Postwar Europe Research Articles

American Arcadia? The Shift of the Homoerotic Gaze in Herbert List’s Work

The German photographer Herbert List (1903–75) is well known for his pictures from the Mediterranean, metaphysical still lives and portraits of young men. The latter, in particular, have garnered continuous attention due to their beauty and as examples of homosexual aesthetics in prewar and postwar Europe. A lesser-known body of work are his photographs taken in the Caribbean in 1957, including portraits of Black men. This article sheds light on List’s different homoerotic images by situating them in their art historical as well as local context. First, in an analysis of his Oriental and Orientalist representations of young men in Tunisia, I delineate his expansion of classical Greco-Roman tropes. Second, I contrast these images with List’s portraits of people of colour in the Caribbean and his critique of their historical exploitation and current living situation. In both contexts, List is complicit with as well as in contradiction to the power dynamics of European imperialism, and both follows and digresses from white European visual traditions. This analysis expands current scholarship by taking into consideration the issues of race, class and postcolonialism and their impact on the representation of bodies of colour.

Endel Tulving. 26 May 1927 — 11 September 2023

Endel Tulving was an Estonian–Canadian cognitive psychologist and cognitive neuroscientist who transformed the study of human memory in the 50 years between 1960 and 2010. He was born in Estonia in 1927, and spent several years in post-war Europe before emigrating to Canada in the late 1940s. He obtained degrees at the University of Toronto and at Harvard University before returning to the University of Toronto as a faculty member in 1956. He was always an independent thinker, and rejected the dominant view of memory and learning in terms of associations in favour of a more cognitive approach in which the organization of remembered events played a major part. He also developed theories on how events are encoded and retrieved, first in terms of behaviour and then in terms of their underlying neural correlates in specific brain regions. His theoretical ideas on different memory systems and their relations to different types of consciousness, laid out in his 1983 book Elements of episodic memory (Oxford University Press), continue to play a major part in current work on human memory. As a person, he retained a somewhat European sense of propriety and formality, which often made him seem quite formidable to new acquaintances. Once someone's scientific seriousness was established, however, Endel was warmly supportive of his students and colleagues. He was much loved by his family, and held in high esteem by his fellow scientists.

Towards Prosperity and Peace: The Beginnings of the European Project in the West German Governmental PR Film Der erste Schritt

Films that advertised the rising status of the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) as a partner in Western economic and military alliances were an integral item of the Adenauer administration’s PR arsenal. Produced through the state-funded newsreel system Deutsche Wochenschau under the direction of the Federal Press Office, these films provided an effective way to reach out to the electorate and explain and highlight the successes of democracy in a post-fascist country. PR films also emphasized the FRG’s role as an integral partner in the emerging European project. This article examines Der erste Schritt: Die Geschichte eines Briefes, a 1951 film advertising the Schuman Declaration as the necessary “first step” to overcome the socio-economic devastation of postwar Europe. The film reveals its producers’ agenda to manipulate the collective memory of the war-ridden Franco-German Erbfeindschaft and replace memories of animosities with images of pragmatic cooperation. Through a focus on the First World War as a tragic, but heroically fought confrontation between the nations, the film helps its audiences bridge the more recent and more conflicted Second World War past. The film’s narrative argues for a unified Europe by vividly describing its absence vis-à-vis the post-Second World War destruction in central Europe, and by drawing favourable comparisons with the large, unified economic territory of the United States. Compared to later PR films that accompanied Konrad Adenauer’s and Charles de Gaulle’s policy of reconciliation in the early sixties, Der erste Schritt in 1951 does not try to manufacture an image of friendship between the two countries. Instead, through the sentimental frame narrative of a letter by a young French woman to a West German politician, the film’s narrative insists that only economic cooperation, the abolition of inner-European borders, and the sharing of resources can lay the foundation for lasting peace and prosperity in a war-torn Europe. The article closes with an overview on how the film was used in PR deployments that advertised the European project. In sum, Der erste Schritt provides an important perspective on the Adenauer administration’s early imaginations of Europe, and how these images were put to work to further the FRG’s still ongoing process of consolidation during its founding years.

