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Provincializing Weimar Culture

On 25-26 April 2024, Utrecht University hosts the international conference “Provincializing Weimar Culture Global and Local Perspectives on Interwar Germany”, with support from the Duitsland Instituut Amsterdam. This conference brings together scholars advancing new approaches to the cultural history of the Weimar era. It takes its inspiration from Dipesh Chakrabarty’s call to “provincialize Europe”, in the sense of historicizing and criticizing modernity’s claims to universality to uncover its colonial heritage. In this vein, the scholars approach the subject from a transnational or postcolonial perspective and in its global context. However, the conference also employs the idea of “provincializing” in a second, more literal sense, focusing on cultural life outside of Berlin and other urban centres of Weimar Germany. These two perspectives – the global and the local – are not mutually exclusive, but rather dialectically intertwined.

More information here.

Conf: The German Revolution

On 9-10 November, the University of Oxford hosts the conference Make Revolution Great Again, exploring the social and intellectual context and legacy of the German Revolution. 

The conference “seeks to re-examine the reception of the Revolution, as well as the Weimar Republic and the interwar period, across a range of disciplines, including but not limited to European history, intellectual history, political theory, and political science. 

Continue reading “Conf: The German Revolution”

CfP: Democratic Personalities of the Weimar Republic

The Forschungsstelle Weimarer Republik in Jena is hosting its 3rd conference of early career researchers on the topic of Democratic Personalities of the Weimar Republic.

The Weimar Republic has long been considered a republic without republicans, a democracy without democrats. This view is increasingly being challenged by recent research. For a long time, anti-democratic institutions, actors and ways of thinking had been the focus of research, and this naturally obscured the fact that at all levels and in all areas of society there were also people who actively supported the republic. These people, often forgotten today, the context of their actions, their successes and setbacks will be examined in more detail at this year’s conference.

Please submit a short abstract (up to about 5000 characters, including spaces) and a short resume. Travel expenses and accommodation are covered by the Forschungsstelle Weimarer Republic.

Conference: The ‘Seizure of Power’ in Prussia

“Machtergreifung” in Preußen, 1932-1934. Die Etablierung der NS-Herrschaft in den Provinzen

09-10 April 2014, Magdeburg

Das Jahr 1933 gehört zu den zentralen Wendepunkten in der deutschen Geschichte. Auch wenn die Umstände der Machtübertragung an Adolf Hitler am 30. Januar 1933 und der Weg in die nationalsozialistische Diktatur bereits vielfach beschrieben und analysiert worden sind, stellen sich gerade auf dem Gebiet der Landesgeschichte immer noch viele offene Fragen. Continue reading “Conference: The ‘Seizure of Power’ in Prussia”

CfP: Hidden Continuities: From Interwar to Postwar Integration in Europe

Hidden Continuities:

From Interwar to Postwar Forms of Cooperation and Integration in Europe

23-25 october 2014, Free University Berlin

Deadline: 5 March 2014

Historical research on European integration often treats 1945 as a ‘Zero Hour’, heralding a new period in history. This conference, in contrast, zooms in on the various connections between practices and proposals on inter- and supranational governance between the interwar, wartime, and postwar periods. Continue reading “CfP: Hidden Continuities: From Interwar to Postwar Integration in Europe”

CfP: History of Medicine since the Weimar Republic

The Institute for the History of Medicine in Stuttgart hosts a conference on the history of the prevention of diseases and accidents since the Weimar Republic:

Akteure, Praktiken und Instrumente. Geschichte der Prävention von Krankheiten und Unfällen seit der Weimarer Republik

Institut für Geschichte der Medizin der Robert Bosch Stiftung
16.12.2013-17.12.2013, Stuttgart
Deadline: 08.09.2013

Abstracts of 400 words should reach the organizers by 8 September 2013.

Conference on Ullstein Company

logo1The Institut für Buchwissenschaft at the University of Mainz is hosting a conference on the publishing company Ullstein, one of the major political, cultural and economic players in Weimar Germany:

“Der ganze Verlag ist eine Bonbonniere”. Der Ullstein-Verlag in der ersten Hälfte des Zwanzigsten Jahrhunderts, 25-27 April 2013, Johannes-Gutenberg Universität Mainz

CfP: Catholic Intellectuals in Weimar Germany

DownloadThe conference ‘Siegkatholiken’, Kulturpessimisten, ‘Gegenintellektuelle’? Katholische Kultur- und Zeitkritik in der Zwischenkriegszeitaims for a revaluation of Catholic intellectuals of the interwar years beyond cultural pessimism. One-page abstracts  of 20-30-minute talks should be sent to the organisers until 15 March 2013.

‘Siegkatholiken’, Kulturpessimisten, ‘Gegenintellektuelle’? Katholische Kultur- und Zeitkritik in der Zwischenkriegszeit  (CfP in German)

at Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena, Germany, 26-27 September 2013


Organisers: Stefan Gerber (FSU Jena); Denis Kitzinger (Thomas More College, Merrimack)

1920s Berlin in London

meow-meow1-credit-karl-giant-LST075625If you are in London this weekend, make sure to visit the The Rest is Noise festival at the Southbank Centre. Saturday and Sunday are dedicated to ‘Berlin in the 20s & 30s’, featuring plays, talks, lectures, workshops and films, including a rare production of Brecht and Weill’s Songspiel. The Guardian has more info.

Musical trade between London and Berlin

West End and Friedrichstraße. Cross-Cultural Exchange in Popular Musical Theatre 1890-1939, an interesting international research project based at Freie Universität Berlin and Goldsmiths College London, considers the cultural transfer between Berlin’s and London’s musical districts. A report on a recent conference on the topic can be found online (in English).

New Perspectives on Weimar

The new book Beyond Glitter and Doom. The Contingency of the Weimar Republic, edited by Jochen Hung, Godela Weiss-Sussex and Geoff Wilkes and based on the proceedings of a conference of the same name, gathers the latest research on Weimar history and culture:

‘The Weimar Republic has received more attention in academic research and popular culture than almost any other period in German history. Nevertheless, its prevailing historical image remains surprisingly simplistic: it is often seen as an era of accelerated cultural progress on the one hand and extreme political unrest, social upheaval and economic crisis on the other, a view epitomized in the ubiquitous image of the ‘dance on the volcano’.

Continue reading “New Perspectives on Weimar”