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

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.

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.

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.

 

Ideology and collective memory of the radical right in Germany, 1949-2000

 Marie Müller-Zetzsche

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

The project examines how the ideology of the radical right developed in the Federal Republic. Where were there continuities, which terms and concepts changed fundamentally? Against the background of democratization and liberalization as a space of experience for younger age cohorts, the change - and the standstill - in collective orientations will be tapped.

As of 1939, a total of 19 air raid towers were built at the headquarters of the High Command of the Army near Zossen, which were intended for the numerous civilian employees working on the site. Photo: Silvio Fischer.

The Impact of Military Strategy and Armament Policy from the Nazi Period on the Berlin Area

 Silvio Fischer

Associated PhD project

This work analyses the impact of military strategy and armament policy from the Nazi period. Specifically, it analyses the repercussions of these policies beyond the capital of Berlin and examines the effects of these policies on the greater metropolitan area.

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.

Nationalisierungsschübe. Wie rechte Parteien das besetzte und geteilte Deutschland prägten

 Dominik Rigoll

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

Vor allem in der Bonner Republik, aber auch unter Besatzung und in der DDR gelang es rechten Parteien also Rechtsdruck aufzubauen und zu Entwicklungen beizutragen, die als Rechtsruck bezeichnet werden. Mein Projekt untersucht diese Prozesse mihilfe eines nationalismusgeschichtlichen Ansatzes als Nationalisierungssschübe. Diese machten bestimmte Bereiche des Gemeinwesens nationalistischer und verliefen parallel zu den ungleich besser erforschten Liberalisierungsschüben (West) und Sozialisierngsschüben (Ost).

Raul Hilberg. Photo: Walter H. Pehle.

Toward a Biography of Raul Hilberg (1926-2007)

René Schlott

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.

Geschichte des Deutschen Jugendherbergswerks und der Jugendherbergen seit der NS-Zeit

 Tom Gütten

Vorstudie für ein Dissertationsprojekt, Anschubfinanzierung durch das Deutsche Jugendherbergswerk

Das Dissertationsprojekt analysiert anhand der Geschichte des DJH Brüche und Kontinuitäten des Jugendtourismus und macht dabei längerfristige Prägewirkungen ebenso sichtbar wie Phänomene des Neubeginns und Wandels.

"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

Associated 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

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

The work is located in the field of political social history as well as contemporary right-wing extremism research. The central starting point is 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.

The State Secretary in the Federal Chancellery Hans Globke (left) and Chancellor Konrad Adenauer in a photo montage from 1963. It was created on the occasion of the verdict of life imprisonment by the Supreme Court of the GDR against Globke mainly because of his role as a commentator of the "Nuremberg race laws" of 1935. Photo: Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-B0723-0054-001, CC-BY-SA 3.0

The Federal Chancellery and its Attitude Towards the Nazi Past

 Jutta Braun

Associated research project

The focus of this project is on the practices of the Chancellery (BKAmt), starting with Adenauer and ending with the Schmidt administration. It pays special attention to the Nazi legacy, for example in the context of the work of Hans Globke, a German layer who had commented on the Nuremberg Laws in 1935 and who operated as chief of staff in the Chancellery from 1953 to 1963.

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

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.

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.

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.

 

Ideology and collective memory of the radical right in Germany, 1949-2000

 Marie Müller-Zetzsche

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

The project examines how the ideology of the radical right developed in the Federal Republic. Where were there continuities, which terms and concepts changed fundamentally? Against the background of democratization and liberalization as a space of experience for younger age cohorts, the change - and the standstill - in collective orientations will be tapped.

As of 1939, a total of 19 air raid towers were built at the headquarters of the High Command of the Army near Zossen, which were intended for the numerous civilian employees working on the site. Photo: Silvio Fischer.

The Impact of Military Strategy and Armament Policy from the Nazi Period on the Berlin Area

 Silvio Fischer

Associated PhD project

This work analyses the impact of military strategy and armament policy from the Nazi period. Specifically, it analyses the repercussions of these policies beyond the capital of Berlin and examines the effects of these policies on the greater metropolitan area.

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.

Nationalisierungsschübe. Wie rechte Parteien das besetzte und geteilte Deutschland prägten

 Dominik Rigoll

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

Vor allem in der Bonner Republik, aber auch unter Besatzung und in der DDR gelang es rechten Parteien also Rechtsdruck aufzubauen und zu Entwicklungen beizutragen, die als Rechtsruck bezeichnet werden. Mein Projekt untersucht diese Prozesse mihilfe eines nationalismusgeschichtlichen Ansatzes als Nationalisierungssschübe. Diese machten bestimmte Bereiche des Gemeinwesens nationalistischer und verliefen parallel zu den ungleich besser erforschten Liberalisierungsschüben (West) und Sozialisierngsschüben (Ost).

Raul Hilberg. Photo: Walter H. Pehle.

Toward a Biography of Raul Hilberg (1926-2007)

René Schlott

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.

Geschichte des Deutschen Jugendherbergswerks und der Jugendherbergen seit der NS-Zeit

 Tom Gütten

Vorstudie für ein Dissertationsprojekt, Anschubfinanzierung durch das Deutsche Jugendherbergswerk

Das Dissertationsprojekt analysiert anhand der Geschichte des DJH Brüche und Kontinuitäten des Jugendtourismus und macht dabei längerfristige Prägewirkungen ebenso sichtbar wie Phänomene des Neubeginns und Wandels.

"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

Associated 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

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

The work is located in the field of political social history as well as contemporary right-wing extremism research. The central starting point is 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.

The State Secretary in the Federal Chancellery Hans Globke (left) and Chancellor Konrad Adenauer in a photo montage from 1963. It was created on the occasion of the verdict of life imprisonment by the Supreme Court of the GDR against Globke mainly because of his role as a commentator of the "Nuremberg race laws" of 1935. Photo: Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-B0723-0054-001, CC-BY-SA 3.0

The Federal Chancellery and its Attitude Towards the Nazi Past

 Jutta Braun

Associated research project

The focus of this project is on the practices of the Chancellery (BKAmt), starting with Adenauer and ending with the Schmidt administration. It pays special attention to the Nazi legacy, for example in the context of the work of Hans Globke, a German layer who had commented on the Nuremberg Laws in 1935 and who operated as chief of staff in the Chancellery from 1953 to 1963.