Near the end of World War Two, a National Socialist resistance movement briefly flickered to life in Germany and its borderlands. Dedicated to delaying the advance of the victorious Allies and Soviets, this guerrilla movement, the Werwolf, succeeded in scattered acts of sabotage and violence, and also began to assume the character of a vengeful Nazi reaction against the German populace itself; collaborators and "defeatists" were assassinated, and crude posters warned the population that certain death was the penalty for failure to resist the enemy. Participation in "scorched earth" measures gave the movement an almost Luddite character. In the final analysis, however, the Werwolf failed because of two basic weaknesses which undercut the movement. First, it lacked popular appeal, which doomed guerrillas and fanatic resisters to a difficult life on the margins of their own society; such an existence was simply not feasible in a country heavily occupied by enemy military forces. Second, the Werwolf was poorly organized, and showed all the signs of internal confusion that have been identified by the so-called "functionalist" school of German historiography. In fact, confusion and barbarism became worse as the bonds of military success which had united the Reich began to loosen and unravel; the Werwolf can perhaps serve as the ultimate construct in the "functionalist" model of the Third Reich. Although it failed, the Werwolf did have some permanent significance. While it is a classic example of guerrilla warfare gone wrong, the mere fact that it was active also caused a reaction among Germany's enemies. The Western Allies altered their own military and political policies to allow for extermination of the Werwolf threat, and it is likely that immediate security considerations also influenced the direction of Soviet policies in Germany.

The thesis is a study of Nazi family ideology and policy, and of the impact of the Nazi regime upon different types of family within German society. As such, it tackles an aspect of life in the Third Reich that has until now remained inadequately researched. This thesis advances the study of the subject by adding to existing knowledge, rather than by challenging the literature. It does not claim to answer every remaining question, but rather focuses in more detail on a number of specific areas. It considers the nature of Nazi family ideology, giving an overview of the eugenics movement and of Nazi policies towards the family. This is followed by a consideration of the dissemination of Nazi family ideals, by means of education and socialisation. Beyond these areas, the thesis does not deal with the 'average' or 'ordinary' German family, but focuses on areas that are less well-trodden in the secondary literature. It considers the families at different ends of the spectrum in the Third Reich - the Nazi 'ideal' or 'model' family, the kinderreich family, and the 'undesirable' family that did not fit into the Volksgemeinschaft. For the latter, 'asocial' and Jewish families are the categories selected for discussion, the former representing the 'socially unfit', and the latter, the 'racially inferior' or 'alien'. The concluding chapter presents an overview of the regime's ultimate legacy for the family in post-1945 Germany, not least the effects of the Second World War. It also gives an overall assessment of the regime's family policy and a discussion of how the Nazi period fits into the framework of the history of the German family.

No description available.

This thesis examines three made-for-television 'Event Movies' from the German production company teamWorx, made between 2006 and 2007 – Dresden (2006), Nicht alle waren Mörder (2006) and Die Flucht (2007) – within the context of contemporary debates of 'Vergangenheitsbewältigung' or 'coming to terms with the past' in Germany. It will deal with specific debates in memory of the National Socialist past, namely representations of Germans as victims of the Second World War and memory of the Holocaust. Although in recent years the importance of teamWorx's television films has begun to be acknowledged by scholars in both Germany and the UK, this thesis represents the first attempt to analyse these three Event Movies as a unit and to explore in-depth the teamWorx company and its attitudes to historical film. As such, two interviews will be relied on throughout this thesis, with chairman of the board Nico Hofmann and Die Flucht's director Kai Wessel. In order to place the films within the context of contemporary debates on memory of the Nazi past in Germany, the thesis will undertake a filmic analysis of the Event Movies, supported by both the intentions of the filmmakers and critical responses in the contemporary press. Of primary importance for the thesis will be the twin concerns of the authenticity of teamWorx's productions, as claimed by the filmmakers and the Event Movies' borrowing of filmmaking devices from Hollywood genres, in particular the melodrama. Following this analysis it will be asked to what extent the Event Movies affect and reflect contemporary debates on the legacy of National Socialism and how these films contribute to the normalisation of the Nazi past in Germany.

