History Commons^™

War On Humor: Killing Laughter In Times Of Strife, Maria Christina Kardash

CAFE Symposium 2023

This project explores the use of humor as a coping mechanism throughout the first World War. It focuses on three main aspects: (1) the evolution of humor prior to, contemporary to, and after WWI; (2) the contrast between Germany's strict oppression of humor and France's more free approach; (3) and the distinction between civilian and soldier humor.

The Constant Struggle Of Life And Death During The Siege Of Leningrad, Anastasia N. Semenov

Student Publications

In 1941 during the Second World War, Hitler began Operation Barbarossa, in which he invaded the Soviet Union in order to repopulate it with Germans and expand German territory. The city of Leningrad, now St. Petersburg, was one of Hitler’s main objectives because if Leningrad fell to the Germans, they would then be able to go south and capture Moscow, which would possibly lead them to win the war. Additionally, Leningrad was a Baltic seaport, which was useful for trade, and it was home to some of the USSR’s main munition factories. When Germany attacked Leningrad, the people of the …

Besatzungskinder: Die Schweigenden Geister Des Zweiten Weltkrieges (Besatzungskinder: The Silenced Ghosts Of The Second World War), Aimee C. Bosman

Student Publications

Diese Forschungsarbeit konzentriert sich auf die Erfahrung von Besatzungskindern in Deutschland nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg. Sie diskutiert die Exposition oder mangelnde Sichtbarkeit von Besatzungskindern in der Gesellschaft und wie sie kulturell dargestellt wurden. Diese These stellt die Frage, wie Besatzungskinder in der Gesellschaft gesehen wurden, und ob die Gesellschaft ihnen half, eine deutsche Identität zu entwickeln.

An Artist As Soldier: Seeking Refuge In Love And Art, Barbara S. Heisler

Gettysburg College Faculty Books

At the center of this book are the World War II letters (Feldpostbriefe) of a German artist and art teacher to his wife. While Bernhard Epple’s letters to his wife, Gudrun, address many of the topics usually found in war letters (food, lodging conditions, the weather, problems with the mail service, requests for favors from home), they are unusual in two respects. Each letter is lovingly decorated with a drawing and the letters make few references to the war itself. In addition to many personal communications and expressions of love for his wife and children, Epple writes about …

Friends Of Musselman Library Newsletter Fall 2016, Musselman Library

Friends of Musselman Library Newsletter

From the Dean (Robin Wagner)

Library Exhibits

GettDigital: Sports Reels

Research Reflections: The Gettysburg Superstar (Devin McKinney)

Remembering 9/12

Will Power: 400 Years After the Bard

Treasure Island (Robin Wagner)

Margin of Error

A Call to Activism in the Summer of '65 (Richard Hutch '67)

Digital Scholarship: The New Frontier (Julia Wall '19, Lauren White '18, Keira Koch '19)

Scrapbooks and Photo Albums: Snapshots of History (Clara A. Baker '30)

Soldiers' Scrapbooks (Laura Bergin '17)

A Book of Dreams (Alexa Schreier)

Who Do You Think You Are? (Timothy Shannon)

From Professor-Student to Collaborators (Jesse Siegel '16)

The Mysterious Easel Monument …

The Roma And Sinti In Germany: Orientalism And Exclusion From German Historical Narratives (Romantisiert, Kriminalisiert, Und Abgewertet: Orientalismus Und Narrative Der Roma Und Sinti In Deutschland), Kimberly A. Longfellow

Celebration

The Roma and Sinti represent presence and absence in German culture. Although there has been a population of Roma and Sinti in Germany for centuries, they are often perceived by the German majority population as distinctly "eastern" and, as such, non-German. The perceptions of Roma by the German majority population mimic Orientalist assumptions, where the Roma are romanticized, criminalized, and generally devalued in comparison to Eurocentric narratives. Through an analysis of the Roma presence in German history, literature, and current events, one can see that the experience of the Roma in Germany is largely structured by the perceptions and assumptions …

The Evolving Depictions Of Women In Films About The Holocaust (Die Sich Entwickelnden Darstellungen Von Frauen In Visuellen Texten Zum Holocaust), Alexandra J. Leclaire

Celebration

This paper explores how women are depicted in films about the Holocaust. Close readings of three films about the Holocaust reveal that the year of production, not the gender of the director or country of origin, is the greatest factor in how women are depicted. The miniseries Holocaust (1978) set the stage for depictions of women as naive and sexualized. Europa Europa (1990) continued to depict women in a typical way, as set by Holocaust (1978). Phönix (2014) departed from typical depictions of women by showing them as independent and not sexualized.

Vietnamese Contract Workers In The East German Republic, Sean W. Hough

Celebration

This paper will analyze the historical and cultural conditions that affected how the German Democratic Republic treated one of its largest minority groups, the Vietnamese. During the height of the Cold War and as Decolonization reached its peak phase in the 1960s and 70s, these two factors pushed the GDR and Vietnam closer, which resulted in an exchange in workers. Contract Workers were brought to the GDR to work in an environment "united in socialist solidarity." However, despite this rhetoric, age-old racism, xenophobia, and Orientalism still infiltrated the so called "Socialist Paradise," as the GDR was often called by its …

Escape Artistry: Elisabeth Bergner And Jewish Disappearance In Der Träumende Mund (Czinner, 1932), Kerry Wallach

German Studies Faculty Publications

The late Weimar film Der träumende Mund culminates in the apparent but unconfirmed suicide of its female protagonist, played by Elisabeth Bergner. Bergner, whose background contributed to the film’s Jewish reception, and who later claimed to have written the film’s screenplay, left Germany and went into exile with director Paul Czinner in 1932. This film and the circumstances of its production and premiere link tragic modes of self-erasure, including the suicides of both many women and many German Jews, to notions of escape, emigration, and reemergence. Its success among Jewish spectators points to its enduring and international appeal.

