National Socialism and its Aftermath

Department IV’s researchers investigate concepts, instruments and practices of societal control and mobilisation, the interrelation between mobilisation and society’s self-interests as well as processes of ‘self-mobilisation’. Addressing questions of urban change (social stratification and mobility, integration, segregation, exclusion, networks of old and new elites), relations between towns and suburbia (demarcation and exchange, suburbanisation, migration) as well as the interrelations between central, regional and municipal in the field of social regulations and mobilisation across the national capital region of Berlin/Brandenburg. Department IV’s research projects do not focus exclusively on the Nazi dictatorship. Rather, they seek to understand the long-term trends that defined societal historical developments across German society, the strategies of social regulation, and the causes of uncontrolled societal mobilisation during the final phase of Communist dictatorships.

Forschung

Projekte

Rightwing Training Ground: The „ Young National Democrats“ („Junge Nationaldemokraten“), ca. 1967–1994

 Laura Haßler

Associated PhD project
Supported by the Hans-Böckler Stiftung
Part of the project "The Radical Right in Germany, 1945-2000"

The „Young National Democrats“ („Junge Nationaldemokraten“, JN) occupy a key position in the history of the ‚National Opposition‘ of the Federal Republic of Germany. How they attained and exercised this key position in the right-wing milieu has not yet been researched historically. The project pursues this question by analyzing their structures, alliances, and activities from the perspective of social history.

 

Media Intellectuals from the Right? The Development of Right-Wing Ideology after 1945 in Germany and France

 Marie Müller-Zetzsche

Associated Postdoc project
Part of the project "The Radical Right in Germany, 1945-2000"

The research project investigates how radical right-wing ideologies have changed since 1945 in the Federal Republic and in France. Which discourses remained stable over the decades and where and when did new elements appear?

Berlin, Produktion StuG III, Sturmhaubitze 42. Bundesarchiv, Bild 146-1985-100-33 / Unknown / CC-BY-SA 3.0

Berlin, Produktion StuG III, Sturmhaubitze 42. Bundesarchiv, Bild 146-1985-100-33 / Unknown / CC-BY-SA 3.0

Mobilising Society and Economy in the Metropolitan Area of Berlin during the Second World War

 Thomas Schaarschmidt

Research project

This research project explores processes of political mobilisation in the conurbation of the German capital in Nazi Germany. This economic region with 5.3 million inhabitants in 1939 covered an area from Potsdam in the west to Oranienburg in the north and comprised several outstanding military installations. The capital Berlin and the Prussian province of Brandenburg had close administrative ties.

Andernach, Adenauer visited the German military, photo: Bundesarchiv, Bild 146-1998-006-34 / Wolf, Helmut J. / CC-BY-SA 3.0

The Radical Right and the German military after 1945

 Jakob Saß

PhD project
Part of the project "The Radical Right in Germany, 1945-2000" supported by the Volkswagen Foundation

Through archival research, this project analyses, on the one hand, different practices of right-wing soldiers within the armies of West and East Germany. On the other hand, the project takes a closer look at how the German authorities on both sides of the Wall responded to such incidents and structures, in order to understand how these exemplify the relationship between the state and the Radical Right after 1945.

Die Deutsche Partei (DP) verspricht Rechtsdruck (1953), Foto: Staatsarchiv Freiburg W 124 Nr. 0026.

Nationalizing the Germans after Hitler. How Right-Wing Parties Shaped Occupied and Divided Germany

 Dominik Rigoll

Postdoc-Project
Part of the project "The Radical Right in Germany, 1945-2000" supported by the Volkswagen Foundation

The influence and impact of right-wing parties in postwar Germany were much greater than often appears in historical overviews and current political debates.

Raul Hilberg. Photo: Walter H. Pehle.

Toward a Biography of Raul Hilberg (1926-2007)

René Schlott

Associated research project

With the appearance in 1961 of The Destruction of the European Jews, the American political scientist Raul Hilberg became the first person to publish a systematic and extensive investigation of Nazi Germany’s murder of millions of Jews. This book turned Hilberg into a pioneer of Holocaust historiography and is still regarded today as essential reading.