National retailing after the Second World War: structural changes, differences and the impact of the socialist model on the Czech and Slovak Republics (1953–1989)

ABSTRACT Changes in retail structures, processes, and culture in post-war Europe were strongly affected by the post-war economic boom, the origin of a mass consumer society, and the adaptation of innovations from the United States. Retail structures and the culture of consumption remained different in the Czech and Slovak parts of the former Czechoslovakia after the Second World War, which influenced the development of retail trade in both countries. After the rise to power of the communists, retail was nationalised, leading to centralising trends in the Czech Republic and decentralisation trends in Slovakia. As a result, the retail structure differed in the two countries. While the Czech Republic showed a preference for larger stores, Slovakia focused more on smaller stores, particularly in rural areas. Although the post-war period brought positive changes, such as the growth of retail trade and the restoration of the population’s purchasing power, the socialist economic model, which was controlled by state-owned enterprises, led to insufficient development and investment in retail and a lack of innovation and efficiency. The post-war period represented a key era for the transformation of European retail; the development trends in post-socialist countries, however, differed from other, capitalist countries.

CARL SCHMITT AND FRIEDRICH HAYEK ON DEMOCRACY: ELECTIVE AFFINITIES?

The aim of the present paper is to disclose the structural affinities between Carl Schmitt and Friedrich Hayek regarding the concept of parliamentary democracy. Identifying Hayek’s neoliberal thinking with Schmitt’s theoretical justification of fascism would apparently be an a-historical overgeneralization. While Schmitt develops a model of absolute sovereignty relying on the sovereign’s decision on the state of exception, Hayek envisages the historical realization of those conditions allowing the market competition to flourish. Schmitt’s model subjugates market to an omnipotent state whereas Hayek views the latter as an engine abetting the free market competition. 
 A closer reading, however, could discern affinities behind the seemingly opposed models of the two thinkers. 
 Schmitt’s model of an emergency dictatorship and Hayek’s nomocracy are two different responses and attacks to the Left’s attempt to construct a democratic welfare state in the Weimar Republic and postwar Europe. Schmitt advocates the concentration of political power in a totalitarian state as the sole “remedy” to the democratic contamination of liberalism induced by the politicization of civil society. Similarly, Hayek castigates any state intervention taking the form of the welfare state but endorses a powerful state entrusted with the role of securing the conditions of market competition.

Finally Got the News , on Another Continent

Abstract: For many of its initial viewers, Finally Got the News gave food for thought to those who had paid little or no attention to the tens of millions of unwaged and waged workers of non-European origins who have toiled for capitalism in the modern era worldwide. The distinctive feature of Finally Got the News is that it shows Black Detroit, in the aftermath of the 1967 Rebellion, taking freedom of speech seriously and speaking for itself without any deference to condescending powers. The film made a particular impact on young working class and student activists who gathered for two days of political debate on an isolated farm near Florence in August 1970, a meeting organized by the Italian extra-parliamentary group, Potere Operaio (PO). One of the leaders of the League of Revolutionary Black Workers, John Watson, introduced the film with his history of the self-activity of African American laborers in the United States. In the end, many found the translation of Watson's ideas on screen more compelling than Watson's own in-person presentation. The Florence screening of Finally Got the News ended with big applause. I recount the events herein and put the film in dialogue with revolutionary currents throughout postwar Europe.

Preparing the stages for popular deliberation. Political parties, voters and extra-parliamentary communication in West Germany and Europe, 1940s–70s

ABSTRACT What constituted appropriate rules of political conduct and debate was a fairly essential question for the liberal democracies of post-war Europe which had witnessed the refusal of deliberation as a political principle and practice under Fascism. Old and new political elites needed to re-define the prerequisites of what was to be seen as serious political negotiation, especially in public meetings. In doing so, agents of party democracy also decided who should gain access to the political arena and what manners were perceived as appropriate for political communication. As a result, however, democratic principles were routinely challenged. This article investigates how rules of good debate set by agents of party democracy shaped political communication with ‘the people’ and excluded a good part of the voters from speaking and acting on the public stages after 1945. Comparing direct political communication in the Federal Republic and other West European democracies into the 1970s, it reconstructs how the breaking of those rules by extra-parliamentary activists, along with other factors, could open up the stages for ordinary voters. The article eventually discusses why the rise of popular deliberation in political communication around 1970 seemed to be a peculiarity of the post-Nazi setting of West Germany.