Working Towards A Globalized Minority: Regional German-Kurdish Cultural Organizations And Transnational Networks, Drew A. Hoffman

Student Publications

German-Kurdish cultural organizations and the Kurdish Diaspora they represent offer an example of a new type of actor in defining globalization. This paper examines how such organizations act as the lynchpin in transnational networks and how such organizations give a voice to Berliner-Kurds. These relationships are explored at the national, regional, and organizational level, in order to paint a comprehensive perspective. It argues that despite experiencing discrimination, the convergence of a global diaspora and local actors has contributed to the reinvention of the German-Kurdish community as a globalized minority. Such a concept is important for understanding how migrant communities can …

Germany And History In Flux: The Generational Changes In Approaching Germany's Past, Louis T. Gentilucci

Student Publications

Historical memory, how a people remember the past, is in a state of almost eternal flux. By following the development of historical memory in post-war Germany, historians can better understand the generational and contemporary impact on popular history. German history illustrates the importance of this concept, as German history has a great deal of 20th century historical baggage.

Weimar Jewish Chic: Jewish Women And Fashion In 1920s Germany, Kerry Wallach

German Studies Faculty Publications

This volume presents papers delivered at the 24th Annual Klutznick-Harris Symposium, held at Creighton University in October 2011. The contributors look at all aspects of the intimate relationship between Jews and clothing, through case studies from ancient, medieval, recent, and contemporary history. Papers explore topics ranging from Jewish leadership in the textile industry, through the art of fashion in nineteenth century Vienna, to the use of clothing as a badge of ethnic identity, in both secular and religious contexts. Dr. Kerry Wallach's chapter examines the uniquely Jewish engagement with fashion and attire in Weimar, Germany.

Neue Jugend - Einleitung, Henning Wrage

German Studies Faculty Publications

Book Summary: This book discusses research on the culture of postwar Germany (1945–1962), a topic that has become increasingly complex in recent years. Virulent topics such as war, destruction, homecoming, flight, expulsion, guilt, daily life, religion, etc., are explored systematically, using examples and by focusing on fiction, nonfiction, and film in the two German states. Historians and scholars in the field of literature and film have contributed to this compendium. They address various core questions concerning aesthetic representation and the formation of contemporary history.

Kosher Seductions: Jewish Women As Employees And Consumers In German Department Stores, Kerry Wallach

German Studies Faculty Publications

Department stores have long been associated with the trope of seducing female consumers, at least since the publication of Emile Zola’s novel Au bonheur des dames in 1883. This fictionalized portrayal of the Parisian department store Bon Marche, which has exerted considerable influence among early chroniclers of department store culture, identifies store owners as men who build ‘temples’ for prospective customers, and who use inebriating tactics to encourage them to enter and spend money. The consumer is gendered female in this and in many other literary works on the department store of the time; she is depicted as reluctant, yet …

Book Review: Heart Language: Elsie Singmaster And Her Pennsylvania German Writings, Anna Jane Moyer

Adams County History

Heart Language: Elsie Singmaster and Her Pennsylvania German Writings

By Susan Colestock Hill. Foreword by Charles H. Glatfelter. Pennsylvania German History and Culture Series. The Pennsylvania German Society. The Pennsylvania State University Press. 2009.

A new century with all its energy and expectations had slipped into place and challenged Americans with fresh promises. The year was 1900. Elsie Singmaster had spent two years at Cornell University immersed in writing classes, and she would return home to Gettysburg eager to write. Her professors had been encouraging. She would always remember one of them who commented on her work for the day …

Ms-056: World War Ii German Prisoners Of War Collection, Keith R. Swaney

All Finding Aids

Major Laurence C. Thomas directed the German POW camp on the Emmitsburg Road in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania and a camp in Pine Grove Furnace, about fifteen miles north. Members of the intelligence corps apparently confiscated the items written in German from the prisoners of war.

The World War II German POW Collection consists of those confiscated materials from the prisoners. It is composed of two series: I. Materials likely confiscated by the intelligence corps and II. Miscellaneous newspaper clippings.

Special Collections and College Archives Finding Aids are discovery tools used to describe and provide access to our holdings. Finding aids include …

Ms-013: Karl Friedrich May Collection, Christine M. Ameduri

All Finding Aids

Considered to be the most successful German author of all time with more than 100 million copies of his 70 plus adventure novels translated in over 30 different languages and sold world-wide.

This collection does not include any manuscripts or personal papers of May and is thought to have been separated previously from the Major General Charles Willoughby Collection (MS - 024.) The 2-volume typescript English translation of May's In the Desert was most likely done by Willoughby.

Special Collections and College Archives Finding Aids are discovery tools used to describe and provide access to our holdings. Finding aids include …

6. Schiller And Romanticism, Robert L. Bloom, Basil L. Crapster, Harold A. Dunkelberger, Charles C. Glatfelter, Richard T. Mara, Norman E. Richardson, W. Richard Schubart

Section XII: The Post-Enlightenment Period

To define romanticism is to attempt something which the romantics themselves insist cannot be done. But we can try to identify and then describe it, first pointing out what it is not. One stable element in romanticism has been its consistent rejection of its opposite, classicism. While no great piece of art has ever existed which did not contain elements of both romanticism and classicism, the partisans of these two different points of view have insisted that different emphases made it great. Where classicism emphasised analysis, objectivity harmony, wholeness, meaning, and discipline, romanticism stressed synthesis,subjectivity,disharmony, individuality,suggestiveness. and spontaneity. [excerpt …