German Rule Research Articles

A Stress Test for German Nationalism: Protective Custody in Alsace-Lorraine during the First World War

Abstract When the First World War broke out, the French government declared the return of Alsace-Lorraine its only public war aim, arguing that the population was ‘French in spirit’. In an age rife with claims of national self-determination, trapped in a protracted war of attrition and facing a nationally ambivalent population, the German state soon came under enormous pressure to ensure the loyalty and patriotism of the inhabitants of its western borderland. This article examines why Imperial Germany failed to meet this ‘stress test’. It focuses on the crucial but hitherto neglected issue of protective custody (Schutzhaft), whereby police and military authorities were able to arrest and detain ‘suspect’ civilians without charge or trial. The article finds that protective custody, an emergency measure under martial law, played a central role in the failure of German policy in Alsace-Lorraine: it undermined the rule of law, shifted the focus onto national dissent and gave rise to an atmosphere of suspicion and fear. The article also demonstrates that the Reichstag successfully put limits on protective custody in the second half of the war. Yet leaving the authoritarian doctrine of enforcing national loyalty in place, the more lenient administrative approach had a disintegrative rather than a stabilizing effect, preparing the ground for widespread disaffection with German rule months before the war ended.

Winstone , Martin The Dark Heart of Hitler's Europe: Nazi Rule in Poland under the General Government (review)

REVIEWS 583 by faith alone, a Protestant doctrine he came to embrace openly. In language remarkably similar to that used by Repenter preachers, Trifa wrote that ‘our victory rests on accepting the Lord’ (p. 158). He encouraged a lay leadership of the movement and discouraged hierarchy. Many of Trifa’s ideas looked and sounded like Evangelical Protestantism. Like Iosif Trifa, Father Tudor Popescu from the Stork’s Nest (the Orthodox church of St Stephen in Bucharest) began preaching Protestant doctrines, such as personal conversion and justification by faith alone. So did Dumitru Cornilescu, who was welcome at the Stork’s Nest, and was well known in the 1920s for translating the Bible into Romanian, a version fully embraced by Repenter groups to this day. However, both Popescu and Cornilescu were soon accused of theological heresies, and by 1924 had been defrocked and removed from the Orthodox Church, while Trifa was defrocked and removed from the Orthodox Church in 1934 over alleged financial impropriety. What is not mentioned here is that Trifa was rehabilitated post-mortem in 1990, and the movement he founded is now part of the Romanian Orthodox Church again. Sectarianism and Renewal in 1920s Romania successfully introduces and systematizes a period about which not much has been written until now in the English-language scholarship. It is highly recommended for use by scholars of religion, historians and specialists in East European studies. Undergraduate and graduate students will appreciate it too. Concordia University, Montreal Lucian Turcescu Winstone, Martin. The Dark Heart of Hitler’s Europe: Nazi Rule in Poland under the General Government. I. B. Tauris, London and New York, 2021. xi + 306 pp. Maps Illustrations. Notes. Bibliography. Index. £17.99 (paperback). The ‘dark heart’ of the Third Reich’s occupied territories in wartime Europe was the General Gouvernement (GG) of Poland. Following Germany’s victory over the Polish Army in September 1939, and the Soviet Union’s occupation of eastern Poland on 17 September as per the Nazi-Soviet Pact of 23 August 1939, the GG formally came into existence on 12 October 1939 through a Führer decree that came into force a fortnight later, as a separate administrative and political entity within one part of German occupied former Polish territory (other such territories had been annexed or formed into new territories by the Third Reich). From the beginning, Third Reich intentions were to treat the GG and its inhabitants as a predatory ‘colonial’ territory, solely to serve the Reich and SEER, 99, 3, JULY 2021 584 principally as a reservoir of slave labour. Besides also becoming a horrendous proving ground for Reichsführer Heinrich Himmler’s grandiose plans to Germanize the territory with ethnic Germans, principally from the Baltic States after 22 June 1941, which involved the ‘ethnic cleansing’ of established Polish and Jewish communities by uprooting them en masse, it became the site of the mass murder of Jews in the Aktion Reinhard extermination camps of Belzec, Sobibor and Treblinka — thus highlighting ‘the role of the General Government as the principal racial laboratory of the Third Reich’ (p. 12). Brutality, starvation and lawless terror became the watchword of the Nazi regime, where ‘anything goes’ distinguished this largely criminal German rule ‘from the ostensibly more traditional forms of occupation policy practised elsewhere in Europe’ (p. 15). As the Polish poet and socialist activist Czesław Miłosz put it, the history of the GG was a ‘study of human madness which defied rational explanation’ (p. 246). This paperback edition of the 2014 book comes with its text and bibliography unchanged, together with original glowing paeans of praise for its claimed signal contribution to the history of the Nazi Third Reich in providing the first English-language study of the region. It is not an historical monograph in the normal sense or based on archival sources but is one which overwhelmed historians can sometimes be grateful for (as the comprehensive bibliography confirms), as a well-written synthesis of authoritative publications on the subjects involved. However, too often, instead of key historical developments being related to each other chronologically, the emphasis here is upon a ‘thematic’ construct. Whilst that treatment can focus attention more acutely on some elements...