Commemorative Albums of the Higher Communist Schools of the GDR in the 1950s (Based on Materials from the Personal Fund of Corresponding Member of the USSR Academy of Sciences A. I. Lepeshkin)

Historic artifacts speak to the fact that various cultural forms existed in different historical periods. The recently discovered works presented in this article are unique artifacts of the cultural history of post-war Europe. Alexey Lepeshkin, who was a Corresponding Member of the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union and a specialist in the field of Soviet public law, was presented with two commemorative albums of the higher communist schools of the GDR (1952). As of today, these albums are part of Lepeshkin’s personal fund, and are stored in the Archive of the Russian Academy of Sciences (f. No.2004). This article gives the first scientific account of these items. The complex study of commemorative albums is relevant due to the lack of research in the area of handwritten commemorative albums of that period. A comprehensive analysis of the historical and cultural context of the interaction among the socialist countries after the end of the Second World War as exemplified by the relations between Russia and Germany in the example of two commemorative albums of German communist institutions of higher education gives researchers an opportunity to bring these manuscripts into a wider cultural and political context. The genre of hand-made folklore albums has a number of distinctive features in both form and content. This article is devoted to a formal and meaningful description and analysis of these memorial artifacts, both in terms of the texts contained in them, and in terms of visual anthropological analysis of photographs, drawings, and calligraphic features. On the basis of this material, we can draw conclusions about the preservation of folklore pragmatics and forms of existence by such albums, regardless of the change in the social structure in Russian and German culture.

Modernism in Indian English Literature

Indian English literature can be specified as a literature originally written in English by authors who are Indians by birth, origin, and nationality. Diaspora is a term used to describe a group of people living in exile. Literature of the Indian Diaspora constitutes a major study of the literature and other cultural texts of the Indian Diaspora. It is a globally accepted fact that Diasporic writers set a propensity since Independence. Writing in the Diaspora occupies a distinctive place among nations and cultures. Indo-English literature emerged as an interesting outgrowth of an eventful encounter in the late eighteenth century between lively and enterprising Britain and anarchic India. In this present paper, I would like to raise two important questions: the first will concern the cultural alienation of Indian writers writing in English, usually referred to as westward impulsion, East-West encounter, or cross-cultural conflict. Alienation is a concept transplanted to Indian soil that gained currency in postwar Europe and whose roots lie deep in the Old Testament. The cultural alienation of Indian writers writing in English can be tackled from the beginning. Indian writing has absorbed at least three major currents: The Central European Aryan, the Muslim, and the British, which have had a strong and creative influence on the primary driving force. The second part deals with the identity of Indian writers writing in English as authors of English literature, which is constantly questioned. The present work tries to examine such writings, which appear as a meander of nothingness that repeats the same kind of ideas in every piece of writing, in almost all works of all writers: you can call it a negative conception, the exculpation lies in the resulting proposals; for this purpose, I would like to select some writers and their works that are noteworthy.

The Establishment of North-Eastern Borders of Romania: International and Legal Support for Incorporation of the Bessarabia Lands into the Kingdom (end of 1919 — the 1st half of 1920)

The foreign policy of Romania throughout the first decades of the 20th century was neither unplanned nor spontaneous. It was pursued by the Kingdom’s leadership within the framework of the idea of establishing the “Greater Romania”. Generally, the policy of official Bucharest during the war period and the period of the formation of the Versailles system of international relations was concentrated on defending national interests and gaining the status of a regional leader in the Balkans. The purpose of the article is to analyse the political struggle around the “Bessarabia” issue at the Paris Peace Conference throughout December 1919 — March 1920. Indeed, exactly this time frame became decisive for the Romanian Kingdom in terms of the recognition by the international community of its sole priority to rule Bessarabia. Great amount of relevant information and materials enabled authors of the article to analyse a comparatively short-term period of proceedings of the Paris Conference as it clearly demonstrates the tense atmosphere of the process of creating a new geopolitical map of post-war Europe. As a whole, Alexandru Vaida-Voevod’s activities in solving the “Bessarabia” problem had positive outcomes for Romania. On March 12th, the National Assembly directed the decision on this issue to the government in Bucharest. Taking into account preliminary conclusions and “yearning” of Bessarabia population the Allies in general declared for the reunification of Bessarabia and Romania. At the same time, they demanded that official Bucharest guarantee legitimate interests of Bessarabia on the same conditions as for other parts of the Kingdom.

