Today is the 80th anniversary of
#Kristallnacht
.
A personal story:
My grandfather fought in WWII. He never spoke about it, so we didnt know much about his time in the service, but based on the patches on his uniform, we think he did something in intel.
A German World War 1 granade was just found (and defused) in a chips factory in Hong Kong. How did it get there? Witha shipment of potatoes from France. Welcome to globalization! (p.s. would make a perfect opening question to globalization lecture)
Popular characterization of occupied Germany: "The Russians had the farmland, the British had the industry, the French had the wine and the Americans had the scenery" (qtd. from Coleman, IG Farben and ICI, 124) Never heard this before - but there's some truth to it
One of the coolest things
@UniFreiburg
is the so-called Samstags-Uni: every Saturday at 11, different Freiburg professors lecture publicly on a common semester theme. Up to a 1000 people come to downtown Freiburg, go to the market and then attend the lecture. How neat is that?
Happy and honoured that Selling Weimar won the Transatlantic Studies Association/Cambridge University Press book prize for the best book in transatlantic studies ... A really big thank you to
@TransAtStudies
(and to Steiner and
@GHIWashington
for all their support along the way)
@DrinkTheTea1
We, Germans, actually learn about our past, especially the Nazi period and the Holocaust, quite extensively from a young age. Still, these images have a particularly haunting quality. To me they are also so shocking because they are from my hometown.
I'm happy to share that my book "Selling Weimar. German Public Diplomacy and the United States, 1918-1933" is now really and officially out. Thanks to the
@GHIWashington
it is also available open access; free to download here:
Amazing movie from 1948 on German hunger commissioned by the US Military Government. The movie, which aimed to remind Germans that their post-war hunger was a result of their own war effort, roused strong public opposition. The German audience booed the movie and ...
An incredible resource: Columbia University Libraries have made available their very extensive oral history collection online - just the website is so insane that it's almost impossible to find. Here's the link:
My grandpa died this evening; he had grown so old (and was well for so long) that I had convinced myself he’d never die; his stories are a big reason I became a historian. This is him in 1919 in rural Bavaria. I feel like my family’s own long 20th century came to an end today
I guess the cat is out of the bag now 🥳 I have accepted a tenure track position at the Universität Freiburg
@HistoSeminarFR
; my absolute dream job in Transatlantic and North American history. I have to pinch myself all the time to be sure it‘s really happening
Wir freuen uns unsere neue Kollegin Elisabeth Piller zum Wintersemester in Freiburg begrüßen zu können. Frau Piller wird eine Stelle als Juniorprofessorin für Nordamerikanische und Transatlantische Geschichte antreten. Hier ihre bisherige home page in Oslo
I first got my LoC reader card in January 2009, the day after the 1st Obama inauguration. The LoC uses that same picture at every reissue. So here I am, forever frozen in time: a very happy and hungover 24 year old
one of my favorite archival finds
@TrumanLibrary
- the (future) Committee for the Marshall Plan brainstorming what to call itself, including "Anti-Russian", "Anti-War", "Pro-American" and "Pro-Peace" alternatives
Looking for a nice book cover in European/German history? It's 2020 and that means the copyright for Ludwig Hohlwein, one of the century's most prolific poster artists has finally expired. Knock yourself out!
#twitterstorians
Three post-doc positions in Robert Gerwarth's ERC project on European civil wars (1912-1949)
@ucddublin
Each is three years. I have only the best of memories of my time in Dublin.
Currently plowing through five years of Weekly Public Opinion Digests on Civil Affairs in Occupied And Liberated Territory put together by the U.S. War Department - this might take a while ...
article-cum-rant on the invisibility of women in World War I humanitarianism. Just out with The International History Review. Huge thanks to the two brilliant reviewers (I'm still in awe!).
Out today - 'Humanitarianism and the Greater War, 1914-24' offers fresh perspectives on the history of humanitarianism and its impact on domestic and international politics in the era of the Great War.
Find out more:
#WWI
#LeagueofNations
#RedCross
responded to a news reel snippet that showed Hermann Göring asking for 'guns not butter' by shouting "Göring would have never let us starve!" and "We want Hermann!" The movie was subsequently taken out of circulation. The movie (in German) here:
Please share: I am looking for a research assistant (could be an advanced BA student) to copy a few files for me at the Lyndon B. Johnson Library in Austin, TX this summer. I can offer about $ 20/hour (for max. 15 hours of work). Do I know s.o. in Austin?
@SHAFRhistorians
My 50th episode as host
@NewBooksNetwork
. Diplo historian Dr. Elisabeth Piller
@elisabmpiller
, now at Uni-Freiburg, joined me to chat about "Selling Weimar: German Public Diplomacy and the United States, 1918-1933" (
@GHIWashington
& Steiner Verlag, 2021).
Our graduate training school "empires" is organizing its third conference on "The Empire and I", focusing on biographical/individual approaches to the history of empire. The conference will take place in late Nov in Freiburg; abstracts are due on 29 February. Please share widely!