Scout Rally at Birmingham and Imperial Scout Exhibition 1913: Polish scouts

ABSTRACT Scout Rally at Birmingham and Imperial Scout Exhibition organised in July of 1913 by the Boy Scouts Association constituted educational propaganda of the British Empire. The term “imperial”, which was used in the British press, reflects the ideological meaning of this outsized event which gathered scouts from the United Kingdom and its dominions, and much smaller groups of scouts from Europe, including quite numerous groups from Poland. In the eyes of Poles, British “imperialism” or “patriotism” confronted as an ideal compared to Russian and German rule, and their attitudes were enthusiastically Anglomaniacal. This is the psychological key to understand the attractiveness of performing on the British arena for the representation of the young generation of Poles who were invited. For Polish scouts, the Scout Rally in Birmingham was an opportunity to demonstrate not only their skills but also patriotism as a function of political presence. This is how the Polish press understood these things, and which after the British – what needs to be emphasised – paid the most attention to the events in Birmingham. The most important Polish dailies publishing in Cracow, Warsaw, Poznań, and Lvov (now Lviv) closely followed the course of the rally, which was given the rank of success by a two-sentence depeche from London and a lengthy letter published in the Czas daily paper. The object of interest for the author of the article is the book written by the founder of Polish scouting, Andrzej Małkowski, which constitutes a noteworthy record of observations made by him during the Scout Rally as well as those made by other organisers of the Polish delegation’s trip and of letters from journalists who accompanied this delegation and sent their correspondence to the Polish press from Birmingham, London, and Paris. Only one journalist broke out from apologetic opinions about the excellent performance of Polish scouts, who noticed shortcomings in performance and wrote about them. The article introduces the content of these letters and interprets and compares them. The opinion about the triumphant rally in Birmingham rooted firmly in Polish public opinion, constituting an important element of the founding myth of Polish scouting, which in the history of this movement is worth noting.

ЧЕСЬКА ПОЛІТИКА ТА РОЗПАД АВСТРО-УГОРЩИНИ (1917-1918 РР.)

The article analyzes the development and manifestations of the Czech national movement at the final stage of the First World War in the crisis of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The reasons for the decline of the policy of Czech «activism» at the level of the Czech parliamentary representation and leading political parties have been clarified. At the same time, the growth of anti-war and anti-Austrian sentiments among the population of the Czech Republic is highlighted. The changes in Czech-German relations caused by the attempts of German nationalists to establish German rule in the Czech Republic on the one hand and the resistance of Czech politics on the other are described. At the same time, emphasis was placed on the fluctuations of the domestic political course of the monarchy, which gradually lost its traditional role of arbiter in interethnic relations and a safeguard against political radicalism during the war. The main projects of reforming the empire, which directly concerned the Czech lands, are highlighted. The influence of foreign policy factors that accelerated the collapse of the Habsburg Empire in this period is highlighted: changes in the attitude to the preservation of Austria-Hungary, the Entente, USA entry into the war, the Russian Revolution, the signing of the Brest-Litovsk Peace. The aspirations of Czech and German national radicalism based on the right of nations to self-determination are analyzed. The circumstances of the approval of the concept of an independent sovereign Czechoslovak Republic as the main project of Czech state-building among emigrant circles and its popularization in the Czech lands are clarified.

