European History Commons^™

Reshaping An Earthly Paradise: Land Enclosure And Bavarian State Centralization (1779-1835), Gregory Devoe Tomlinson

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Abstract

The Electoral state of Bavaria was reformed through a comprehensive project of land-based allodification (the creation of a distinction between privileged titles and property designations) through the process of “redemption” beginning in 1799. This process was previously impeded by the strength of landholding estates that included notables and the Catholic Church. In addition, Electoral Bavarian leaders lacked centralized control. Civil servants, known as cameralists, mediated political and economic interactions between these estates. The economy was based on subsistence and the productive capacity of Gutsherrschaft, a manorial system based on regional jurisdiction and rent collection by notables who largely did …

Complicity In The Perversion Of Justice: The Role Of Lawyers In Eroding The Rule Of Law In The Third Reich, Cynthia Fountaine

St. Mary's Journal on Legal Malpractice & Ethics

A fundamental tenet of the legal profession is that lawyers and judges are uniquely responsible—individually and collectively—for protecting the Rule of Law. This Article considers the failings of the legal profession in living up to that responsibility during Germany’s Third Reich. The incremental steps used by the Nazis to gain control of the German legal system—beginning as early as 1920 when the Nazi Party adopted a party platform that included a plan for a new legal system—turned the legal system on its head and destroyed the Rule of Law. By failing to uphold the integrity and independence of the profession, …

Disordered Women? The Hospital Sisters Of Mainz And Their Late Medieval Identities, Lucy C. Barnhouse

Medieval Feminist Forum: A Journal of Gender and Sexuality

Debates over the identity of women’s religious communities have exercised historians no less than late medieval canonists and officials. Even as the legal regulation of such communities increased, so, paradoxically, did the diversity of forms that such communities took. Although these trends have been the subject of much historical attention, the division of mixed-gender hospital communities which occurred across Europe in the thirteenth century has not hitherto been integrated into such studies. I attempt to redress this lacuna by examining the contested religious identity of the hospital sisters of Mainz. Forced to leave the mixed-gender staff of the city’s Heilig …

Die Kunst Des Betrugs: An Analysis Of National Socialist Propaganda, Nicholas Strasser

Masters Theses, 2020-current

Modern propaganda is often associated with oppressive authoritarian regimes in the 20^th century. This project seeks to compare Nazi propaganda in the years leading up to 1933 with propaganda following the Nazi ascension to power but before the drive to war. These differences were significant and meaningful enough to warrant closer examination. This comparison seeks to determine how the Nazis altered their propaganda once they ascended to power in 1933, specifically analyzing what the Nazis emphasized and retained from before 1933 once they no longer had to compete with other parties but instead had to consolidate power. For the …

The Common Man And The Rise Of The Anabaptist Kingdom Of Munster, 1534-1535, Andrew Roebuck

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

This essay studies the causes of the rise of the Anabaptist Kingdom of Munster, with special emphasis on the actions and agency of the common people. The analysis begins with the two main primary sources, Hermann von Kerssenbrock and Henry Gresbeck, whose accounts provide firsthand knowledge of how events in Munster led to the Anabaptist takeover. Care is taken to read beyond some of the biases and assumptions made by those authors to gain the clearest insight for what really happened.

The essay looks at Anabaptism itself, including what it meant to be Anabaptist from the perspectives of participants and …

Between Ausländer And Almancı: The Transnational History Of Turkish-German Migration, Michelle Lynn Kahn

History Faculty Publications

Although he had anticipated feeling happy in his homeland, Erdem was “shocked” to find himself the target of discrimination when he visited Turkey in 1991. A second-generation Turkish migrant born and raised in West Germany, the longhaired 21-year-old who played in a garage band called Apocalyptica stuck out from the local Turks. “You can’t imagine how crazy these people were,” he recalled. “They had an olfactory sense. They could smell that I was from Germany.” Twice, this prejudice turned to violence. Erdem was “lynched,” in his words, once at a discotheque and once while strolling along the sea- side. In …

"I Am Not A Prisoner Of War": Agency, Adaptability, And Fulfillment Of Expectations Among American Prisoners Of War Held In Nazi Germany, Jessica N. Greenman

Student Publications

In war memory, the typical prisoner of war narrative is one of either passive survival or heroic resistance. However, captured service members did not necessarily lose their agency when they lost their freedom. This study of Americans held in Germany during the Second World War shows that prisoners generally grounded themselves in their personal and national identities, while compromising ideas of heroism, sometimes passing up opportunities for resistance in order to survive.

