During the Third Reich, a modern shape of everyday objects was propagated as realising a German n... more During the Third Reich, a modern shape of everyday objects was propagated as realising a German nation defined as an organic and racial entity. What happened to this cultural nexus after 1945? Historical scholarship has emphasized above all that modern design went on to be successfully framed as a cultural good that redeemed West Germany from the Nazi past. This redeeming opposition between the political meanings of modern design before and after 1945, however, appears less clear-cut if one acknowledges the structure of denial in post-war discourses by focussing on the silences, omissions and discrepancies in various publications. Such an analysis exposes how the coding of modern design as ‘timeless’ together with its promotion in the context of the Marshall Plan made it possible to blur any historical understanding of how the underlying notions of everyday aesthetics had been intertwined with racially loaded ideas of the German people. This obscurity in the context of a not yet decolonized West facilitated the continuing influence of at least some aspects of modern design’s more troubling political legacies.
Divided Dreamworlds? ideologies supported by 'dream communities' which share a common interpretat... more Divided Dreamworlds? ideologies supported by 'dream communities' which share a common interpretation of the world. But individuals, minorities or at times even majorities might not feel at home within these dreamworlds, creating instead their own alternatives. Traditionally, the history of the Cold War has often been described in terms of strict control: two antagonistic power blocs defining their own interpretation of the world, contesting each other's utopian claims as dystopian designs, and manufacturing consent by a combination of soft power (co-option, attraction, seduction) and hard power (coercion, intimidation, punishment) in the interest of collective security and identity. However, there are good reasons to qualify this rather onedimensional view. First of all, as suggested above, the collective dreamworlds of the Cold War were not all-encompassing. Both in the East and the West people experienced gaps between ideological promises and everyday reality. Their individual dreams did not necessarily coincide with the official collective ones. Even if they were forced to conform to political pressures, individual dreams remained ultimately outside the realm of enforcement. This was demonstrated not only in the shape of political dissent but also by the relative autonomy of cultural expressions. Although both power blocs claimed 'their' artistic and intellectual output to be an inalienable expression of their respective systems, and in spite of a welldeveloped system of censorship in the East, many cultural manifestations actually ran counter to dogmatic interpretations of capitalist or communist reality. In other words: culture could 'escape' the political straitjacket that was desired by those in authority. Alternative dreams could also be developed into counter-forces. However huge the differences between East European dissidents and the 'generation of 1968' in the West, both aimed at a free space, a radical alternative to a reality that, it was felt, failed to live up to its own promises. Secondly, the Cold War years were characterised by political, social and cultural developments, changes and ruptures that make it somewhat misleading to treat Eastern and Western cultural identities in a static and essentialist way. Taking the factor of time into account may lead us to a more nuanced view that not only focuses on the differences but also on the similarities between East and West, for instance with regard to comparable responses to the challenges and possibilities of modernity, varying from surveillance technologies to modern media and from theories of artistic progress to modern housing-construction techniques. Finally, apart from these parallel developments and reactions, it is important to note that the respective dreamworlds of the East and the West were not strictly divided. This was due in part to cross-border collaborations and cross-cultural exchange, especially in times of (relative) détente. But it was also due to the fact that the power blocs were not immune to each other's cultural forms and academic findings. These were spread by means of literature that was either available or smuggled into (or out of) the country, by cross-bloc media targeting (Radio Free Europe, East and West German television) or, less conspicuous but extremely 2
Bijdragen en Mededelingen betreffende de Geschiedenis der Nederlanden, 2012
historical debate on the political significance and functions of masculinity seems to be inextric... more historical debate on the political significance and functions of masculinity seems to be inextricably intertwined with the concept of crisis. 2 The resulting impression is that masculinity feels threatened and often turns into a political weapon particularly during political crises, the concept becoming thereby much more visible and explicit than usual. In the modern historical period this happens most frequently in moments of instability, moments in which the organisational principle of society, the order of the polity as such, is in jeopardy-either from the outside or from the inside-and has to defend itself. 3 This generally convincing analysis loses its sharpness however, if the concept of political crisis is defined so broadly that ultimately the whole of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries fit into it. Even if there are good arguments to stress the inherently fragile nature of modern polities, such an approach can result in a somewhat static view of masculinity's political role. In the general modern state of crisis then, the same 'hegemonic masculinity' of energy and will power, rationality and courage, establishes itself in the political imaginary with only slight nuances depending on the concrete societal and political circumstances. 4 Yet the strength of Robert Connell's concept of hegemonic masculinity consists of the way it theorises the simultaneous existence of different models of ideal masculinity. Today's hegemonic masculinity therefore can easily become tomorrow's marginalised 1 We would like to thank the anonymous reviewers, the editors of bmgn-Low Countries Historical Review, and the guest editor for their comments on earlier versions of this article.
