This event is part of the North Carolina German Studies Seminar and Workshop Series. Based on six dozen autobiographies of the age cohort born during the Weimar Republic, this project looks at the ruptures of German history from below which … Read more

“Giftküche DDR” – the lead story of Der Spiegel in January 1990 about the GDR’s toxic legacy confirmed the worst fears about the environmental record of state socialism. Yet days before unification became official in October 1990, the only freely … Read more

This event is part of the North Carolina German Studies Seminar and Workshop Series. In Honor of Konrad H. Jarausch Thursday, 6 April 2017, 5:00 – 7:00 pm Keynote Speaker: Mary Fulbrook | University College London, Department of German "Reframing … Read more

The conceptual couple of majority/minority is viewed as a harmless way of identifying an arithmetic relationship. The idea of a dichotomy between majority and (Jewish) minority as a short hand to describe relations between ethnic or religious groups, however, is … Read more

After the Wende the former socialist model-city, Eisenhüttenstadt, experienced a fundamental transformation of its “housing problem” from an acute shortage to a surplus. Although many of the processes of transition have long since been completed, the social, economic, and cultural … Read more

Introduction by: NINA LEMMENS  |  German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) North America, New York Nina Lemmens  is the Director of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) North America office in New York, which is responsible for the organization‘s activities in … Read more

When Austrian writer Elfriede Jelinek’s play Die Schutzbefohlenen premiered in 2014 in Mannheim, Germany, it prompted debate about the representation of refugees in European theater. Jelinek’s text, loosely based on Aeschylus’ The Suppliants, features an undefined “we” telling of flight across the sea, and … Read more

The presentation examines the widespread antagonism and hostility that victims of flight and expulsion faced upon their arrival in Germany between 1945 and 1949 and expellee responses. A condensed version of chapter three of his dissertation, Peter argues that in … Read more

In the decades following the Anti-Napoleonic Wars of 1806 to 1815, historical novels evolved into one of the most important popular media of the memories of these wars. They reached increasingly broader audiences. These readers expected both edification and entertainment … Read more

Examining ordinary Germans’ consent to the Nazi dictatorship and the Holocaust, historians have debated the social meaning and the implementation of the Nazi concept of a Volksgemeinschaft, or ‘people’s community,’ the vision of establishing a truly united nation that would be … Read more