Disenchantment: Liang Qichao's Post-War European Travel and Ideological Shift

Since the modern era, Western culture has acquired modern attributes due to its early industrialization. The political and economic systems of capitalism, and even its values, have become the aspirations of modern China. As a representative of the intellectual group learning from the West, Liang Qichao once regarded the Western capitalist society as the direction for China's modernization. However, the outbreak of World War I changed Liang Qichao. The various contradictions in post-war Europe and the perverse actions of imperialism led Liang Qichao to deeply reflect on Western civilization. He no longer looked up to the West but instead re-examined the valuable values of Chinese civilization, establishing cultural confidence. In fact, the shift in Liang Qichao's thinking is not an isolated case but a microcosm of the cultural awakening of the entire group of Chinese intellectuals learning from the West.

Anarchist Prisoner Networks in Franco’s Spain and the Forging of the New Left in Europe

This article explores the little-known but formative networks developing across the 1960s between anarchist political prisoners in Franco's Spain and emerging activists of the European New Left. As social change accelerated, these prisoners broke with the out-of-touch anarchist leadership-in-exile to connect with a new generation of activists inside and outside Spain. The article uses prisoner correspondence and prisoner-aid bulletins to reconstruct these informational networks, and argues they were an important element in the ‘global rupture of 1968’. It posits that anarchist prisoners’ input was a formative influence on how New Left activists came to see post-war Europe as a whole: both looked beneath Francoism's consumerist surface (habitually foregrounded in discussions of it as a Western client regime), to its reconfigured repressive core. The article discusses key discursive shifts by the anarchist prisoners as they sought international support in a new era of decolonization, ‘national liberation’ and the ramping up of the Cold War. In a landscape shaped by Castro's success in Cuba, war in Algeria and the birth of ETA inside Spain, anarchist prisoners and New Left activists alike defined Franco's political prisoners as victims not only of a national dictatorship but also of the Western Cold-War order.

Darius Milhaud’s vocal cycle «Machines agricoles»: outrage or confession?

Relevance of the study. Darius Milhaud's vocal cycle Machines Agricoles (op. 56) was written in 1919. The significant date of creation of the cycle in the year of the end of the First World War forever tied it to a dramatic cultural and historical context, which did not remain aloof from Milhaud's artistic tasks, but was reflected by numerous semantic overtones in the concept of the work, the principles of organization and the original characteristics of the musical language. However, the vocal cycle Machines Agricoles appears in most musicological works as an example of the artist's joke, vocal curiosity, "Dadaist provocation" and the manifestation of youthful enthusiasm. It is a fairly established opinion that the cycle does not deserve any special attention, because it contains nothing but an outrageous declaration of everyday life. Therefore, turning to the cycle Machines Agricoles in the broad context of the intersection of many cultural layers of that time, identifying the semantic dimensions of their actualization in the original work of art and determining the main vectors of its understanding is an urgent question of modern musicology..
 The main objective of the study is to identify the specifics of the design and organization of the vocal cycle Machines Agricoles by Darius Milhaud as an expression of the artist's unique spiritual world.
 The scientific novelty is determined by the fact that the composition of the cycle is considered as a unique semantic continuum, which was conditioned by the emotional and intellectual flows of the spiritual life of Darius Milhaud. For the first time, the text of the work is examined in a broad contextual field, in which Machines Agricoles appear as a confessional phenomenon.
 The methodology of the article is based on historical, comparative, genre-stylistic and phenomenological methods of analysis.
 Results / findings and conclusions. Darius Milhaud's vocal cycle Machines Agricoles appears as a unique phenomenon of his spiritual life. Іn the cycle are reflected the mental and psychological characteristics of the artist's personality, which determined his unique role in the cultural context of France between the two world wars, as well as the difficult fate of his works written in the second half of the 20th century.
 Machines Agricoles are organically included in the context of French music and appear as the discovery of mental models and worldview guidelines that determine the specificity of national culture. Pastorale as a special spiritual dimension of human existence in the post-apocalyptic environment of post-war Europe; a sense of the subtle semantic layers of the artist's self-realization in the context of French musical traditions inextricably linked to the concept of mastery, clarity, "doneness"; the desire to create a complete sound world from equal layers of meaning, formed by expressive timbre means (the voice and each instrument has its own line) - all this testifies to the depth of the concept of the cycle and its unique role in the formation of Milhaud's creative credo.
 The paradoxical non-acceptance of these aspects of the composer's work in the majority of historical sources caused a misunderstanding of the originality of Milhaud's artistic position in the works of later years, prevented us from feeling the boundless sincerity, emotional vulnerability and trusting intonation of the author's address to the listener.
 Darius Milhaud's vocal cycle Machines Agricoles appears as an intimate confession of the author, which transforms a traumatic life experience into a new spiritual space, opens up opportunities to enter the world of perfect balance, and is evidence of the sound of a vulnerable soul that, despite everything, retains its human essence and ability to create.

