also drew on Lutheran discursive traditions: Bible exegesis, homiletics, theology. This article considers how preachers combine a professional knowledge of what should be said about National Socialism with their pastoral role. The German family emerges as a key—but limiting—trope in discussion of the Nazi past in the church setting.

The Call to Political Geography

This essay offers a capsule memoir of a part-time Germanist. It recounts the author’s experience of coming of age in the 1990s when it was salad days for All Things German in North America and the sheen of Weimar shone. This decade was followed by the years of the global war on terror and eventually the global financial crisis, when German studies seemed to lose the plot and many historians of German quietly exited the subfield. The essay concludes with a reflection on political geography as a way to engage with German history and the German contribution to the world of ideas. German history is dense with suggestive answers to the evergreen questions of what a state should be and what kind of world it should exist in.

New Perspectives in German Studies: A View from the Margins

This article calls for studying German history and culture from the margins, an approach that highlights unexpected mutual influences and entanglements between German and non-German cultures in Europe and beyond and that challenges essentialist understandings of German identity. Moreover, by looking at peripheries of German culture, scholars can break out of the straitjacket of national narratives and rediscover the transnational dimensions inherent in German history. Bukovina, a multiethnic former province of the Habsburg Empire that now spans the border between Ukraine and Romania, is one such place. The article sketches how the German concept of Kultur was first used to legitimize the Habsburg Empire in Bukovina and was later absorbed into a new language of rights in a postimperial age.

Il corpo come spazio e la pratica della scrittura: Die Weiber (1987) di Wolfgang Hilbig

The article aims to demonstrate the concept of Zwischenraum behind Wolfgang Hilbig’s short story Die Weiber (1987). The setting is to be identified with the social space of the DDR, structured not only through the panoptic control of the Stasi, but also according to rigid ideological norms that polarize the cultural field and produce a spatial gap, as understood by Henri Lefebvre. The search for an interstitial space, capable of problematizing reality, is expressed metaphorically through the women’s disappearance: the correspondence between the polarized social space of the DDR and the gender division allows the centrality of the body and the interval of desire to emerge, in order to rhizomatically reconfigure the existing. In Die Weiber, this search is channeled through writing: according to Michel de Certeau, such practice can generate and appropriate new social space – a space in which, in Hilbig’s view, the culturally repressed can be revealed and the relationship with the deliberately forgotten German history can be re-established.