La Restauration : son indissoluble conflit et sa politique symbolique Au cours de la période de l... more La Restauration : son indissoluble conflit et sa politique symbolique Au cours de la période de la Restauration, le problème de la division politique n’a pas été particulièrement important du seul fait que le débat politique a pu dès lors se dérouler plus librement en comparaison de la censure stricte mise en place sous Napoléon. En effet, la virulence avec laquelle la question s’est posée tient aussi au caractère singulier de la Restauration. Cette dernière se distingue de tous les autres ré..
Starting with the author's own experience of ghostliness in the archive, the article explores the... more Starting with the author's own experience of ghostliness in the archive, the article explores the political meaning of the postwar Volkswagen in West Germany as embodiment of the country's “economic miracle.” The investigation follows the uncanny in texts and images about the Volkswagen between 1945 and 1960 and argues that the car carried with it a “public secret” as a “debris” from the Nazi empire that silently transcended the 1945 divide. This reading of the Volkswagen as well as the methodological path toward it highlight a phenomenon that postcolonial scholars have described as “haunting”: a confusion about the relationship between past and present that also bears on those who study the past. Taking this analysis as an encouragement to revisit the powerful myths and “miracles” of postwar consumer cultures in the West from a new angle, the article calls for historical genealogies of these myths that conceive of the postwar West as a—not yet—postcolonial space and that cross the 1945 threshold.
This contribution takes a closer look at the role of emotions in order to examine the significanc... more This contribution takes a closer look at the role of emotions in order to examine the significance of associations during the nineteenth century. What happened to their supposed capacity to 'enlarge the citizens' heart'? Is it true that the culture of sensibility was gradually replaced by one in which men, in particular, were expected to control their feelings and what would that mean for cultural effects of associations? Gefühle sind ein zentraler Aspekt in Tocquevilles Analyse der amerikanischen Gesellschaft, welche Stefan-Ludwig Hoffmann als Ausgangspunkt dient für seine eigenen Überlegungen zur Funktion und Entwicklung der Geselligkeitsformen in der 'zivilen Gesellschaft'. 'Tocqueville considered human feelings and the process of their formation more significant for politics than rationally thought-out rights and interests' heißt es bei Hoffmann und weiter 'The decisive question for Tocqueville was how to avoid, particularly in democracy, the impoverishment of citizens' souls that would lead to despotism.' 1 Das Vereinsleben nimmt deshalb einen so hohen Stellenwert ein in Tocquevilles Studie, weil es als dasjenige Mittel erscheint, das am besten geeignet ist, diese notwendige 'demokratische Herzensbildung' der Bürger zu bewerkstelligen, und zwar indem es eine bestimmte Art von nicht interessegeleiteter Kommunikation möglich macht und fördert. In seiner inspirierenden Überblicksdarstellung und Diskussion des Vereinslebens in Europa lässt Hoffmann diesen Aspekt der Emotionalität jedoch wieder in den Hintergrund treten. Die Herzensbildung, die noch im Zeitalter der Aufklärung als die Fähigkeit zur Sentimentalität und Empfindsamkeit begriffen wurde, welche sich in freien Formen der Geselligkeit Ausdruck verschaffen konnte, verwandelt sich in Hoffmanns Darstellung, wiederum im Rückgriff auf Tocqueville, relativ bruchlos in eine explizit männliche Bürgertugend, innerhalb welcher die Kontrolle der Gefühle mindestens ebenso wichtig ist wie ihr Ausdruck. Hoffmanns großes Verdienst besteht darin, die Historisierung der Erscheinungsformen bürgerlichen Geselligkeit dazu zu nutzen, ihr ambivalentes Ver-
ENSAIO * Artigo a ser publicado na revista francesa Clio em 2015. Os direitos para a realização d... more ENSAIO * Artigo a ser publicado na revista francesa Clio em 2015. Os direitos para a realização desta tradução foram gentilmente cedidos pela autora. Texto traduzido por Carla Milani Damião.
Genre, culture matérielle et héritage du passé nazi Ces dernières années, la notion de genre a jo... more Genre, culture matérielle et héritage du passé nazi Ces dernières années, la notion de genre a joué un rôle croissant dans le débat scientifique portant sur les efforts, parfois contradictoires, qu'a fournis l'Allemagne de l'après-guerre pour se confronter à son passé nazi. Certains historiens soutiennent que l'effondrement de la société nationale-socialiste y a entraîné une crise aiguë de la masculinité et que la reconstruction d'une quelconque forme d'autorité masculine relevait alors d'un vrai défi. Différentes études ont montré que, dans le contexte de la défaite, les femmes étaient à la fois considérées comme des coupables, qui avaient trahi sur le plan sexuel, et comme des icônes de pureté morale, que n'avaient pas souillées les crimes nazis. À ce titre, elles se virent confier la responsabilité de « recoller les morceaux », au sens littéral comme au sens figuré, celle d'assurer un nouveau départ et d'aider les hommes à assumer leur propre passé. Dans cette optique, Elizabeth Heineman a souligné l'importance des figures féminines, ces « femmes des ruines », dans le Trümmerfilm (littéralement, « film de décombres ») qui domine la production cinématographique allemande sous l'occupation alliée. Les plus célèbres de ces films apparaissent aussi dans les recherches historiques et cinématographiques, où ils viennent fréquemment illustrer cette théorie 1 .