The Impact Of American Economic Aid On Post-World War Ii Germany, Gabriella Barber, Emily T. Carlstrom

Senior Theses

This paper examines the state of Germany immediately after World War II, describing how the American government intervened in West German reconstruction. It analyzes three specific German companies that overcame hardship in the 1940s and 50s and have become powerhouses today. Additionally, an overview of the current German economy shows how the country is positioned as a world leader.

Research was conducted using literary print sources, scholarly internet databases, and a formal interview with Klaus Becker, Honorary Consul to Germany. He is a German-American businessman who has held roles in several non-political associations, including President of the Charlotte World Trade …

The Problem Of Jewish Agency In The Holocaust: 1939-1945, Joseph Knapik

Geifman Prize in Holocaust Studies

This paper discusses the nuance of Jewish agency during the Holocaust. It argues that full genocide was thwarted by individual efforts which can illustrate a picture of collective defiance. Utilizing Berger’s definition of agency as, “the capacity to exert control and even to transform to some extent ‘the social relations in which one is enmeshed.’” Focusing attention to after 1939 in ghettos and camps, it investigates period sources such as ghetto witness accounts, orders, and diary entries. It allows for a comprehensive depiction of Jewish agency as neither entirely heroic or lachrymose, as painted by popular depiction.

The Trends Of Right-Wing Populism In Germany Post-World War Ii, Savannah Green

CMC Senior Theses

This paper aims to shed light on the trends of right-wing populism in tandem with immigration rates, economic indicators, and social welfare and active labor market initiatives in Germany after World War II. The current right-wing populist party in Germany, the Alternative for Deutschland, has had a sharp increase in support in recent years and currently sits as the third largest party in Germany. Looking at trends from past right-wing populist parties, I identify the important characteristics of the current climate that allow right-wing populist parties to flourish.

The Continued Legacy Of German Naturalness Contextualized Within A Fraught History And Issues Of Inclusion, Eleanor Grosse

Scripps Senior Theses

Contemplating the place of remembrance and history within German environmentalism has driven the idea of this thesis and its research. My central aim is to capture at least a slice of how Germans today perceive nature, environmentalism, and themselves within the context of a cultural history that contains both a national socialist and an environmental narrative. These two narratives have, during periods of German history, intersected. While I originally thought the influence of national socialist environmental thought would still penetrate Germans’ perception of nature, my findings revealed instead that German perceptions of environmentalism and ideas of nature are rooted in …

Eleanor Lansing Dulles And The Fate Of Berlin: 1953-1989, Chad Everett Shelley

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

At the end of the Second World War, Berliners lived in a war-ravaged city and faced occupation under Great Britain, France, the Soviet Union, and the United States. The occupation of Berlin and Germany became a competition between capitalism and communism. East Germany became a communist nation while West Germany recovered under the supervision of capitalist nations. In the 1950s West Berlin found a new ally in the director of the Berlin Desk at United States Department of State, Eleanor Lansing Dulles.

Eleanor Dulles came from a privileged family who participated in American diplomacy at the end of the nineteenth …

Summer In Berlin, Esther Devai

History in the Making

Describes the author's travel experiences in Berlin, Germany.

‘The Healing Hand Laid On A Great Wound:’ The Elberfeld System And The Transformation Of Poverty In Germany, Britain, And The United States, Rebekah O'Zell Mcmillan

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation employs a transnational analysis to focus on historical perceptions of poverty and the development of private and public welfare in the modern era. This research places the emergence of early poverty relief schemes within a broader transatlantic context by studying the relationships among social reformers in Germany, Great Britain, and the United States. This work has two primary objectives. First, it focuses on the Elberfeld Poor Relief System a nineteenth and early twentieth century German innovation emphasizing local poor relief and community responsibility, which transformed poor relief into an efficient structure. Second, the Elberfeld System was instrumental in …

Nationalism And Education: A Case Study Of Germany And Japan, Sarah Vrtiska

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

In this piece I ask the question: How has education contributed to the formation or prevention of nationalism in Germany and Japan? In examining this, after defining the standard conceptions of nationalism, I apply these definitions to pre-war and post-war Germany and Japan. Ultimately, I conclude that the goals of education, concepts of national identity that are taught, history curricula, and control of education all historically have the potential to contribute to the rise of nationalism within a country. Based on these fields, I find that although there are similar nationalist trends in both countries during the pre-war period, in …