For a chapter I am writing I am currently revisiting the reports from US exchange students in Nazi Germany that I dug up in 2018 at the Rockefeller Archive Center. Some of them are just incredibly prescient and moving. Howard Trivers, then at Heidelberg, wrote in April 1933:
Glad to see this article out! I wrote about how hard it can be to accept - and ask for - humanitarian aid and the difficult negotiations between national need and national dignity that faced the Weimar Republic in the early 1920s
On popular request (but also because it's exciting!) here is the link to the programme for next week's conference on Humanitarianism and the Greater War, 1912-23 at
@UCDHistory
Special thanks to
@IrishResearch
for the generous support.
Here’s the (presumably) last living soldier of the Weimar Republic‘s 100 000-man army telling me a story at lunch today, It’s grandpa’s 105th birthday. How was your day?
#bornin1914
#stilltalkingaboutthegrandparents
One day I'll write an article about how the memory of occupation in the American South (1865-) shaped US occupations after 1918 and 1943 - it's a constant theme. Both men in charge of occupied Germany (Henry Allen; Lucius Clay) after the world wars were Southerners, f. example
I first started thinking about this article some time around 2013 ... so I am VERY pleased to say my article on US educators, student exchange and early efforts to solve the 'German problem' is now out in the English Historical Review
@enghistrev
My article on Franco-German competition for US affections in the 1920s is out with
@ContEuroHistory
; Come for German paranoia and anti-French vitriol, stay for the chic American students in interwar Munich
I don’t think I ll ever get used to giving a talk and then just ending all of it with the push of a button. I just want to end it „properly“, i.e. continuing the conversation at a pub or restaurant 🙆♀️
My grandpa went into Allied captivity in May 1945; my grandma, who had their first child in Nov 1945, thought he was dead. Then in January 1946 a Red Cross Card arrived in the mail. All it said was: "I'm alive, Ludwig" She talked about this moment all her life.
What is a Red Cross Message?
-It’s a piece of paper delivered by our staff and volunteers.
-It’s a last resort for people to contact their families.
-It’s a lifeline for people in prison or separated by conflict.
-It’s hope.
Excellent historiographical essay by Robert Gerwarth on the last decade or so of research on the Paris Peace Treaties; just out in the Journal of Modern History
When I first moved to Freiburg I would often share photos of delicious baked goods (spending years without access to German bakeries will do that to you). Today I am having Apfelstreuselkuchen mit Sahne 🙆♀️☺️
My new article is now out
@ContEuroHistory
🥳 It's about the transatlantic politics and emotions of in/gratitude in the first half of the twentieth century and can be accessed (freely) here:
doi:10.1017/S096077732300053X
Thanks to the
@GHIWashington
and Steiner Verlag for awarding my dissertation the biannual Franz Steiner Prize for an outstanding manuscript in American and/or transatlantic history (+ the beautiful flowers at
#dgfa19
). The book will be out in 2020!
A big thank you to the Botstiber Institute for supporting my work on US aid and Austrian hunger after WWII: "The Hungriest People in Europe – US Food Aid to Austria and Post-War Transatlantic Relations" I am thrilled!
Our sincerest congratulations to the 18 grantees who have received BIAAS funding this year for their research, projects and events! Find out more about their exciting work, here:
The first articles of our special issue on blockade in the era of the world wars are out. Real pleasure to co-edit with Alan Kramer, Jonas Scherner and
@KruizingaSamuel
. Here: Jonas Scherner on blockade, Germany and strategic raw materials in both world wars
@IntHistReview
👇
Jonas Scherner (
@NTNUnorway
) discusses the WWI blockade of Germany and what/how Nazi war planners learned for WWII. Check out this
#OpenAccess
article below:
🔗
Recent conversation:
Friend (with MBA): “I run a paperless office. Seriously, just tell me one person who still writes anything by hand?!“
Me: 🙆♀️
*current state of my desk* 👇
Oh, man. In 1947, following an extraordinarily cold winter, a 12 year old German girl was asked to write a school essay on "the most beautiful day of my life". She wrote: “February 17, 1947, when my brother died and I inherited his overcoat, his shoes, and his woolen jacket.”
Psyched to announce that
@SHAFRDH
has accepted my article! It's about how the rise of U.S. mass tourism transformed German (and European) foreign policy from the 1890s to the 1930s; stay tuned for fun cartoons and beautiful 1920s tourist ads
75th Anniversary of the Marshall Plan next year. Anyone doing anything to bring together new scholarship/reflect on it? So much fantastic stuff written on it but historiography as a whole feels dated, weirdly neglected
@SHAFRhistorians
@NDH_Network
@UniFreiburg
did a glam photo shoot (+ fab student-led interview) to spotlight female research; my profile piece was released today, which means that I can share this pic of me with an original (!) Marshall Plan milk powder package (thx
@CarlSchurzHaus
)🏔️ nerdiness unlocked!