Fine art as an integral part of architecture: Political and social aspects of the formation of this synthesis in the 20th century

Abstract The theme of the connection of visual arts with architecture, or the cooperation of visual artists with architects in post-war Europe, basically follows two lines: a theoretical line and a political-institutional line. Just as knowledge of the history of art and the history of architecture is necessary in the analysis of this period, knowledge of the political-economic circumstances is necessary in the field of realisations in architecture, because by definition, this public art is a political affair and is not an independent creation. Art in architecture was promoted not only in communist countries (for ideological reasons), but also in Western Europe as an aesthetic cultivation of contemporary architecture. From the mid-1950s onwards, visual art in architectural space appeared more and more frequently, which led to the adoption of legislative measures that regulated and supported this practice. A gradual transformation in the understanding of the task can be observed over the period under review, or the position of public art, presented as part of architecture or public space. This is naturally due to social development. If at the beginning of the 1950s it was a mission to convey ideology and indoctrinate it, in the next stage the focus shifts more towards design with the task of cultivating the environment and creating a certain atmosphere. The study also peripherally explores forms of arts support in the context of other European countries. The idea of integration between art and architecture dates back to the very origins of both disciplines. During the avant-garde movement at the beginning of the twentieth century, it acquired a new meaning and social purpose and became one of the most defining characteristics of modernism. Modernism arose from the expectation of moral and material reconstruction of the world devastated by war, which served as a tool to strengthen collective identity and, consequently, to forge the bond between the city and its inhabitants. Our study traces the development and contexts of the relationship and funding of visual arts in architecture in the Slovak and European context in the 20th century.

Theories of National Business Cultures and Dispositional Groups as Determinants of Post-War Europe: the Historic Opportunity for the Countries of Central and Eastern Europe

