Block seminar

Winter Semester 2022/2023

Exhibiting: Positions in Colonialism in Germany during National Socialism and after 1945

Prof. Dr. Raphael Gross, Prof. Dr. Werner Konitzer, Dagi Knellessen (Leipzig University - German Historical Museum)

Digital introductory session: 4 November 2022 (11.15 a.m.–12.45 p.m.); block sessions, planned to take place in person: 9 December 2022 (9.15 a.m.–4.45 p.m.); 13 January 2023 (9.15 a.m.–4.45 p.m.); digital conclusory meeting: 20 January 2023 (11.15 a.m.–1

Start: 4 November 2022

Dubnow Institute, Goldschmidtstr. 28, Leipzig + digital

Seminar Language: German

A few years ago, an exhibition at the German Historical Museum explored Germany’s colonial history (from around 1880 to 1918) and its impact through to the present. A new exhibition is currently being planned that will shift the perspective to controversies surrounding Germany’s colonial claims to power, to the economies of colonialism criticism, and to the position of German Jews within these debates. The seminar will begin with an introduction to German colonial history before examining the Nazi period, specifically exploring the following questions: To what extent did visions for the reacquisition of German colonies (colonial revisionism) collide with the large-scale Nazi spatial planning of Europe, in other words the Generalplan Ost? Did Jewish voices regarding German colonialism largely fall silent in the face of the approaching catastrophe in Europe? And did the focus not shift onto former as well as still existing colonies as countries of exile? The seminar will also concentrate on the resurgence of colonialism criticism in the Federal Republic of Germany, especially in the context of the 1968 movement. Numerous Jewish intellectuals were involved in these debates. How did they formulate their criticism of colonialism after the Holocaust and against their own experiential background?

Literature: The seminar reader will be made available at the beginning of the semester.

Open to mature age students: no
Participation is limited to 20 people.