This thesis examines the role(s) played by German writers as cultural ambassadors after the First World War, at a time when culture was seen as increasingly important in Germany’s international relations. It focuses on the development and activities of the German branch of the International PEN Club and the international engagement of four writers from across Weimar Germany’s cultural and political spectrum: Hans Friedrich Blunck, Thomas Mann, Heinrich Mann and Ernst Toller. By exploring the agendas pursued by writers on the international stage and their direct and indirect interactions with state and non-state institutions, the thesis illuminates a spectrum of approaches to cultural diplomacy in the Weimar years. The thesis demonstrates how attempts to use varying conceptions of culture to diverse diplomatic ends were underpinned by manifold understandings of Germany’s position in the European and international orders; illustrates the differing negotiations of the sensitive relationship between culture and politics; and traces a range of expressions of nationalism, internationalism, patriotism and cosmopolitanism. This study of writers’ contributions to German foreign affairs sheds new light on the selected case studies and on the openness and contingency of the period, bringing new perspectives to bear on the complexities of the cultural politics and ideological landscape of the Weimar Republic.

Cette thèse de doctorat est le fruit de trois années de recherches sur le théâtre dans les camps nazis. Ce travail traite principalement des camps en Allemagne, tout en y adjoignant trois exceptions : le ghetto de Theresienstadt, le camp de transit de Westerbork, ainsi que le camp d’Auschwitz-Birkenau. Selon la spécificité de chaque camp, les créations furent officielles ou clandestines, servirent à la propagande nazie ou au contraire œuvrèrent à mener une lutte contre le national-socialisme ou pour la survie des prisonniers. Ces différences de conditions permettent de comprendre pourquoi la création artistique a pu être plus prolifique dans certains lieux. C’est dans ces camps que les prisonniers et déportés, hommes et femmes, appartenant ou non au monde du spectacle, choisirent le théâtre pour s’exprimer, depuis le spectacle Cirkus Conzentrazani donné en août 1933 jusqu’au Kazet Théâtre ou à Zebra, deux troupes concentrationnaires donnant des pièces dans les camps dans les jours suivant la Libération, en 1945. Le travail s’appuie sur de très nombreux témoignages (une trentaine d’interviews réalisées expressément pour cette thèse), des archives (une vingtaine de pièces inédites et traduites pour ce doctorat) et des fonds privés (correspondances, manuscrits). Nous souhaitons tenter de dresser le portrait de ces créations théâtrales, qu’elles aient été imaginées, écrites, jouées, qu’elles soient parties en tournées ou non. L’initiative fut parfois si éloignée de nos attentes classiques du théâtre qu’il est délicat de parler de création théâtrale ou même de théâtre tout simplement. Nous nous intéresserons aux réalités, aux enjeux et à la postérité de ces initiatives créées dans un environnement extrême qui remet en question la possibilité d’existence d’un quelconque théâtre mais aussi la survie même de l’homme. Une initiative de l’extrême qui n’aurait pas dû être. / This PhD is the result of 3 years of research on theater in the nazi camps. It deals mainly with the plays performed and written in the German camps, and three other camps: the Therensienstadt ghetto, the Westerbork transit camp, and the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp. Depending on the specificity of each camp, the creations were official or clandestine, and either served the nazi propaganda or contributed to the prisoners’ survival and resistance to national-socialism. Those differences in the living conditions enable us to understand why artistic creation was more prolific in some places. In those camps, male and female prisoners and deportees who did or did not belong to the world of show business, chose theater as a means to express themselves as early as August 1933 with the Cirkus Conzentrazani, and also after the war, with the Kazet theater or Zebra, two concentrationary theater troupes which performed plays in the camps during the days that followed the Liberation in 1945.This work explores the information contained in many interviews ( about 30 interviews which were conducted especially for this thesis), archives ( about twenty previously unpublished plays translated for this study), and private funds ( letters, manuscripts). We wish to attempt to draw a portrait of these theatrical creations, whether they were imagined, written, performed in the camps or on tour. The initiative the prisoners took was often so remote from our traditional conception of theater that it is delicate