My article “Managing Imponderables. The Rise of U.S. Tourism and the Transformation of German Diplomacy, 1890–1933” is out
@SHAFRDH
. It posits that the U.S. rise as an unorthodox great power re-shaped the European diplomatic practice in early 20th c. /1
One of the most exciting things about moving back to Germany is that there‘s a Bäckerei next door. My plan is to eat only carbs for the foreseeable future
In late 1944 American Relief for Holland ran one of the strongest fundraising campaigns of the entire war, merging religious concerns with the appeal of the suffering child. This was their main campaign poster:
Please find our (Alan Kramer, Jonas Scherner,
@KruizingaSamuel
and my) piece on blockade in the era of the world wars
@IntHistReview
here👇We map the state of the field and develop a research framework for approaching the subject. It is open access
@amandadeibert
My grandpa Ludwig (German soldier) went missing in alps in April 1945. My grandma had their 1. child in Nov. and despite being very catholic she refused to have it baptized w/o him present. All said he was dead. In Feb 1946 a Red Cross Card arrived, 3 words: “I’m alive, Ludwig”
Conference on "Humanitarianism and the 'Greater War', 1912-23", at UCD Centre for War Studies in Dublin next September! How can study of humanitarianism re-shape our understanding of global WWI and its aftermath, & vice versa? Please help spread the word
I just discovered that the digital archives of the Italian newspaper La Stampa is freely available and fully searchable (1867 to 2005) - this is gonna be an exciting Saturday evening! ☺️👏
Very quiet New Year’s Eve in Freiburg yesterday meant that the church bells ringing for 5 minutes as we entered 2021 resonated all through the town. for the first time I got a sense of the awe that people must have felt centuries ago
Servicetweet für die
#twitterstorians
:
das
#Bundesarchiv
Berlin-Lichterfelde hat gerade massig Termine für den bislang komplett ausgebuchten Lesesaal von Herbst 2021 bis weit in den Sommer 2022 freigeschaltet 🤗😎✌🏻
Link:
#phdlife
@BundesarchivD
might be interesting
@kmocon
; I read in your dissertation that you never got a chance to watch it; the episode is described i.a. in Frank Mehring's text on the Marshall Plan films:
Lots of diplomatic historians warming up for
@SHAFRConference
tomorrow; fascinating workshop at Georgetown on The Days After: US Post-Conflict Diplomacy since 1783
@secolbourn
How exactly did German-American relations improve so rapidly in the decade after WWI? Learn the answer to this question and much more on March 5 at 12:30pm, when Dr. Elisabeth Piller discusses her new book.
Register at the following link:
Our special issue on blockade in the era of the world wars is coming together. Here‘s another piece: Heather Jones
@WW1POWs
on the Mediterranean blockade and wartime radicalization in World War I
An endless to do list but also 7 hours to get stuff done on the train journey to Berlin. I have a small pile of baked goods and get to read a timely bachelor’s thesis on Freiburg student protests against Vietnam. Not a terrible Sunday 😙
The archivist at the Library of Congress' Manuscript Division just greeted me with "Oh, you have been coming here for a looong time" - I feel incredible VIP! 🙌
Wanted to let you all know that Maximilian Klose's much anticipated book on CARE and post-1945 Germany is now out and, thanks to
@GHIWashington
, is available open access:
Letters asking for aid are among the most interesting sources in my research; sadly they were often culled from collections as they seemed irrelevant to „high politics“; here’s an Italian girl asking Bess Truman to help her look as fine as the girls who receive pretty US clothes
Ludwig, born in September 1914, and his granddaughter Elisabeth, student of the First World War, enjoying a Christmas beer together. A century is short in so many ways
Why were the 1920/30s so defining a moment for cultural diplomacy, giving rise to major orgs like
@BritishCouncil
or
@DAAD_Germany
? Why did a Europe in crisis decide, of all things, to embrace cultural diplomacy?
@BenGMartinHist
& me try to provide some answers
@ContEuroHistory
👇
"Europe's interwar period, we argue, was a laboratory for the testing of new ‘cultural’ tools in international politics."
@elisabmpiller
's and my introductory essay to our special issue of
@ContEuroHistory
is now online!
I just started getting into archival records on World War II military logistics and I have yet to decide whether these are the most boring (strong contenders here!) or the most interesting records I have ever seen 🙆♀️
Sitting on the balcony (28 degrees) listening to my neighbor blasting techno music, and finally seeing a paper I ve been thinking about for years take shape. I hope everyone‘s Friday is that awesome 🙌
Want to do a PhD on empire in beautiful Freiburg? Graduate School 'Empires' is looking for four new PhDs (3 years) ... This include US empire e.g. US occupations, military/economic/cultural presence in Europe and much more
@SHAFRhistorians
@ExeterCIGH
Please share!
Boyfriend is recording tomorrow’s lecture. Lost sound twice; then file wouldn’t save; then he erased everything by accident. It’s been 3 hours and he is 3 minutes in. It’s gonna be a long day.
@MikeInPetworth
@yfreemark
That’s very true; on virtually all surviving American rail lines (and also quite a few European ones) travel time is now the same it was one hundred years ago. E.g. it took 10 hours to go from Munich to Milan in 1912. and today? the same. It’s time for an overhaul