Berlin, Mauerbau, NVA-Einheit Pardella, Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-85455-0001 / CC-BY-SA 3.0, Foto: Bundesarchiv Bild 183-85455-0001, Berlin, Mauerbau, NVA-Einheit Pardella / CC-BY-SA 3.0

Desertion in der Diktatur. Die Strafverfolgung fahnenflüchtiger Soldaten der Nationalen Volksarmee 1962-1989 als Legitimationsdiskurs und Herrschaftstechnik (Arbeitstitel)

 Konstantin Neumann

Asociated PhD project

Die Dissertation spürt der Frage nach, wie das Phänomen der Fahnenflucht, die politische Wahrnehmung dieses Problems und die staatlichen Verfolgungspraktiken sich wechselseitig formiert haben. Dabei geht es auch um das Ausmaß und die Funktion der Bestrafung.

Youth hostel Hamburg-Horner Rennbahn, photo archive DJH-Hauptverbandes, photographer unknown, taken between 1949 and 1958.

Youth Hostels and the German Youth Hostel Association (DJH) in National Socialism and in divided Germany

 Vincent Kleinbub

PhD project

Project leader: Priv.-Doz. Dr. Winfried Süß
Project editor: Vincent Kleinbub
Duration: 2023-2026
Supported by Stiftung Deutsches Jugendherbergswerk and Wilhelm-Münker-Stiftung

The project aims to review the history of german youth hostels and their umbrella organization as well as to make visible the breaks and continuities in youth tourism in the 1930s to the 1950s. The focus of the study is on longer-term effects as well as phenomena of new beginnings and change.

"Pressechef werden ist nicht schwer Pressechef sein dagegen sehr." Source: Stern issue published on 9.12.1951.

The Federal Office of Information between the Nazi Legacy and Democratic Self-Marketing

 Jutta Braun

Research project

The Federal Office of Information (Bundespresseamt, BPA) was founded in October 1949 as part of the Federal Chancellery and became a supreme Federal authority in 1958. Its task is to provide information to the government and to communicate the government’s actions and policies to the population. Thus, the Office of Information operates in the field of propaganda, which was doubtlessly for a time tainted by the National Socialists.

Memorial in Munich for the killed victims of the Oktoberfest attack of September 26, 1980, Photo: Darius Muschiol

Single perpetrators? Right-wing terrorist actors in the old Federal Republic

 Darius Muschiol

Completed asociated PhD project
Supported by the Hans-Böckler-Stiftung
Part of the project "The Radical Right in Germany, 1945-2000"

The work was located in the field of political social history as well as contemporary right-wing extremism research. The central starting point was the question of the extent to which the actors were “lone perpetrators” and / or groups of “half-crazy nuts”, as they were often referred to in politics, authorities and the public.

Squatters' demonstration in front of the Bobby Sands House in West Berlin, named after the Irish hunger striker, IRA member and member of the British Parliament.
Photo: Michael Kipp/Umbruch Bildarchiv

“Don’t you know there is a war going on?” Northern Ireland and the Federal Republic of Germany: A transnational history of conflict 1968-1998

 Juliane Röleke

Asociated PhD project

The dissertation project asks: What transnational networks did civil society groups from both Northern Ireland and the FRG establish and how did these change during the Northern Ireland conflict? And what interpretations of violence or nonviolence shaped their engagement?

Leipzig, Demonstration of "Republikanern", Neonazis, January 1990, Photo: Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-1990-0115-032 / Kluge, Wolfgang / CC BY-SA 3.0 DE

Work, Family, Fatherland - Everyday Life and Realities of the Radical Right (ca. 1960 to 1990)

Luisa Seydel (until 31.1.2023)
PhD project
Subproject of the VW Foundation-funded project "The Radical Right in Germany, 1945-2000"

With a primarily praxeological and actor-oriented approach, the project examines the extent to which the radical right developed a shared lifestyle based on its ideology. It is primarily devoted to the informal scene and various subcultures beyond formal associations such as parties and organizations. The focus is on the Federal Republic, combined with research on the GDR and East Germany.