Challenging the German Empire: Strategic nationalism in Alsace‐Lorraine in the First World War

AbstractThis article introduces the concept of ‘strategic nationalism’ to explain the shift of national allegiance of most Alsatians and Lorrainers from Germany to France during the First World War. Combining the historiographical concept of ‘national indifference’ with rational‐choice theories of nationalism, the article examines why a growing number of local citizens came to defy the authorities' relentless demand of national loyalty. Contrary to previous studies that emphasize the dictatorial character of the regime and the passivity of local citizens, the article argues that national attitudes were shaped by strategic interests and highly responsive to shifts in state policy, regional circumstances and the course of the war. From mid‐1918, it was less escalating state repression or dormant Francophile sympathies, but half‐hearted liberalization of policy, the authorities' unfaltering insistence on national loyalty and imminent military and economic collapse that prompted people to see France as an attractive alternative to German rule.

Additions to the itinerary of King Sigismund’s travels along the Rhine (1414–1418)

It is a well-known fact in research that medieval German rulers also used river routes during their travels. In recent years, however, there has been an increasingly in-depth and comprehensive investigation of the actual rivers to which and the periods of time from which the imperial river cruises can be traced. The question of whether the waterway or land route was preferred when approaching the riverbankshas also been raised by a more recent researchers. Obviously, late medieval source materials provide more information on this issue, thus the reign of Sigismund of Luxembourg can also be covered by this field of research. By examining King Sigismund's travels on the Rhine it can be stated that the monarch took a boat wherever he could on the middle and upper reaches of the Rhineland, regardless of the direction of the river, unless his governmental policy required him to leave the Rhine. On the Constance-Basel route, however, he did not necessarily take advantage of the opportunities for navigation, and it seems that he sometimes opted for land travel. However, the characteristics of sources from the Sigismund period does not allow us to perform quantitative studies that would allow us to show the percentage difference between the frequency of land and water transport. The meeting of the royal couple in 1414 - following the realisation of Sigismund's political intentions - was also organised in the Rhine region, and instead of the monarch waiting for the arrival of his wife from the Kingdom of Hungary in Nuremberg, they started to travel together only from the Middle Rhine region. Furthermore, it appears that their 'joint' journeys were often combined with parallel journeys, and that the royal couple might have been further apart from one another for a certain period of time as they opted for different transport arrangements. It is assumed that in such cases the queen remained on the water for as long as possible. The meeting place could then either be the end of the river cruise or, as in the case of Frankfurt, a station of major importance from the poin of view of the representation of the monarch.

Bolesław Szczodry (1058–1079) konstruktorem środkowoeuropejskiego bloku antycesarskiego?

The article analyzes contacts between Bolesław Szczodry (1058–1079) and neighbouring states in Central Europe (Hungary, the Czech lands, the Lutician Federation, Saxony). The main emphasis is on the influence of those contacts on Polish­­­­­­‑German relations. The article attempts to answer the question as to whether the alliances formed by the Polish ruler were a result of a more serious, far­­­­­­‑reaching policy directed against the German ruler. In connection with this, each state is dealt with separately, and relations with it are viewed separately from the remainder. The effect of such an approach is the perception that the majority of the actions of Bolesław Szczodry were of an ad hoc nature, and not stricte directed against the Empire. Only the Polish­ ‑Hungarian alliance – although also not without certain controversial aspects – gives the appearance of a lasting alliance, one fundamental for Polish policy at that time. As a result, the answer to the question in the title is in the negative: Bolesław Szczodry did not form alliances with neghbouring states with the aim of weakening Germany and of building a more powerful coalition capable of defeating King Henry IV.

From Labour Elites to Garveyites: West African Migrant Labour in Namibia, 1892–1925

This article focuses on the aftermath of the First World War for West African Kru in colonial Namibia. It posits that Kru had been a ‘labour elite’ in the colony under German rule and that the war and resulting years of South African occupation led to their economic decline. By the early 1920s, this situation was a strong factor in West Africans’ robust engagement and leadership within the colony’s ‘Africa for the Africans’ Garveyite movement. Economic troubles after the First World War, as well as an increasing tendency towards intermarriage between Kru and local Namibians, factored into Kru workers’ decisions to join political ranks with the Herero and other groups who had suffered under German rule. Both local and migrant Africans saw Garveyism as a possible solution for their new economic and societal challenges. The article utilises a South West African migrant worker database that I compiled for this research (WBL Namibian Worker Database) and micro-histories to give insight into individual workers’ experiences between 1892 and 1925. On a broader note, this work expands research on the role of West African labour in colonial Namibia, bringing regional historiography more firmly into the scope of the discipline of global history.