The Change And Stability Of Moral Discourses And Practices Of Gambling And Tobacco Smoking In Finland, Sweden, And Germany, Riitta Matilainen

International Conference on Gambling & Risk Taking

The presentation deals with comparative research on two morally-laden consumption phenomena (gambling and tobacco smoking) that have been differently morally (re)-framed in the course of the 20th century and in the 2000s. Whereas the prevalence of tobacco smoking in Western countries has dropped dramatically over the last few decades and tobacco smoking has become a deprecated consumption habit closely linked to lower-educated classes gambling has been tamed, legalized and made acceptable to all the classes and both men and women and gained in popularity. The roles of these two phenomena have changed: gambling has become almost ubiquitous whereas smoking is …

The Importance Of Frankfurt Printing Before 1550. Sebald Beham Moves From Nuremberg To Frankfurt, Alison Stewart

School of Art, Art History, and Design: Faculty Publications and Creative Activity

Five hundred years ago, Sebald Beham had reasons enough to leave Nuremberg and more than enough reasons to move to Frankfurt. That town's attraction as a printing center became one of the factors that resulted in Beham's settling permanently in the city on the Main in 1531, leaving behind his home town of Nuremberg, best known as the artistic center of the Renaissance master Albrecht Durer. Despite the high regard the Franconian town and Durer received, the authorities there did not treat other painters in Durer's circle particularlywell. The dubbing of Beham as 'godless painter' in 1525 constituted one of …

Judicializing History: Mass Crimes Trials And The Historian As Expert Witness In West Germany, Cambodia, And Bangladesh, Rebecca Gidley, Mathew Turner

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

Henry Rousso warned that the engagement of historians as expert witnesses in trials, particularly highly politicized proceedings of mass crimes, risks a judicialization of history. This article tests Rousso’s argument through analysis of three quite different case studies: the Frankfurt Auschwitz trial; the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia; and the International Crimes Tribunal in Bangladesh. It argues that Rousso’s objections misrepresent the Frankfurt Auschwitz trial, while failing to account for the engagement of historical expertise in mass atrocity trials beyond Europe. Paradoxically, Rousso’s criticisms are less suited to the European context that represents his purview, and apply more …

Jewish Germany: An Enduring Presence From The Fourth To The Twenty-First Century, John A. Drobnicki

Publications and Research

Review of the book Jewish Germany: An enduring presence from the fourth to the twenty-first century.

Soap From Human Fat: The Case Of Professor Spanner, John A. Drobnicki

Publications and Research

Review of the book Soap from Human Fat: The Case of Professor Spanner, by Monika Tomkiewicz and Piotr Semków (Gdynia: Wydawnictwo Róza Wiatrów, 2013).

“Breathless Zeal And Careless Confidence”: German Propaganda In World War I (1914-1918), Elisabeth Fondren

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This study examines the building and rethinking of German propaganda institutions during World War I. The goal of this dissertation is to illustrate the evolution of German government ideas on propaganda between 1914-1918.

During the war, German military leaders, politicians, and diplomats had ambitions to change, reform and modernize approaches to media governance. They were losing the battle of ideas, they realized early on. And so German officials were desperate to make propaganda fit into the structure of government; they tried to use new media technologies to be more persuasive. Although there was an abundance of ideas, all of their …

Der Hungerwinter: Family, Famine, The Black Market, And Denazification In Allied-Occupied Germany (1945 - 1949), Tyler Stanley

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

This paper analyzes numerous letters written among several members of a German family living under the Allied occupation. The Lingenhoel family were one of a great many Germans enduring hunger, famine, and denazification in the immediate postwar period. Using the Lingenhoel family as the lens of analysis, this paper ultimately assesses the Allies' efforts to alleviate the widespread hunger and the Germans' responsibility of collaborating with the former Nazi government.