National Socialism and its Aftermath

Department IV’s researchers investigate concepts, instruments and practices of societal control and mobilisation, the interrelation between mobilisation and society’s self-interests as well as processes of ‘self-mobilisation’. Addressing questions of urban change (social stratification and mobility, integration, segregation, exclusion, networks of old and new elites), relations between towns and suburbia (demarcation and exchange, suburbanisation, migration) as well as the interrelations between central, regional and municipal in the field of social regulations and mobilisation across the national capital region of Berlin/Brandenburg. Department IV’s research projects do not focus exclusively on the Nazi dictatorship. Rather, they seek to understand the long-term trends that defined societal historical developments across German society, the strategies of social regulation, and the causes of uncontrolled societal mobilisation during the final phase of Communist dictatorships.

Forschung

Projekte

Rightwing Training Ground: The „ Young National Democrats“ („Junge Nationaldemokraten“), ca. 1967–1994

 Laura Haßler

Associated PhD project
Supported by the Hans-Böckler Stiftung
Part of the project "The Radical Right in Germany, 1945-2000"

The „Young National Democrats“ („Junge Nationaldemokraten“, JN) occupy a key position in the history of the ‚National Opposition‘ of the Federal Republic of Germany. How they attained and exercised this key position in the right-wing milieu has not yet been researched historically. The project pursues this question by analyzing their structures, alliances, and activities from the perspective of social history.

 

Media Intellectuals from the Right? The Development of Right-Wing Ideology after 1945 in Germany and France

 Marie Müller-Zetzsche

Associated Postdoc project
Part of the project "The Radical Right in Germany, 1945-2000"

The research project investigates how radical right-wing ideologies have changed since 1945 in the Federal Republic and in France. Which discourses remained stable over the decades and where and when did new elements appear?

Berlin, Produktion StuG III, Sturmhaubitze 42. Bundesarchiv, Bild 146-1985-100-33 / Unknown / CC-BY-SA 3.0

Berlin, Produktion StuG III, Sturmhaubitze 42. Bundesarchiv, Bild 146-1985-100-33 / Unknown / CC-BY-SA 3.0

Mobilising Society and Economy in the Metropolitan Area of Berlin during the Second World War

 Thomas Schaarschmidt

Research project

This research project explores processes of political mobilisation in the conurbation of the German capital in Nazi Germany. This economic region with 5.3 million inhabitants in 1939 covered an area from Potsdam in the west to Oranienburg in the north and comprised several outstanding military installations. The capital Berlin and the Prussian province of Brandenburg had close administrative ties.

Andernach, Adenauer visited the German military, photo: Bundesarchiv, Bild 146-1998-006-34 / Wolf, Helmut J. / CC-BY-SA 3.0

The Radical Right and the German military after 1945

 Jakob Saß

PhD project
Part of the project "The Radical Right in Germany, 1945-2000" supported by the Volkswagen Foundation

Through archival research, this project analyses, on the one hand, different practices of right-wing soldiers within the armies of West and East Germany. On the other hand, the project takes a closer look at how the German authorities on both sides of the Wall responded to such incidents and structures, in order to understand how these exemplify the relationship between the state and the Radical Right after 1945.

Die Deutsche Partei (DP) verspricht Rechtsdruck (1953), Foto: Staatsarchiv Freiburg W 124 Nr. 0026.

Nationalizing the Germans after Hitler. How Right-Wing Parties Shaped Occupied and Divided Germany

 Dominik Rigoll

Postdoc-Project
Part of the project "The Radical Right in Germany, 1945-2000" supported by the Volkswagen Foundation

The influence and impact of right-wing parties in postwar Germany were much greater than often appears in historical overviews and current political debates.

Raul Hilberg. Photo: Walter H. Pehle.

Toward a Biography of Raul Hilberg (1926-2007)

René Schlott

Associated research project

With the appearance in 1961 of The Destruction of the European Jews, the American political scientist Raul Hilberg became the first person to publish a systematic and extensive investigation of Nazi Germany’s murder of millions of Jews. This book turned Hilberg into a pioneer of Holocaust historiography and is still regarded today as essential reading.