Болгарські села Північного Приазов’я у 1941-1943 роках: німецька окупація в етнічному вимірі

Аналізу піддано політику окупаційної німецької влади стосовно жителів болгарських сіл Північного Приазов’я. Виявлено, що й у рідному селі, і на примусових роботах у Німеччині, місцеві болгари не мали помітних преференцій за національною ознакою порівняно з іншими жителями регіону. Єдина обставина, що вирізняла болгар, – можливість встановлення зв’язку з історичною батьківщиною з метою пошуку захисту та допомоги. Щоправда, використання цієї можливості не набуло великого поширення. Одним з її виявів стала спроба репатріації деякої кількості таврійських болгар на історичну батьківщину, що завершилася їх примусовим поверненням до СРСР у 1945 р.

Aleksey Khomyakov’s unknown essay on the Austrian Slavs (1845) and his poetry: the interplay of historiosophical ideas and poetic prophetism

The paper introduces a conceptually important, but previously unknown essay by the Russian poet, theologian and philosopher Aleksey Khomyakov. This essay, “The Slavic and Orthodox Christian Population of Austria,” was discovered in two versions: an original, previously unpublished manuscript and a later anonymous 1845 text. The author reveals an aesthetic function that certain structural elements perform in Khomyakov’s essay, encouraging the interaction between historiosophical ideas and literary creativity. The essay is emphatically philosophical in its style, as its very composition embraces the classic Hegelian triad of “Being—Nothing—Becoming.” This notion overlaps with Khomyakov’s historiosophical idea of the European Slavdom that flourished in the first millennium B.C., and that then lost its sovereignty being under German rule, and finally enjoyed a renaissance in the 19th century. The paper also shows that the distinctive feature of Khomyakov’s poetry is its prophetism. The contrastive analysis was carried out to identify the affinity between the thematic-figurative patterns of Khomyakov’s early poetry (up to 1845) and his essay on the Austrian Slavs, which revealed how the poetic thought had been accumulating and what aspect it had taken on within a philosophical and historical discourse. The author of the article puts forward the hypothesis that the difference in depicting Peter the Great in the two versions of Khomyakov’s essay can be attributed to his dispute with Konstantin Aksakov’s poem “To Peter.” This polemic between two fellow-Slavophils was driven by their diverging approaches to the problem of the ethical dilemma of ends and means.

Spaces of encounter: relations between the occupier and the occupied in Norway during the Second World War

ABSTRACT With Nazi Germany’s aggressive expansion, millions of Europeans were forced under German rule. Although the worlds of the occupier and the occupied overlapped in multiple ways, the everyday interactions between members of opposing sides of the conflict have received little scholarly attention. Using German-occupied Norway as a case study, this article explores the manifold relations between German soldiers and civilians during the Second World War. It argues that the asymmetry of power was not stable but constantly shifting as a result of these encounters. Based on an analysis of German military court records, the article identifies crimes and spaces as nodes where these worlds converged. First, using crimes as a lens, it explores how people on both sides responded to the constraints and opportunities the occupation produced. Secondly, it illustrates how space became the real and symbolic battleground in the struggle for power, and how the spatial norms inscribed in public, private and work spaces shaped these interactions. Since concepts of ‘resistance’ and ‘collaboration’ are inadequate to make sense of the complex reality of occupation, the article proposes the categories of conflict, cooperation and solidarity to analyse the diverse social relations between the occupier and the occupied.

Impeeriumi ideoloogia etnograafia keelde tõlkimise probleemist / The problem of translating imperial ideology into the language of ethnography

Artiklis käsitletakse probleemi, kuidas Vene Geograafiaseltsi vaated, mis põhinesid Karl Ernst von Baeri etnograafilisel programmil, realiseerusid populaarses ja teaduslikus diskursuses, ning millist osa etendab etnograafilistes kirjeldustes poliitiline faktor. Mitmeköitelise teose „Maaliline Venemaa“ Baltikumi käsitleva teise köite teise osa näitel analüüsitakse impeeriumi ideoloogia peamiste postulaatide mõju piirkonna ajaloo ning põlisrahvaste kuvandi konstrueerimisele. Näidatakse, et autorid püüavad tõestada, nagu oleks piirkonna põhiprobleem Balti erikord, et kohalik elanikkond vihkab sakslasi ja vaatab lootusega Vene võimu poole. Selline tendents sobis täiesti vene 1860.−1870. aastate hoiakutega Balti küsimuses. Põhijäreldus on, et populaarne diskursus tingib etnograafilise käsitluse lihtsustamise ning ideologiseerimise.
 
