PhD project
The project deals with the non-Zionist agricultural training centre Groß-Breesen in the former Lower Silesia. It was founded at the beginning of 1936 in cooperation with the Reich Representation of Jews in Germany, the Central Association of German Citizens of the Jewish Faith, the Federation of German-Jewish Youth and other German-Jewish organisations in order to enable German-Jewish young people to emigrate from Nazi Germany through training in agriculture, horticulture and crafts. The establishment of the training centre in its historical context forms the starting point of my study. The focus, however, is on the further life paths of the trainees and the increasingly transnational network of alumni that emerged as a result of the forced emigration, for which Groß-Breesen became a timeless point of reference.
The biography-centred research approach is intended to place the topics of expulsion, flight and emigration in a transnational long-term perspective with a view to the different, sometimes multiple new beginnings. Questions about the significance of the social network and media communication of this German-Jewish community are central to this. In addition, based on case studies, overarching questions and thematic complexes of German-Jewish history in the 20th century will be addressed. The changing self-image of German Jews in the field of tension between the collective singularities of ‘Jewishness’ and ‘Germanness’ is a common thread running through the history of the Breesner family. Despite their various experiences of persecution, some of them were also faced with questions about participating in the reconstruction and possible remigration to Germany.
