German history

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• 4/25/2021
  

  Whither Germany? Historiography and Public Reckoning with the National Past

  by Samuel Miner

  Hedwig Richter's book "Democracy: A German Affair" has sparked controversy for its rejection of the idea that Germany has followed a "special path" to liberal democracy and catalyzed a broad debate about the role of historians in public reckoning with the crimes of the past. 

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• SOURCE: Public Seminar
  4/8/2021
  

  Why Weimar is an Imperfect Mirror

  by Helmut Smith

  Peter Gay's "Weimar Culture: The Outsider as Insider" became a key text for understanding the Weimar era as an allegory for understanding political conflict when it was published in 1968. But his psychoanalytical approach can be an impediment to understanding the historical specificity of the era. 

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• SOURCE: The Guardian
  3/21/2021
  

  Jonathan Steinberg: Wrote Influential English Study of Bismarck's Germany

  Jonathan Steinberg's scholarly work ranged from evaluating participation in the Holocaust to a biographical study of the influential German chancellor, and his teaching work resulted in him supervising the Prince of Wales in his undergraduate history studies. 

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• SOURCE: Washington Post
  3/21/2021
  

  Letters Found In An Attic Reveal Eerie Similarities Between Adolf Hitler And His Father

  A trove of letters discovered in an Austrian attic are a rare primary source about the parents of the Nazi leader. 

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• 2/21/2021
  

  Cynicism and Political Blunder: A Postscript to “The January 6th Assault on Congress and the Fate of the GOP’s Faustian Bargain"

  by Jeffrey Herf

  Mitch McConnell's decision to condemn Trump after voting for his acquittal wasn't just an act of cowardice. The acts taken together constitute a major tactical blunder in the emerging battle for control of the Republican Party. 

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• SOURCE: MSNBC
  2/9/2021
  

  Trump Probably Won't Speak at His Impeachment Trial. That May be a Good Thing

  Columnist Hayes Brown suggests that there's enough evidence Democrats can bring against Trump without giving him a public platform to espouse conspiracy theories. German authorities came to regret giving Hitler such a platform in 1924, as summarized by historian Volker Ullrich.

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• 2/7/2021
  

  Young Du Bois in Germany: On the “Great Socialistic State of the Day"

  by Helmut Smith

  As graduate student visiting imperial Germany in 1892, W.E.B. Du Bois was shaped by observations of social welfare policy and experiences of social acceptance that contrasted dramatically with Gilded Age and Jim Crow America. 

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• 1/31/2021
  

  The January 6th Assault on Congress and the Fate of the GOP’s Faustian Bargain with Trump: Notes from German History

  by Jeffrey Herf

  It does not seem that even facing the prospect of death at the hands of a Trumpist mob will convince the Republican Party to abandon its bargain with Trump. German conservative elites made a choice to stay the course in the 1930s that led to national ruin and defeat. 

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• 1/24/2021
  

  Cheese to Chalk: Can Democracies be Compared to Dictatorships?

  by Leonid Luks

  A German historian argues that American scholars and commentators have for years been too quick to equate antidemocratic measures taken by Republicans with Hitler's seizure of dictatorial power, dismissing ample research on the nature of totalitarian regimes. The last three months have shown that America's core institutions are not weak enough to be crushed. 

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• SOURCE: Public Seminar
  1/21/2021
  

  Embracing Democracy: The Storming of the US Capitol and the Positive Lessons of Weimar Germany

  by Andrew I. Port

  A 1922 political assassination rallied the German public and political class against the far right. The Weimar Republic's failure to consolidate itself around the idea of democracy shows that the January 6 Capitol riot cannot be allowed to fade from discussion lest the authoritarian beliefs behind it return even stronger.

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• SOURCE: The Conversation
  1/12/2021
  

  How Can America Heal from the Trump Era? Lessons from Germany’s Transformation into a Prosperous Democracy after Nazi Rule

  by Sylvia Taschka

  The Federal Republic of Germany disappointed many who sought a complete reckoning with Nazi crimes. But it successfully balanced the exclusion of top Nazi leaders with winning the allegiance of party supporters to democratic government through a commitment to supporting lives of dignity and sufficiency for all Germans.

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• 12/6/2020
  

  Is There Anything Left to Learn about Hitler?

  by James Thornton Harris

  Volker Ullrich presents a picture of a leader whose "egocentrism... inability to self-criticize…tendency to overestimate himself... contempt for others and lack of empathy" made him willing to destroy his nation along with himself, but warns that the Third Reich was "a dictatorship of consent." 

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  11/30/2020
  

  1918 Germany Has a Warning for America

  German editorialist Jochen Bittner warns that Trump's insistence that the election has been stolen from him echoes the Dolchstosslegende rhetoric which sustained the ascendant National Socialists for years after the end of World War I.

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• SOURCE: Made By History at The Washington Post
  11/16/2020
  

  Can We Hold Trump And His Allies Accountable Without Further Splitting America?

  by Samuel Huneke

  A process of accountability must target official decisionmakers who broke the law, avoid imposing collective guilt on Trump supporters, and above all, not expect quick or complete success. 

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• SOURCE: Voice of America
  11/17/2020
  

  German Historians on Frontlines of Politics

  German historians have faced lawsuits for writing about World War II-era crimes by the Wehrmacht, part of a growing culture war in which right-wing Germans seek to deny or diminish the Holocaust and Nazi war crimes.

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• SOURCE: TIME
  11/12/2020
  

  What We Can Learn About Nazi Psychology From the Wives of Hitler’s Top Officials

  A new book, excerpted here, assess everyday life under Nazism by attention to the lives of the wives of leading Nazis. 

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• SOURCE: The Guardian
  10/8/2020
  

  Holocaust Survivor's Daughter in Legal Battle With Historian over Claim of Lesbian Liaison with Nazi Guard

  Hájková, who is researching the queer history of the Holocaust, said testimonies by survivors of the camps and legal documents from the guard’s trial led her to conclude that the two women might have had a lesbian relationship, either coercive or consensual. However, she acknowledged that there was no definite proof of this.

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• SOURCE: Washington Post
  9/6/2020
  

  ‘Weimar America’? The Trump Show Is No Cabaret

  by Niall Ferguson

  Popular culture and lazy historical comparisons have elevated Weimar Germany as an analogue for contemporary America. Ferguson suggests reasons to dial back the comparisons; while current events are troubling, US democracy is more stable and stronger than the Weimar Republic.

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• 8/2/2020
  

  Conventional Culture in the Third Reich

  by Moritz Föllmer

  Although Nazi aesthetics are generally associated with the monumental architecture of Albert Speer and the propaganda films of Leni Riefenstahl, Germans generally encountered conventionality in art, music and cinema. This helped to normalize the acts of the Third Reich and to allow ordinary Germans to dissociate themselves from Nazism after 1945.

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• SOURCE: Champaign (IL) News-Gazette
  6/21/2020
  

  UI Historian Takes Close Look At Nazis’ First Days In Power

  University of Illinois professor Peter Fritzche has written a recent book on the first 100 days of the Third Reich which considers the balance of Hitler's influence and prevailing currents of antisemitism and authoritarianism in the German public.