 The article views, in as great detail as possible, the history of creating the popular scientific ethnographic publication North-Eastern Borderlands of Russia. The Baltic Region (Северо-Западные Окраины России. Прибалтийский край, 1883) from the ethnographic series Picturesque Russia (Живописная Россия). Differently from Karsten Brüggemann (2018) who placed it in the broad context of 19th-century ethnographic publications, this article is less interested in the context and the general paradigm it blends with than in immanent text analysis, its pragmatics and sources. The author has set herself the task to examine how the book’s anonymous authors cope with the dilemma of academic and popular discourses; to which extent they manage to overcome the ideological and political setting of the era straddling the boundary between the epochs of Alexander II and Alexander III; how they implement the conditions of official imperial ideology – the loyalty of the subjects, the need for the acculturation of borderlands, the consolidation of a unified imperial nation. Therefore, a brief digression is made into the general features of imperial ideology.
 The beginning of the article describes how the publication reflected the general views of the Russian Geographical Society that should have become the patron of the publication. It is shown that Karl Ernst v. Baer’s article “On ethnographical studies in general and in Russia in particular” (“Об этнографических исследованиях вообще и в России в особенности”, 1846), which makes a clear distinction between the scientific and political tasks of ethnography, played a role in the formation of the concept of Picturesque Russia. The authors met the scholarly criteria in their selection of reliable information about the history of the Baltic provinces and their peoples and the new stage in the formation of the national mentality of Estonians and Latvians in the period of modernisation. The authors underscored how education influenced the gradual breakaway from the traditional lifestyle, creation of national cultural societies and periodicals, development of new literature in the local languages. They tried to present to the readers interesting digressions into the history of the region and its peoples, thus meeting the criterion of popularity.
 Simultaneously, the authors adhered to clear ideological principles: the territory of the Baltic provinces is a primordial “Russian” territory and must forever remain a part of the Russian Empire (the authors, naturally, could not imagine that the empire was not eternal). The indigenous peoples suffered greatly because of the German invasion in the 13th century and the long-time German rule that would follow; they hated Germans, strove for liberation from German domination and wanted to integrate into the Russian context. This attitude fully met the ideology and policy of the Russian authorities concerning the Russian acculturation of the region and gradual cancellation of the Baltic special order. One of the principles of the authors of the publication was to show the indigenous peoples’ support to such policy.
 The book about the Baltic provinces was published anonymously, and, until now, archive searches have not revealed the authors’ names. Analysis shows that the book is a compilation; the authors relied on many sources, which are listed in the current article. However, the lack of a single editor, heterogeneity of different parts of the book, and ideological engagement had a negative effect on the quality of the book. Picturesque Russia, which was planned as an extensive and very expensive project covering the history, geography and ethnography of the all regions of the Russian Empire did not prove as successful as its initiator, the renowned Russian published Maurycy Wolff, had expected. The bulky and heavy tomes did not sell well and did not get a serious response from Russian readers. Still, the books of this series, and The Baltic Region in particular, became sources for many popular publications of the time, including guidebooks on Russia not only in Russian, but also in German.

Denunciation in the German-Occupied Channel Islands, 1940–1945

AbstractOver the course of the German occupation of the British Channel Islands from 1940 to 1945, a number of letters of denunciation were sent by islanders to the German authorities, accusing fellow islanders of violations of occupation law or of anti-German activity of one sort or another. The German occupiers were ambivalent toward the denunciations. While recognizing their usefulness in maintaining order and the respect for German rule, they found both the letters and their writers distasteful. The local British authorities in Jersey and Guernsey also found the letters problematic; the consequences for the individuals targeted in the letters could be dire, and the impact on island society as a whole was significant, both during the occupation and beyond liberation in May 1945. The extent and nature of resistance and collaboration have been contentious issues in the historiography of the occupation of the Channel Islands, and these letters have been cited as evidence that islanders were unduly cooperative with the Nazis. This article examines the surviving letters of denunciation, and by placing them into the wider contexts of Nazi Europe and the historiography of denunciation in totalitarian states, argues that denunciation in the Channel Islands, far from being exceptional, was quite typical of the practice throughout the Nazi empire.