to talk about theatrical creation or even theater. We will focus on what happened, what was at stake and the posterity of these initiatives created in an extreme environment which questions the very possibility of doing theater but also man’s survival. It was an extreme experience which should never have been. / Die Vorliegende Doktorarbeit ist das Ergebnis dreijähriger Forschung über das Theater in den Konzentrationslagern des Zweiten Weltkriegs.Dabei geht es hier vor allem um Lager in Deutschland, mit drei Ausnahmen: dem Getto Theresienstadt, dem Durchgangslager Westerbork und dem Lager Auschwitz-Birkenau. Je nach Besonderheit des jeweiligen Lagers fand das künstlerische Schaffen offiziell oder im Verborgenen statt, diente der Nazipropaganda oder trug ganz im Gegenteil zum Kampf gegen den Nationalsozialismus oder zum Überleben der Gefangenen bei. Aufgrund dieser unterschiedlichen Bedingungen versteht man, warum das künstlerische Schaffen an manchen Orten ergiebiger war, an anderen sehr viel sporadischer stattfand. Die Gefangenen und Deportierten, Männer und Frauen, unabhängig davon, ob sie aus der Welt der darstellenden Künste kamen oder nicht, machten in den Lagern Theater, um sich zu äußern, von der Vorstellung 'Cirkus Conzentrazani' im August 1933 an bis zum 'Kazet Theater oder Zebra', zwei KZ-Theatertruppen, die 1945 nach der Befreiung im Lager Stücke aufführten. Die Arbeit stützt sich auf zahlreiche Zeugenaussagen (aus etwa dreißig speziell für diese Doktorarbeit geführten Interviews), auf Archivdokumente (ungefähr 20 unveröffentlichte und für diese Doktorarbeit übersetzte Stücke) und private Bestände (Korrespondenz und Manuskripte). Die vorliegende Arbeit möchte ein Bild von diesen Theaterproduktionen zeichnen, ob sie nur ausgedacht, schriftlich fixiert oder gespielt worden waren oder als solche auf Tournee gingen. Vom satirischen Kabarett bis hin zur ätzend-scharfen Revue über Neuinterpretationen von Klassikern oder autobiographische Stücke haben die in den Lagern schaffenden Künstler in vielen Stilrichtungen gearbeitet. Manchmal war das Unterfangen so weit von unseren klassischen Vorstellungen von Theater entfernt, dass es schwierig ist, von Theaterschaffen oder überhaupt von Theater zu reden. In Verbindung mit Lager hat sich das Theater neu erfunden. Das Hauptaugenmerk dieser Arbeit richtet sich auf die Fakten, Probleme und Nachwirkungen dieser Unternehmungen, die in einem extremen Umfeld entstanden sind, das die Möglichkeit von Theater überhaupt, aber auch das Überleben von Menschen generell in Frage stellt. Unternehmungen in einer unglaublichen Extremsituation. Warum sind Menschen in einem Lager schöpferisch tätig – wie und für wen?

This thesis examines post-1990 representations of growing up in the Third Reich within German culture. It has two primary aims: to demonstrate how childhood is recalled, represented, and imagined by those with, and without first-hand experience of Nazism; and to situate these narratives as a central part of the post-Unification discourse about identity in the Berlin Republic. The material is organised into five chapters: it begins with an analysis of recent museum displays and exhibitions, followed by German cinema (Hitlerjunge Salomon, NaPolA: Elite für den Führer); autobiographical works, by former members of the Hitler Youth (Günter de Bruyn, Martin Walser, Günter Grass) and by Jewish children (Ruth Klüger, Georges-Arthur Goldschmidt, Günter Kunert); and finally, imagined accounts of growing up in the Third Reich (W.G. Sebald, Binjamin Wilkomirski, Gudrun Pausewang). Through close readings of primary sources, and analysis of their reception, including the public debates which they sparked, this study shows how these narratives interact with historical and contemporary notions of childhood. They are informed by the concern, embedded within post-Unification discourse, that the wealth of documentary and technical accounts of Nazism obscures the individual’s understanding of those events and what it was like to experience them. I argue that because of the close conceptual association between childhood and origins, these narratives contribute to a discourse about how the Third Reich is to be remembered, performing a 'search for a usable childhood'. This is situated within the context of Harald Welzer's notion of 'gefühlte Geschichte'; that is a mode of historical discourse focused on experience, rather than 'factual knowledge', and which appeals to emotions. In assessing narratives of growing up – which take a developmental view of childhood – this study seeks to open up previously rigid categorisations of childhood as found in literary studies which focus on the function of the child’s perspective as a literary device. Thus within a crowded research area the present study offers a differentiated treatment of these works.