Within the framework of intercultural, interdisciplinary and inter-functional research, the content of the Russia-Ukraine war is identified as a war against global democracy and common European values. The thesis put forward that, being a civilisational threat, this war for a group of Central and Eastern Europe countries consisting of Poland, Ukraine, Slovakia, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia, provides a historic opportunity to acquire a qualitatively new role in the system of the pan-European economy and politics. For scientific support in realising this opportunity, the necessity of synthesising the paradigmatic foundations of the theory of national business cultures and the theory of dispositional groups is substantiated; the content of the new approach in the characterisation of business cultures, taking into account the ‘security’ component, is revealed; a comparative analysis of the national business cultures of this group of countries is carried out in the context of the development of the FirstPolish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, J. Piłsudski’s idea of Intermarium and the political life of modern history. The overall potential of these countries and the priority areas of their cooperation are determinedStreszczenieW ramach badań międzykulturowych, interdyscyplinarnych i interfunkcjonalnych, istotę wojny rosyjsko-ukraińskiej przedstawia się jako wojnę przeciwko globalnej demokracji i wspólnym wartościom europejskim. Postawiono tezę, że wojna ta, będąc zagrożeniem cywilizacyjnym, dla grupy krajów Europy Środkowo-Wschodniej, w skład której wchodzą Polska, Ukraina, Słowacja, Litwa, Łotwa i Estonia, daje historyczną szansę na uzyskanie jakościowo nowej roli w systemie paneuropejskiej gospodarki i polityki. W celu naukowego wsparcia realizacji tej szansy uzasadniono konieczność syntezy paradygmatycznych podstaw teorii narodowych kultur biznesowych i teorii grup dyspozycyjnych; przedstawiono nowe podejście do charakterystyki kultur biznesowych, biorąc pod uwagę komponent bezpieczeństwa; przeprowadzono analizę porównawczą narodowych kultur biznesowych tej grupy krajów w kontekście rozwoju I Rzeczypospolitej Obojga Narodów, idei Intermarium J. Piłsudskiego i życia politycznego w historii nowożytnej. Określono ogólny potencjał wymiwnionych krajów i priorytetowe obszary ich współpracyResumenEn el marco de una investigación intercultural, interdisciplinar e interfuncional, el contexto de la guerra ruso-ucraniana se identifica como una guerra contra la democracia global y los valores europeos comunes. La tesis parte de que, al constituir una amenaza civilizatoria, el conflicto ofrece al grupo de países de Europa Central y Oriental formado por Polonia, Ucrania, Eslovaquia, Lituania, Letonia y Estonia la oportunidad histórica de adquirir un papel cualitativamente nuevo en el sistema de la economía y la política paneuropeas. Con el fin de apoyar científicamente la realización de esta oportunidad, se justificó la necesidad de sintetizar los fundamentos paradigmáticos de la teoría de las culturas empresariales nacionales y la teoría de los grupos disposicionales; se reveló el contenido de un nuevo enfoque para la caracterización de las culturas empresariales, teniendo en cuenta el componente de “seguridad”; se llevó a cabo un análisis comparativo de las culturas empresariales nacionales de este grupo de países en el contexto del desarrollo de la Primera Mancomunidad de Polonia-Lituania, la idea del “Intermarium” planteada por J. Pilsudski y la vida política en la historia moderna. Se identificó el potencial global de estos países y las áreas prioritarias de su cooperaciónZusammenfassungIm Rahmen einer interkulturellen, -disziplinären und -funktionalen Forschung wird das Wesen des russisch- ukrainischen Krieges als ein Krieg gegen die globale Demokratie und die gemeinsamen europäischen Werte dargestellt. Es wird die These aufgestellt, dass dieser Krieg als eine Zivilisationsbedrohung für die Gruppe der mittel- und osteuropäischen Länder, wie Polen, Ukraine, Slowakei, Litauen, Lettland und Estland, eine historische Chance bietet, eine qualitativ neue Rolle im System der paneuropäischen Wirtschaft und Politik zu erlangen. Um die Verwirklichung dieser Chance wissenschaftlich zu begleiten, wurde die Notwendigkeit einer Synthese der paradigmatischen Grundlagen der Theorie der nationalen Geschäftskulturen und der Theorie der Dispositionsgruppen begründet; ein neuer Ansatz zur Charakterisierung von Geschäftskulturen unter Berücksichtigung der Sicherheitskomponente wurde vorgestellt; es wurde eine vergleichende Analyse der nationalen Geschäftskulturen der vorstehenden Ländergruppe im Kontext der Entwicklung des Ersten Polnisch-Litauischen Commonwealth, der Idee des Intermariums von J. Piłsudski und des politischen Lebens in der modernen Geschichte durchgeführt. Es wurden das Gesamtpotenzial der genannten Länder und die vorrangigen Bereiche ihrer Zusammenarbeit ermitteltРезюмеВ рамках межкультурного, междисциплинарного и межфункционального исследования рассматривается вопрос о сущности российско-украинской войны как войны против глобальной демократии и общеевропейских ценностей. При этом выдвигается тезис о том, что эта война, являясь цивилизационной угрозой, для группы стран Центральной и Восточной Европы, включающей Польшу, Украину, Словакию, Литву, Латвию и Эстонию, открывает исторический шанс на обретение качественно новой роли в системе общеевропейской экономики и политики. Для научного обоснования реализации данной возможности сформулирована необходимость синтеза парадигмаль- ных основ теории национальных деловых культур и теории диспозиционных групп; представлен новый подход к характеристике деловых культур с учетом компонента безопасности; проведен сравнительный анализ нацио- нальных деловых культур данной группы стран в контексте развития Первой Речи Посполитой, идеи Интермариума Ю. Пилсудского и политической жизни в новейшей истории. Определялся общий потенциал перечисленных стран и приоритетные направления их сотрудничества