Poles and Finns under Russian rule

An attempt to compare Russian Tsar Alexander I was the head of the Grand Duchy of Finland, which the Russian army captured in 1809 as a result of the Russo-Swedish war. The final act of the Congress of Vienna of June 1815 decided to establish the Kingdom of Poland. Beside the title of Grand Duke of Finland tsar, Alexander I was awarded the title of the King of Poland. From that moment on, for over one hundred years, the fate of the Grand Duchy of Finland and the Kingdom of Poland was intertwined during the rule of five Russian tsars. The aim of this paper is to answer the question whether two different ways on the road to independence – romantic Polish way with national uprisings, and pragmatic Finnish, relative loyal to the Russian tsars – had an impact on their policy towards both nations. The Kingdom of Poland and the Duchy of Finland were autonomous, were in a personal union with Russian tsars, had their own constitutions, parliaments, armies, monetary systems and educational structures, and official activities were held in Polish (Polish Kingdom) and Swedish (in the Grand Duchy of Finland). Both countries also had their own universities. The first national uprising in the Kingdom of Poland, which broke out in November 1830, resulted in a wave of repression. The Constitution was replaced by the so-called The Organic Statute, the Sejm (the Parliament) and the independent army were liquidated. The Kingdom was occupied by the mighty Russian army, and in 1833 martial law was introduced. The second national uprising of January 1863 led to another wave of repression and intensive Russification of Polish territories. In 1867, the autonomy of the Kingdom of Poland, its name and budget were abolished. From 1872 the Polish language was only an optional choice. After 1863, the policy of the Russian authorities changed towards the Grand Duchy. A session of the Finnish parliament (Eduskunta) was convened for the first time since 1809, the new parliamentary law allowed the dissemination of the Finnish language. After the deadly assault on Alexander II in 1881, his son Alexander III made attempts to limit also Finland’s autonomy. The years 1899–1904 were called the first period of Russification in Finland (“the first period of oppression”). The Manifesto of June 1900 introduced obligatory Russian language in correspondence of officials with Russia. In 1901, the national Finnish army was liquidated. In Russia this was the beginning of the process of the empire’s unification into one cultural, political and economic system. After a short thaw as a result of the 1905 revolution in Russia, the Grand Duchy of Finland, the so-called “second period of oppression” and anti-Finnish politics took place. During the great war of 1914–1918, the Grand Duchy was on the side of Russia. The territories of the former Kingdom of Poland were under German rule since 1915. After the outbreak of the revolution in Russia, the Eduskunta (on 6 December 1917) passed a Declaration of Independence. After a short period of regency, on 19 July 1919, the Finns adopted the republican system with a parliamentary form of government. On 11 November 1918 Germany surrendered on the Western Front. On that day, the Regency Council in Warsaw handed over military authority to the Polish Legion commander Józef Piłsudski. Although Poland still had to fight for the final shape of the state, the 11th of November 1918 is considered the first day of recovered Polish independence.

More than just warriors: Mythical and archetypal images of the hero in Swahili literature

Since ancient time until today, the image of the hero has influenced literary works universally. The “hero” becomes mythical only after his death, and through forms of remembrance that can be realized in other literary productions in which his figure is re-create and transmitted through fictitious characters. The central focus of my paper is to examine, within archetypal theories on myth and “hero”, the great figures of two Swahili warriors, namelyLiongo Fumo, one of the greatest warrior-hero figures of the Swahili oral tradition, and the chief Mkwawa of the Hehe people, who fought against the German rule in the former Tanganyka, whose deeds have been reinvented and described in modern written literature. Both Liongo Fumo and Mkwawa have acquired the status of mythical warriors, and as other East African heroes, they inspired poets and writers becoming symbols of bravery and national consciousness to which the historical and cultural memory of old and new generations refer. Despite the importance given to the figure of the two great heroes, part of my work has been dedicated to the presentation of those who can be defined as ‘minor heroes’, who nevertheless represent a way of generational change to look at literature as to a bridge that combines tradition and modernity through historical and mythical memory.