“A Christian World Order:” Protestants, Democracy And Christian Aid To Germany, 1945-1961, Ky N. Woltering

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation examines the relationship between the German and American Protestantism from 1945-1961. I argue that in response to the threat of Nazism and communism, mainline ecumenical American Protestants aimed to create a universalist “Christian World Order” based on liberal democracy and Christian ethics. Only this new order, they argued, could supersede nationalist and materialist agendas and restore world peace. By rhetorically depicting Nazi and Communist "totalitarianism" as anti-Christian, a construction I refer to as the Christian-Totalitarian Dichotomy, these Protestants drove German conservatives away from Nazism and toward Western liberal democracy through association with Christianity. They accomplished this through two …

The Imperial Legacy: An Examination Of The Trends Of Empire And Genocide From German Southwest Africa To The General Government, Laura Guebert

Steeplechase: An ORCA Student Journal

This project is an examination of correlations between imperial enterprises of the Second German Empire and the Nazi Reich through the lenses of global and imperial critiques. The three primary case studies are German Southwest Africa, the Ober Ost, and Nazi-occupied Eastern Europe, particularly the General Government. This research draws heavily on certain themes and theories developed by leading historians of modern German and Eastern European history, including Timothy Snyder, Ben Kiernan, Shelley Baranowski, Vejas Gabriel Liulevicius, and Christopher Browning. By understanding the shared trends of empire and genocide, it is my aim to bring the actions of the National …

German And American Transnational Spaces In Women's And Gender History, Shelley Rose

History Faculty Publications

Books Reviewed:

Michaela Bank. Women of Two Countries: German-American Women, Women’s Rights, and Nativism, 1848–1890. New York: Berghahn Books, 2012. vi.+ 192 pp. ISBN 978-0-85745-512-3 (cl).

Karen Hagemann and Sonya Michel, eds. Gender and the Long Postwar: The United States and the Two Germanys, 1945–1989. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2014. vii. +397 pp. ISBN 978-1-4214-1413-3 (pb).

Lynne Tatlock. German Writing, American Reading: Women and the Import of Fiction, 1866, 1917. Columbus: The Ohio State University Press, 2012. ix.+ 347 pp.; ill. ISBN 978-0-8142-1194-6 (cl).

Jews: The Makers Of Early Modern Berlin, Conlan Vance

2018 Symposium

This paper will discuss how Jews fit into the economic policies of Brandenburg-Prussia in the later 16^th century. From Frederick William’s decree in 1671 to allow fifty Jewish families to settle in Brandenburg-Prussia to these families and their descendants becoming immersed in the economy of Berlin through their use in courts but more so through their trading, specifically, the ways in which they traded and how they used these to free themselves from some of the constraints of German Christian society. Thusly, this will be shown by looking at Jews in Brandenburg-Prussia in the later 17th century, Jews in …

Against The Stream, How Karl Barth Reframed Church-State Relations (Chapter 3 Of Keine Gewalt! No Violence!), Roger J. Newell

Faculty Publications - George Fox School of Theology

Excerpt: "Defenders of the Barmen Declaration's apolitical tone remind us that it was never intended to establish a program of political protest, that Karl Barth and the others were pastors not politicians; that the goal was to reassert the integrity of the gospel in the face of the attempted subversion by the German Christians. On the one hand, the soundness of this interpretation is self-evident. And yet it should surprise no one that an apolitical strategy would have little political impact on the German state. It is also true that Barth's views on church and state relations changed after Barmen; …

Imagining A Greater Germany: Republican Nationalism And The Idea Of Anschluss., Matthew P. Berg

2017 Faculty Bibliography

No abstract provided.

Freed From Fascism: Berlin's Gallery Culture In The Aftermath Of World War Ii, Brooke Fessler

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

In post-World War II Germany, the city of Berlin was left in ruin after six years of war. A nation ripped apart both physically and at its governmental core was finally freed from Nazi fascism in 1945, and the German people were finally able to reconstruct their culture. Born out of years of strict regulation of the German art world, a new type of art was put on display. Focusing specifically on gallery culture in Berlin in the post-war years, one can see how twelve years of classically influenced Nazi art gave way to a push towards the avant-garde. The …

Hard Times; Hard Duties; Hard Hearts; The Volksgemeinschaft As An Indicator Of Identity Shift, Kaitlin Hampshire

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

How can one nation define an ideal community? The Reich’s Propaganda Ministry of Nazi Germany knew. No cultivation of community, or Volksgemeinschaft in the case of Nazi Germany, is complete without the use of propaganda. Nazi propaganda posters played several different roles in the formation of the community, such as maintaining the military, as well as labor forces not in the military, perpetuating anti-Soviet and anti-Jew feelings, creating the Führer myth, and gaining the support of Germany’s youth. All of the messages displayed in the posters identified the values of the members of the ‘National Community’ or Volksgemeinschaft.

Propaganda posters …