In its function as a mediating body between the political decision-makers and the population, the media have the potential to influence the public opinion and subsequently, policy making. Representations of political discourses are opinion-shaping instruments and often not mere reflections of a given reality; they incorporate implicit and explicit, conscious and unconscious evaluations. In cross-cultural contexts where information travels across languages the media are highly dependent on translation. Despite its central role, media translation as part of the political process has only recently gained visibility in Translation Studies (TS) and remains widely neglected outside the discipline. Current research in TS often prioritises either the textual analysis or, more recently, the identification of the shaping factors in the news production process, and often fails to address diachronic aspects. This thesis investigates the translations of Goebbels’ speeches as published in the French and British press during the interwar period. It combines a synchronic and diachronic textual analysis, inspired by CDA with an in-depth study of context which draws on socio-historical research and the analysis of archival material. Thereby, the thesis is able to link the textual makeup to a wide variety of socio-political and historical variables via the concepts of ‘framing’ and ‘agenda-setting’. In doing so the thesis demonstrates on the one hand, how translation can function as a means of discourse mediation and, on the other hand, it provides evidence that ideology and political expediency alone cannot explain all textual changes introduced by the translator-journalists. Moreover, describing the development of the media images not only allows to add a translational perspective to the reception of the Third Reich but also contributes to a better understanding of the varying influence of contextual factors. The results of the diachronic analysis show that throughout the interwar period the British media published very little about Goebbels and, up until late in 1938, reports focused on the peaceful intentions he expressed. In contrast, Goebbels was frequently reported on in France and the regime was early on represented as an aggressor. Whilst trends in the quantity mirror the differing economic conditions of the newspaper markets, the quality, i.e. the actual realisation, of the media images seems to be a reflection of the differing socio-political positions of France and the United Kingdom after WW1. The development of the images clearly illustrates that the political ideology of appeasement was finally overridden in the UK in 1938 when political expediency forced the government to take a different course of action. However, the study of the editorial correspondence of the Manchester Guardian brings to light that the mosaic of factors influencing the news production process is more complex. The intervention of the involved governments, personal convictions of the foreign correspondents and the editors, spatial and temporal restrictions, issues of credibility, etc. all impacted on the particular make-up of the media texts. The synchronic textual analysis, on the other hand, reveals that the range of framing devices through which the media images were established was largely determined by text type conventions. The strategies applied range from selective-appropriation of text, repositioning of actors and labelling, to audience representation. The analysis clearly demonstrates that intersemiotic translation, i.e. the representation of the speech context, is equally important as inter- and intra-lingual instances of translation.