Balancing between dissent and conformity: Estonian self-administration under German occupation, 1941–1944

When Germany attacked the Soviet Union in the summer of 1941, it also conquered the territory of Estonia by the end of the year. The German occupation administration of the new territories ruled by the Germans needed the help of local residents everywhere. For this purpose, a semi-autonomous (or quasi-autonomous) Estonian Self-Administration was established. Similar administrative bodies were established in Latvia, Lithuania and Belarus as well. Based on previous studies, it is known that the Estonian Self-Administration worked closely with the German occupation administration. Thus, it is partially responsible for crimes committed in the name of the national socialist ideology in Estonia. It is clear that the Estonian members of the organization were German-minded and at least accepted the German rule for the time being. Otherwise, they would not have been able to join the Self-Administration. However, in previous studies, little attention has been paid to how Estonians tried to balance the interests of Germany and Estonia. Based on the preserved archival material, it seems that the Estonian actors also tried to promote the national interests of the Estonians while cooperating with the Germans and working for them. The article is mainly based on the materials of the German Security Police and other German and Estonian archival material. In addition, the presentation analyzes how the Estonians who worked in the organization later described their wartime activities in their memoirs.

ДУШПАСТИРСЬКА ТА ГРОМАДСЬКА ДІЯЛЬНІСТЬ о. ОМЕЛЯНА КОВЧА У МІСТІ ПЕРЕМИШЛЯНИ (1922-1944 рр.)

У статті проаналізовано особливості душпастирської та громадської діяльності греко-католицького священника міста Перемишляни на Львівщині Омеляна Ковча у міжвоєнний період. Особливу увагу зосереджено на його діяльності при різних окупаційних режимах: польському, радянському та німецькому. Важливим історичним джерелом при розкритті досліджуваної проблематики стали спогади очевидців тогочасних подій, які зберігаються в Перемишлянському історико-краєзнавчому музеї. Завдяки спогадам жителів міста М. Зацичного, С. Мацишин, О. Прибили, М. Шкільника нам вдалося ознайомитися з етнічним складом населення міста Перемишляни, життям і побутом його мешканців під час польської, радянської та німецької влади, періодом перебування о. Омеляна Ковча у концтаборі Майданек. Його душпастирська діяльність служить яскравим прикладом людяності, відкритості. Щирими проповідями Хрестової віри, він заслужив глибоку шану і повагу не тільки серед українців, але і поляків, євреїв, німців. Омелян Ковч був активним громадським діячем, захисником українських звичаїв, традицій. За його ініціативи відкрито у місті Перемишляни Народний дім, засновано організацію «Пласт», драматичний гурток, кооперативні курси.

ВІЙСЬКОВІ РЕФОРМИ ГЕТЬМАНА ПАВЛА СКОРОПАДСЬКОГО У КОНТЕКСТІ ДЕРЖАВОТВОРЧИХ ПРОЦЕСІВ В УКРАЇНІ (квітень – грудень 1918 р.)

The military reforms of hetman Pavlo Skoropadskyi in the context of processes of state development in Ukraine have been analyzed. The period is pointed out to be quite significant for developing a national regular force; though, in 1918 there were no chances for force development because of the German rule and also there was an offer to federate Ukraine with the other parts of non-Soviet Russia, which was supported by Cadet and October government of Ukraine. A political stance of ministers and cadets proved that the recognition of the independence of Ukraine was contextual (except for the head of the government Lyzohub who was an Octobrist) as a required stage for a federate, parliamentary or monarchical Russia.It is established that Skoropadskyi succeeded in obtaining the permission for developing numerous Ukrainian Forces such as career-oriented corps, divisions which included gun brigades, engineering units with the officer and sergeant personnel and equipment. This stage of the force development was special because there was a planned organization at a high level in accordance with the developed organizational structures.It was admitted that unlike «The Tsentralna Rada», hetman focused on developing a capable regular army with involving experienced generals, admirals, and senior officers of a former imperial army, who were willing to serve Ukraine. It was proved that though there were a plenty of enlisted generals who were not committed statists, they stayed in the army because it was the way to provide for a family or because of a professional need «to serve».The Russian system was taken as a base for organizing the land forces of the Ukrainian Army and their kinds of armament, particularly the armament control system which was renewed and implemented starting from the Chief inspecting officers of infantry, artillery and mounted troops to commanders of corps, divisions of brigades and regiments. After coming back from battlefield to the base, 15 gun brigades joined the Ukrainian Army, except for most demobilized soldiers. The Serdiutska dismounted division was organized and Sira dismounted division was entirely preserved. Also, there was restored the function of infantry, artillery and a horse cavalry school and cadet corps. To conclude, thanks to hetman ruling the bases for developing Ukrainian Armed forces were established which in organization, structure, commanders, armament and tactics reached the same level of development as the European armies.

