Foreign Rule in Western Europe - Towards a Comparative History of Military Occupations, 1940-1949
Military occupations were a crucial part of the collective experience of Western European societies during the mid-20th century.
Occupations conducted by Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, and the Western Allies varied in terms of their goals, methods, and most significantly in their use of violence. In many respects, however, these ideologically different regimes of occupation also shared a range of common features. In contrast to the ruthless occupation policies in the East, these regimes sought to find a viable mode of interaction with both local social intermediaries and the broader population, and thus generally attempted to stabilize their rule by pacifying occupied societies. Many of the quotidian ruling techniques and practices deployed for this purpose produced a set of related socio-political legacies across Western European societies which found their distinctive expression during the subsequent decades.
Despite their functional commonalities, however, occupations have hitherto been mostly explored from a national perspective and have only occasionally been placed within a comparative framework. This workshop takes as its point of departure the structural similarities of military occupations during the 1940s and their collective impact upon post-war European societies. It seeks to provide a forum for discussing the merits and problems as well as the future research agenda of a comparative European history of military occupations.
All invited speakers are currently involved in research projects on military occupations and will present novel findings from their ongoing work.
The workshop language will be English.
Conference Venue: Anna-Maria-von Schürmann-Raum, Gebäude 103 (Philosophikum), 3 OG, Universität zu Köln, Universitätsstraße 41, 50923 Köln
There is no charge for attendance.
Registrations and queries should be addressed to Camilo Erlichman (c.erlichman@sms.ed.ac.uk), Juliano de Assis Mendonça (juliano@mendonca.de) or Byron Schirbock (b.schirbock@uni-koeln.de).
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Programme:
Saturday, 17 January 2015
Panel I - Methodological and Programmatic Ideas
14.30 Camilo Erlichman (Edinburgh/Cologne): Welcome Address - Comparing Military Occupations in Western Europe
14.50 Tatjana Tönsmeyer (Wuppertal/Essen): Occupation and Occupied Societies - Conceptual Approaches towards a Comparative History of Occupation (Keynote Lecture)
15.40 Habbo Knoch (Cologne): Comment
15.50 Discussion
16.15 Coffee break
Panel II - Ruling Strategies and Social Interactions under Military Occupation
16.30 Byron Schirbock (Cologne): The German Occupation of France 1940-1944. Everyday Life, Encounters, and Mutual Perceptions
17.10 Carlo Gentile (Cologne): Experiences of Violence - Wehrmacht, SS and German Police in Western Europe and the War Against Civilians
17.50 Coffee break
18.00 Julia Wambach (Berkeley/Berlin): Vichy in Baden-Baden? - The French Occupation of Germany after 1945
18.40 Camilo Erlichman (Edinburgh/Cologne): "The Whisper behind the Throne": Authority, Visibility, and the Complexities of Indirect Rule in the British Zone of Germany, 1945-1949
19.20 End of day one
Sunday, 18 January 2015
Panel III - Long-term Legacies and Outcomes of Occupations
09.30 Krijn Thijs (Amsterdam): Unifying Europe. Wehrmacht Veterans Re-Visiting the Netherlands after 1945
10.10 Peter Romijn (Amsterdam/Jena): From Collaboration to Reconstruction - Functional Continuities in post-1945 Western Europe
10.50 Coffee break
11.10 Jost Dülffer (Cologne): Comment
11.40 Discussion
12.30 End of the workshop
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Contact:
Camilo Erlichman
Historisches Institut
Universität zu Köln
Albertus-Magnus-Platz
50923 Köln