Military conflicts have always been a major reason for the movement of troops as well as of civilians making mobility an experience widely shared. The current arrival of refugees from the war zones of Iraq and Syria is the latest example of this phenomenon. However, the reasons, types, and effects of population movements linked to wars have differed over time just as different forms of mobility have overlapped or followed each other in the same space or even along one single life.

Historical research on war and population movements in Europe has predominantly focused on different types of forced migration in the 20th century with a particular interest in expellees and refugees during and after World War I and World War II. Embedded in a cooperation between the German Historical Institute Paris and the research strand 5 "Europe of wars and marks of war« of the Research Center of Excellence EHNE, the conference seeks to shift towards a more systematic exploration of the role population movements played in military conflicts by investigating convergences and divergences in a long-term perspective, that is in the 19th and in the 20th century. The following questions will be at the core of this investigation (but are not limited to it) and can be approached from a social, cultural, economic or political angle, through men, women and/or children, in a victim/offender perspective, etc.

First, population displacement as a legitimization to wage war or war as a legitimization for displacements such as the expulsion of former immigrants for security reasons (immigrants from member states of the German confederation states in France in 1870/71 for instance).

Second, displaced individuals and populations as weapons of war (above all the troops and all those accompanying them over time, but also deportees, settlers, forced laborers, etc.), as weapons against war (deserters, refugees, etc.) or as both as this could be the case for war prisoners.

Third, population movements as instruments to bring hostilities to an end or to make peace, for example the transfer of populations, the right of choice (for Alsatians after 1871), the repatriation, etc.

Fourth, moments of sedentariness, settlement or temporary territorial assignment correlating with the movement or displacement of individuals and populations in times of wars (the protection of minorities or the detainment in camps for instance).

Organized by: German Historical Institute Paris in cooperation with the Research Center of Excellence "Écrire une histoire nouvelle de l'Europe " (EHNE) and the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD)

Conference Venue: German Historical Institute Paris

Please send your abstract (max. 500 words) as well as a short biography (max. 1 page) to Bettina Severin-Barboutie (bseverin-barboutie@dhi-paris.fr)

Young scholars are particularly invited to submit a proposal.

Expenses for travelling and accommodation of the participants will be covered.

Conference languages will be English, French and German.

Scientific council: Eric Bussière | Corine Defrance | Christine Haynes | Mareike König | Barbara Lambauer | Bettina Severin-Barboutie

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Contact:

Dunja Houelleu

DHIP

8 rue du Parc-Royal

75003 Paris

dhouelleu@dhi-paris.fr