Graves, Houses of Pain and Execution: Memories of the German Prisons after the Majimaji War in Tanzania (1904–1908)

ABSTRACTGerman colonisation of Tanzania was entrenched in the militia and a coercive apparatus that sought to both suppress local communities and dominate their territories. A network of institutions such as the boma, prison, askari, akida and chiefs were either set up or perverted to establish a colonial system of justice that destroyed the local authorities. This alien system legalised forced labour, imprisonment, detention in chains and corporal punishment – kiboko (whip). It was this same over-reliance on corporal punishment that triggered more than 50 local wars of resistance against the German rule established between 1890 and 1908. Majimaji was one of these resistance uprisings that occurred in 1904–1908. To suppress these outbreaks of resistance, the Germans utilised prisons for the detention and execution of indigenous combatants that forms the focus of this paper. Memories of German colonialism in Tanzania associate prisons with incarceration, pain, execution and the systematic recourse to violence, which I argue represents cultural genocide that deliberately intended to destroy the lives and cultural identity of local communities. Following an archaeological survey, and according to ethnographic and archival sources, this paper reconstructs the history of penology in Tanzania, German recourse to colonial prisons to quench the Majimaji War as well as contemporary memories of mass executions and incarceration in southern Tanzania.

Kamien Pomorski – Health Resort on the Waterfront – Transformations of the Public Space of the Town after 1945’

Diversity of urban structures in Europe has its sources in cultural distinctness of different regions, in different pace of their development over millennia. Methods of designing towns in subsequent urbanisation periods differed. Nevertheless, frequently older structures were adapted to new needs. The question concerning the ideal of the European city remains open - is impossible to define one dominating spatial model encountered everywhere, despite attempts of ancient powers (Imperium Romanum), and by 20th -century totalitarian systems. The latter largely contributed to interruption of continuity of cities’ historical development, especially in Central and Eastern Europe. Warfare and scale of destruction of the spatial/social structure in many cities in 1939-1945 were unprecedented in the European history. Examples of metropolises practically wiped off from the face of the earth, like Warsaw or Dresden, are common knowledge. This fate was shared by many other towns, especially in the Polish-German borderland. Their reconstruction after the war caused complete transformation of their urban/social structure. The study focuses on Kamień Pomorski, situated on a headland at Kamieński Lake, separated from the Baltic Sea by Wolin island. Before the war it was one of the nicest port towns in Pomerania, with history reaching back to the early Polish state and the clash of Slavic, Scandinavian, and German influences. The town, an episcopal see, bloomed in the medieval and modern times under the Pomeranian, Brandenburgian, and German rule. At the end of the WWII the centre was ruined over several days. Some religious and secular buildings survived. Traditional economic foundations of the local population, moulded for centuries, and the corresponding port structure, were nearly completely destroyed. Almost complete replacement of the local community, not fully grasping the local spatial, natural and landscape conditions, was connected with introduction of centrally planned socialist economy. The town changed its character, despite maintaining and developing some of its previous functions (e.g. health resort). Kamień Pomorski was reconstructed in forms not corresponding to traditional ones (prefabricated blocks of flats), although respecting previous transport/urban layout, which is an advantage. There were attempts to restore the most important preserved monuments –cathedral, town hall, several sections of city walls. In time these efforts brought the expected effect. In recent years several investments were implemented, referring to historical spatial layouts, following the rules of retroversion and revealing some relics. The port function was restored – predominantly as a recreational yacht and water sports marina, popular in high season. Some waterfront boulevards were renovated. Promenades are being built, the spa park is to be revitalised. To conclude, it should be stated that improvement of public spaces is observable in Kamień Pomorski, just like in its green areas and waterfront edge. Renovations of pre-war tenements and villas and growing abundance of services activating the public domain cannot be disregarded. It seems that despite enormous war destructions, which changed the appearance of the town forever, after many decades Kamień Pomorski has become vivid again.