Berlin, Mauerbau, NVA-Einheit Pardella, Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-85455-0001 / CC-BY-SA 3.0, Foto: Bundesarchiv Bild 183-85455-0001, Berlin, Mauerbau, NVA-Einheit Pardella / CC-BY-SA 3.0

Desertion in der Diktatur. Die Strafverfolgung fahnenflüchtiger Soldaten der Nationalen Volksarmee 1962-1989 als Legitimationsdiskurs und Herrschaftstechnik (Arbeitstitel)

 Konstantin Neumann

Asociated PhD project

Die Dissertation spürt der Frage nach, wie das Phänomen der Fahnenflucht, die politische Wahrnehmung dieses Problems und die staatlichen Verfolgungspraktiken sich wechselseitig formiert haben. Dabei geht es auch um das Ausmaß und die Funktion der Bestrafung.

Youth hostel Hamburg-Horner Rennbahn, photo archive DJH-Hauptverbandes, photographer unknown, taken between 1949 and 1958.

Youth Hostels and the German Youth Hostel Association (DJH) in National Socialism and in divided Germany

 Vincent Kleinbub

PhD project

Project leader: Priv.-Doz. Dr. Winfried Süß
Project editor: Vincent Kleinbub
Duration: 2023-2026
Supported by Stiftung Deutsches Jugendherbergswerk and Wilhelm-Münker-Stiftung

The project aims to review the history of german youth hostels and their umbrella organization as well as to make visible the breaks and continuities in youth tourism in the 1930s to the 1950s. The focus of the study is on longer-term effects as well as phenomena of new beginnings and change.

"Pressechef werden ist nicht schwer Pressechef sein dagegen sehr." Source: Stern issue published on 9.12.1951.

The Federal Office of Information between the Nazi Legacy and Democratic Self-Marketing

 Jutta Braun

Research project

The Federal Office of Information (Bundespresseamt, BPA) was founded in October 1949 as part of the Federal Chancellery and became a supreme Federal authority in 1958. Its task is to provide information to the government and to communicate the government’s actions and policies to the population. Thus, the Office of Information operates in the field of propaganda, which was doubtlessly for a time tainted by the National Socialists.

Memorial in Munich for the killed victims of the Oktoberfest attack of September 26, 1980, Photo: Darius Muschiol

Single perpetrators? Right-wing terrorist actors in the old Federal Republic

 Darius Muschiol

Completed asociated PhD project
Supported by the Hans-Böckler-Stiftung
Part of the project "The Radical Right in Germany, 1945-2000"

The work was located in the field of political social history as well as contemporary right-wing extremism research. The central starting point was the question of the extent to which the actors were “lone perpetrators” and / or groups of “half-crazy nuts”, as they were often referred to in politics, authorities and the public.

Squatters' demonstration in front of the Bobby Sands House in West Berlin, named after the Irish hunger striker, IRA member and member of the British Parliament.
Photo: Michael Kipp/Umbruch Bildarchiv

“Don’t you know there is a war going on?” Northern Ireland and the Federal Republic of Germany: A transnational history of conflict 1968-1998

 Juliane Röleke

Asociated PhD project

The dissertation project asks: What transnational networks did civil society groups from both Northern Ireland and the FRG establish and how did these change during the Northern Ireland conflict? And what interpretations of violence or nonviolence shaped their engagement?

Leipzig, Demonstration of "Republikanern", Neonazis, January 1990, Photo: Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-1990-0115-032 / Kluge, Wolfgang / CC BY-SA 3.0 DE

Work, Family, Fatherland - Everyday Life and Realities of the Radical Right (ca. 1960 to 1990)

Luisa Seydel (until 31.1.2023)
PhD project
Subproject of the VW Foundation-funded project "The Radical Right in Germany, 1945-2000"

With a primarily praxeological and actor-oriented approach, the project examines the extent to which the radical right developed a shared lifestyle based on its ideology. It is primarily devoted to the informal scene and various subcultures beyond formal associations such as parties and organizations. The focus is on the Federal Republic, combined with research on the GDR and East Germany.