History Commons^™

Warlord: The Political And Military Ambitions Of Nazi Germany, William R. Underhill

Senior Theses

There are so many important stories to consider when thinking about World War II. It is easy to think about the popular aspects of the war: the causes, the major figures, the battles, and, of course, the lasting consequences. Yet there are other, lesser known storylines to consider, ones that have taken a backseat to the more popular narratives of the time. It is commonly understood that Nazi Germany was evil and that they had nothing but ill intentions for the rest of Europe and the world. However, it is vital to understand that Germany’s pre-war intentions are notably different …

Nazi Looted Art: View Of A Dutch Square Through Time, Rosita Saul, Bryleigh Sue Blaise

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

After World War II, many Jewish families and their possessions were displaced or seized by German forces, only to resurface after the war. The case of the Kraus family and their painting, View of a Dutch Square, confiscated by the Nazis in 1941, raises particular questions about restitution laws. Our project traces the origin of the painting and displays how the restitution process fell apart when the Bavarian government, charged with the responsibility of returning stolen art to its rightful owners, failed to follow through on their commitment: even returning missing art pieces to the very Nazis who stole them. …

A Collection Of Inventions : Radio, Reeducation, And The Postwar German Public Sphere., James Rooney

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Following the Germans’ unconditional surrender in May 1945, the Allied Powers introduced a formal occupation and reeducation process, directing Germany toward democratic self-governance. This study will consider the role of radio broadcasting in the occupation project. While many works have been completed on the political revival of postwar Germany, little scholarship has been conducted with emphasis on the impact of German broadcasting’s role on reshaping German culture. Examining radio programing from Hamburg’s Nordwestdeutscher Rundfunk from 1945 to 1956, this thesis explores the creation of a democratically-informed German public sphere in the decade following the Second World War. The primary research …

Ms – 196: “Meine Fahrten” Scrapbook, Jesse E. Siegel

All Finding Aids

This scrapbook includes two sketches, 37 pages with originally 177 photographs (13 missing), three free photographs, and 3 magazine clippings. Below is a list of the places visited by Leiber in the course of the album and the images he included in the album, including their page numbers. Some of the images, particularly from pages 24-30, appear to be chronologically out of order.

Special Collections and College Archives Finding Aids are discovery tools used to describe and provide access to our holdings. Finding aids include historical and biographical information about each collection in addition to inventories of their content. More …

Ms – 197: Meine Militärdienstzeit, Jesse E. Siegel

All Finding Aids

The collection includes one photo album with 48 pages and 263 pictures, three missing, and two sheets of newspaper, one dated June 1, 1937, and the other dated November 21, 1937. Below is a list of the places visited by the officer in the course of the album that could be identified, and the images he included in the album, including their page numbers. Some of the images, particularly the tank picture on page 10 and the locations depicted on pages 42-43, may be chronologically out of order.

Special Collections and College Archives Finding Aids are discovery tools used to …

"Our Girls Have Grown Up In The Family": Educating German And Chinese Girls In The Nineteenth Century, Fang Qin, Emily Bruce

History Publications

In this article, we examine and compare historical changes in girls’ home-based education in nineteenth-century Germany and China. In many ways, girls’ home-based education in these two historical contexts exhibited differences, including the relationship between formal schooling and home education, and the role that new genres played in shifting tradition and structuring girlhood. However, we argue that more commonalities between the German and Chinese cases emerge. By analyzing the relation between talent and virtue, the writing of exemplary lives, and family dynamics, we see that in both cases the home was the critical site for valorizing and reproducing the class-bounded …

Germany In Afghanistan: The German Domestic Dispute On Military Deployment Overseas, Nils Martin

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

This thesis provides a study of the deployment of the German Bundeswehr to Afghanistan and highlights the clash between two conflicting visions of German foreign policy by explaining the different policies supported or opposed by an outspoken segment of the German public and German leaders since the Second World War in regards to the use of military force. While maintaining a focus on German military deployment to Afghanistan, this thesis consists of an analysis of German parliamentary debate, editorials, public opinion polls, speeches and other sources to determine arguments used by German government leaders to try and overcome strong anti-war …

From Victims To Actors: Women's Struggle For Agency In Defeated Germany, 1945, Kelsey Fritz

Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects

No abstract provided.

German Women In The Wild West: Contradiction In Post-Wwii Gender Roles, Romy Franks

AWE (A Woman’s Experience)

While postwar German women were portrayed as gritty and strong from their lived experiences, West German newspapers articles reiterated the contradictory roles proffered to women in German society. Rather than speaking up against the genre’s masculine dominance, popular western novels, films, and the press continued to reinforce widely held opinions and norms by encouraging women to be content with the ideal female character offered them.

The Berlin Olympics: Sports, Anti-Semitism, And Propaganda In Nazi Germany, Nathan W. Cody

Student Publications

The Nazis utilized the Berlin Olympics of 1936 as anti-Semitic propaganda within their racial ideology. When the Nazis took power in 1933 they immediately sought to coordinate all aspects of German life, including sports. The process of coordination was designed to Aryanize sport by excluding non-Aryans and promoting sport as a means to prepare for military training. The 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin became the ideal platform for Hitler and the Nazis to display the physical superiority of the Aryan race. However, the exclusion of non-Aryans prompted a boycott debate that threatened Berlin’s position as host. A fierce debate in …

Learning To Live With The Other Germany In The Post-Wall Federal Republic, Kathrin M. Bower

Languages, Literatures, and Cultures Faculty Publications

After forty years of separation, neither the West Germans nor the East Germans were prepared for the impact of reunification. But had the peoples of the two countries developed separate cultural identities to such an extent that the dissolution of the border represented merely the illusion of a return to sociocultural community? Since the collapse of the East German state in 1989 and the subsequent suturing of divided Germany in 1990, scores of books and articles have been published on the economic and political conditions that led inexorably, or less so, to the demise of the GDR, as well as …

Berlin Opera Wars : Institutional And The Quest For German Identity, Rebecca Robinson

Honors Theses

In October 2000, Berlin’s Minister of Culture Christoph Stölzl proposed a merger of the city’s opera houses. In the midst of German reunification, Berlin was struggling financially and the cost of three separate opera houses was too much for the city to bear. This proposal to combine the former East-German Staatsoper Berlin and Komishe Oper with the former West-German Deutsche Oper under the administration of “The Opera Stages of Berlin” was met with public backlash. Newspapers all over the world reported daily as the directors of both the Staatsoper and Deutsche Oper—Daniel Barenboim and Christian Thielemans— fought bitterly for their …