Postwar Europe and the Eurovision Song Contest

Postwar Europe and the Eurovision Song Contest

Migration and Settlement Policy in Post-war Europe: A Case Study of the West Pomeranian Region

Migration and Settlement Policy in Post-war Europe: A Case Study of the West Pomeranian Region

The transnational archival memory of European integration

The European Coal and Steel Community established in 1951, the European Atomic Energy Community, and the European Economic Community, both established in 1957, built the roots of the European single market and are direct forerunners of today’s European Union. The vision of a united post-War (Western) Europe went far beyond economic considerations, as can be seen in the preamble of the Rome Treaties with its concept of “ever closer union”. It made the European Union a unique transnational political and cultural phenomenon based on common values and supranational decision-making processes. Archives hold the memory of the multi-levelled European integration process. European integration produced a new model of transnational archives with specific privileges, immunities and working methods. These archives preserve the legal acts, negotiations, correspondence, and documents produced by intergovernmental or nongovernmental European institutions and organisations and make them available to the public. The Historical Archives of the European Union play a central role in transmitting the memory, informing the public and fostering research on these diverse types of archives.

Paving the road to reconciliation: the training and practice of the Friends Relief Service in post-war reconciliation, 1943 to 1947

ABSTRACT In 1943 the British Quaker organization, the Friends Relief Service (FRS), established a training programme to prepare volunteers and members for post-war relief work. Located in London, the programme centred on Quaker pacifist tradition and conviction, drew upon instances of relief work during and after the Great War, and integrated the experience and expertise of relief workers in the field. Unlike the international organizations and Allied governments who defined ‘rehabilitation’ as economic and political reconstruction, the FRS considered the rehabilitation of the community and spirit of displaced and refugee populations as essential to the process of structural rebuilding in post-war Europe. Thus, a central mandate of the FRS was to encourage reconciliation and foster internationalism among former enemies. This article examines how the FRS prepared members for post-war reconciliation work and the application of training by FRS teams in the British Occupation Zone in Germany between 1945 and 1947. This work will underscore the role of professionalization, as expressed in formal training for post-war relief work, within the FRS, while also illustrating the challenges, limitations and opportunities in cultivating reconciliation among displaced persons (DP), refugees and local German populations.

International development contested: the American Child Health Section in Belgium (1922–1924)

ABSTRACT Failed humanitarian projects provide us with an opportunity to shed light on the complex interactions and conflicts among international donors, humanitarian workers and local recipients. This article explores such a contested and terminated project in post-First World War Belgium. The Child Health Section (1922–24) was a US international development programme initiated by Herbert Hoover and the Commission for Relief in Belgium Educational Foundation. Its aim was to provide health education to school children. Despite reaching 113,136 Belgian children between the ages of six and 12 in 1221 schools across the country, the project was abruptly discontinued after only one year. This contribution examines why the development assistance programme failed by using a micro-historical approach combined with concepts from development studies. The well-kept records of the CHS on the enduring conflicts with Belgian administrations reveal how US assumptions about their role in transforming or modernizing Europe clashed with (the diverse) European views on their own post-war reconstruction. This case demonstrates that the shift from providing short-term, needs-based humanitarian assistance to investing in long-term international development assistance did not always go smoothly or uncontested in post-war Europe.