Aux lendemains de la défaite allemande de 1918, Adolf Hitler, le caporal défait de la Première Guerre mondiale, psychiquement en guerre depuis de longues années, écoute attentivement ce qui, dans l'histoire du peuple allemand, sa langue et sa culture, maintient ses espoirs et ses craintes. Au XIXe siècle, le mythe 'völkisch' - l'idéologie du 'Volk' allemand- avait structuré l'identité des Allemands. La défaite allemande de 1918 sonnait la fin de ce mythe, laissant la jeune Allemagne auparavant si sûre de son destin exceptionnel, totalement humiliée. Dans cet 'Umwelt' déboussolée, Adolf Hitler, l'autodidacte de Braunau, aussitôt propulsé sur la scène politique bavaroise, glanait rancoeurs et inquiétudes sociales pour se constituer un discours. La langue qu'il était en train de fabriquer, bientôt fixée définitivement dans 'Mein Kampf', était une langue totalitaire et meurtrière. Totalitaire, en prétendant tout dire et répondre à toutes les inquiétudes d'une époque ; meurtrière par !'opérateur sémantique qui liait dans un même énoncé « Deutschland erwache » à sa haine antisémite «Juda verrecke ». Adolf Hitler fut l'homme d'une seule idée: une lutte mortelle entre Aryens et Juifs était engagée depuis des siècles. De l'issue de cette lutte dépendait le sort du peuple allemand. La victoire du peuple juif signerait l'anéantissement de la race aryenne et plus globalement du monde entier. Pour que le peuple allemand vive, il n'y avait d'autre solution que celle du 'Juda verrecke'. La langue qu'il avait fabriquée ne fut qu'un habillage de son délire paranoïaque, le moyen de propagande le plus puissant qui ait soutenu, pendant presque douze années, les illusions les plus mensongères. La néo-réalité nazie créait les conditions nécessaires pour qu'un peuple se tourne entièrement vers son mythe, renversant en terreur l'autre face qui n'était que ravissement. Face à la mystification du 'Deutsch/anderwache' doublée de l'entreprise meurtrière du 'Juda verrecke', la majorité du peuple allemand avait succombé. / The days following the german defeat of 1918, Adolf Hitler, the defeated caporal from the First World War, psychologically at war for long many years, is carefully listening what, in the german people History, its language and its culture, holds his hopes and his fears together. During the 19th century, the ideology from the german « Volk », the« völkisch » myth, had structured the gerrnan identity.The gerrnan defeat of 1918 called this myth to an end, leaving this young Germany wich before was so sure about it special destiny, totally humiliated. In this totally lost « Umwelt », Adolf Hitler, Braunau's autodidact, was immediatly propelled on the bavarish politic scène, catching every resentment and social anxiety to build himself a speach. The language wich he was building, soon definitively fixed in « Mein Kampf », was a totalitarian and murderous language.Totalitarian, pretending to say everything, to answer to all periods of anxiety .Murderous, by the semantic operator wich bound in one speach « Deutschland erwache » to his antisemite hatred « Judverrecke ». Adolf Hitler was a one idea's man : a deadly fight between Aryans and Jews had been settled for centuries. From the result of this fight was depending the fate of the german people. The jewish victory would give the destruction of the aryan's race and most likely the destruction from the whole world.

Cette thèse étudie le parcours d’une figure politique de second rang de la République fédérale d’Allemagne, August Haußleiter (1905-1989). Ayant grandi dans un milieu rural et protestant, il entra en contact avec le mouvement national-socialiste, sans toutefois adhérer au NSDAP. Après avoir été journaliste local du Fränkischer Kurier, Haußleiter fut propagandiste de la Wehrmacht. Dans l’après-guerre, au mitan de sa vie, il se consacra à la politique. Il fut d’abord député de l’Union chrétienne-sociale de Bavière (1946-1949), puis fonda un parti politique antidémocratique et national-neutraliste, la Deutsche Gemeinschaft, qui se définissait comme mouvement de libération allemand, en opposition au modèle démocratique ouest-allemand. En rejetant la politique germano-allemande et extérieure de la République fédérale et en plaidant pour une Allemagne neutre et unie, Haußleiter était une des voix d’un milieu neutraliste particulièrement hétérogène, s’opposant à différents degrés au « modèle » occidental. Dans le cadre de la libéralisation de la société ouest-allemande des années 1960, Haußleiter tenta de s’ériger en bras parlementaire de l’Opposition extra-parlementaire, dans le cadre de l’Aktionsgemeinschaft Unabhängiger Deutscher. Enfin, face à la prise de conscience accrue des liens entre une croissance démesurée et les problèmes environnementaux au début des années 1970, Haußleiter fut l’une des forces issues de la droite politique qui participèrent à l’initiation du parti vert ouest-allemand Die Grünen. L’intérêt de cette biographie politique découle de la non-linéarité d’une trajectoire individuelle qui amène à décloisonner les catégories politiques classiques de droite et de gauche et à soulever la question de l’existence d’idées, d’acteurs, de structures, de moments et de lieux qui pouvaient faire figure de lien entre ces différents engagements politiques. Se déployant pendant les quarante années de la séparation de l’Allemagne, la carrière politique d’August Haußleiter reflète les évolutions de la « question allemande » des ruines de l’après-guerre à la Wende des années 1989/90 et permet ainsi de questionner les principales mutations de la culture politique ouest-allemande jusqu’à l’unification de l’Allemagne / This PHD thesis examines the career of German politician August Haußleiter (1905-1989). Haußleiter, born the son of a pastor and raised in a rural environment in Bavaria, came into contact with the National Socialist movement, though he did not join the Nazi party. After working as a journalist for the Fränkischer Kurier, he became a military propagandist of the Wehrmacht. In the post-war period, Haußleiter devoted himself to politics. He first served as a deputy of the Christian Social Union (1946-1949), then developed a new antidemocratic and national-neutralist political party, the German Community. This party defined itself in opposition to the democratic model of the German Federal Republic. Haußleiter rejected the West German policies towards the German Democratic Republic and pleaded in favour of a united and neutral Germany. In doing so, Haußleiter was one of the voices of a very heterogenous neutralist environment, with varying degrees of opposition to the occidental model. In the context of the liberalisation of Western German society in the 1960s, Haußleiter attempted to become the parliamentary representation of the German Extra-Parliamentary Opposition inside the Action Community for an Independent Germany, which he had joined in 1965. Against a backdrop of increased awareness around the link between economic growth and environmental problems in the 1970s, Haußleiter participated in the electoral green movement and party. This political biography highlights the non-linear progression of an individual career that breaks down the barriers between the traditional political categories of right and left and raises the question of ideas, actors, structures, moments and places working as ties between different political engagements. Spanning the 40 years of German separation, the political career of Haußleiter reflects the evolutions of the 'German question' from the post-war ruins to the turn of 1989/1990 and questions the main changes in West German political culture until the country’s reunification / Diese Dissertation setzt sich mit der Biografie des zweitrangigen Politikers August Haußleiter (1905-1989) auseinander, der in Nürnberg als Pfarrersohn geboren wurde. Haußleiter war kein Mitglied der NSDAP, kam aber mit der nationalsozialistischen Bewegung in Berührung. Er arbeitete als Journalist im Fränkischen Kurier, bevor er in die Wehrmacht eingezogen wurde, wo er Mitglied verschiedener Propagandakompanien wurde. Nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg widmete er sich der Politik. Erst als CSU-Abgeordneter im Bayerischen Landtag (1946-1949), bevor er eine antidemokratische und national-neutralistische Kleinpartei gründete, die Deutsche Gemeinschaft, die sich als deutsche Freiheits- und Erneuerungsbewegung verstand und sich gegen die westdeutsche demokratisch-liberale Grundordnung positionierte. Indem er die Deutschland- und Außenpolitik der Bundesrepublik verwarf und für ein neutrales und geeintes Deutschland warb, war Haußleiter ein Vertreter eines sehr heterogenen neutralistischen Lagers, in dem die Opposition zum Westen stark variierte. Im Rahmen der Liberalisierung der westdeutschen Gesellschaft in den 1960er Jahren versuchte Haußleiter erfolglos die Aktionsgemeinschaft Unabhängiger Deutscher, in die die DG 1965 aufging, zum parlamentarischen Arm der Außerparlamentarischen Opposition zu machen. Im Rahmen der immer stärkeren Bewusstwerdung des Zusammenhangs zwischen Wachstum und globalen Umweltproblemen ab Anfang der 1970er Jahre wirkte Haußleiter aktiv an der Gründung der westdeutschen Grünen mit, die seine letzte politische Heimat wurden. Der politische Werdegang Haußleiters erscheint paradox und nur schwer erfassbar, da er sich unentwegt zwischen rechten und linken Denk- und Handlungsstrukturen bewegte und so die herkömmlichen politischen Kategorien in Frage stellt. Diese Dissertation geht der Frage nach, inwiefern Ideen, Akteure, Strukturen, Momente oder Orte es vermochten, zwischen seinen sukzessiven Lebensphasen bzw. parteipolitischen Zugehörigkeiten Brücken zu schlagen. Insofern als sich Haußleiters politische Karriere auf die gesamte Zeit der deutschen Teilung erstreckt, ermöglicht sie es die Frage nach den Wandlungen der politischen Kultur der Bundesrepublik zu beleuchten.