Looking at the 1950s in West-Germany through the diffusing lens of ‘Americanization’ delivers con... more Looking at the 1950s in West-Germany through the diffusing lens of ‘Americanization’ delivers contradictory stories. On the one hand Americanization becomes visible where (and in a way) it was not at all intended by US foreign cultural politics: Halbstarke take on Rock’n Roll and other selected elements of an American youthculture which initially found nearly as critical reaction from a cultural elite in the US as it did in Germany. On the other hand ‘Americanization’ becomes almost invisible where US policy succeeded to a great extend, namely in its intention to transform the German Heim in a modern consumer’s home after the model of new American suburban culture. But, as recent research shows, this new home lost nearly all the traces of any concrete “America”, even in the US propaganda efforts, to become finally a place of – western – international style modernism.
Against this background the article takes a closer look at representations of the West-German domestic sphere in the 1950s and aims to unravel how the home became the site of very different stories – be it stories of ‘Americanization’, ‘internationalization’ or ‘modernization’. By analyzing the discourse around the modern home in lifestyle magazines, the home regains its quality as a sphere of mediation between past and present, old and new. Finally, these observations will be compared with recent research on the modern home in 1950s USA and their own cultural negotiations of ‘old’ and ‘new’, hereby adding a further dimension to the discussions about Americanization in West-Germany.
Das Attentat auf den Herzog von Berry bedeutete eine Zerreißprobe für das labile Gleichgewicht de... more Das Attentat auf den Herzog von Berry bedeutete eine Zerreißprobe für das labile Gleichgewicht der französischen Restauration und ließ die virulenten politischen Gegensätze in offene Konflikte ausbrechen. Doch der Tod Berrys war auch eines der ...
Historians of gender often see the construction of hegemonic images of masculinity as the result ... more Historians of gender often see the construction of hegemonic images of masculinity as the result of long-term cultural processes. In this article we investigate the influence of short-term political events on the shaping of dominant political masculinities by comparing the representations of the early French and Dutch Restoration monarchies. The events of the political transition of 1813-1815 greatly influenced the competition of different models of masculinity existing in the early nineteenth century. In both countries the newly established monarchs aimed to legitimate their insecure rule by presenting themselves as 'loving fathers' returning to their despairing children after the dark years of exile. The Dutch monarchy differed from the French case with regards to the role of women in the monarchical representation and the duality of the representation of William I as father and hero. Unlike Louis XVIII, William could present his fatherly rule as a return to the national t...
This article explores the ways in which the challenge of reconciling a politically
divided count... more This article explores the ways in which the challenge of reconciling a politically divided country is reflected in the memory culture of the early French Restora- tion. It analyzes both the official politics of representation and a broader popular discourse. The main argument is that these popular (lyrical) texts provided a specific way of dealing with the Restoration’s central problem of how to deal with the presence of the revolutionary past which was challenging the legitimacy of the present order. By combining certain symbolic-metaphoric devices with a style of pathos, these texts created a sentimental cultural practice of reconciliation which made it possible to remember the fundamental political conflict and simultaneously make it disappear behind the strong emotions that were evoked.
The essay focuses on two rubble films The Murderers Are Among Us and Between Yesterday and Tomorr... more The essay focuses on two rubble films The Murderers Are Among Us and Between Yesterday and Tomorrow in order to explore how these films deal with the legacy of Nazi material culture in gendered terms. The objects on screen are analyzed as ‘tangible events’ relating to the disrupted order of things in postwar Germany, including the legacy of dispossession and ‘Aryanization’ of German space. Just as the problem of male guilt relates in these films in a peculiar way to the dispossessed belongings of a female victim, the problem of dispossession (and the related mass murder) is intermingled with the challenge of postwar gender relations. The physical act of cleaning up and re-ordering is not only established as a female task but is also intended to solve the problem of the Third Reich’s uncomfortably present material leftovers through women’s bodily interventions.
Cet article s’attache à deux films représentatifs de l’« esthétique des décombres », Les Assassin... more Cet article s’attache à deux films représentatifs de l’« esthétique des décombres », Les Assassins sont parmi nous et Entre hier et aujourd’hui, pour analyser, du point de vue du genre, la présentation des objets légués par le nazisme. Les objets à l’écran sont compris comme des « événements tangibles » qui témoignent du bouleversement de l’ordre des choses dans l’Allemagne d’après-guerre, y compris celui de l’héritage de la confiscation et de l’« aryanisation » de l’espace allemand. Dans ces films, un parallèle est établi entre le sentiment de culpabilité éprouvé par les hommes par rapport aux objets arrachés à une femme, victime, et le problème de dépossession (ainsi que son corollaire, le meurtre collectif) qui vient se mêler aux défis des relations de genre dans l’après-guerre. L’activité même de nettoyage et de remise en ordre est représentée comme une forme féminine de travail ; ces interventions physiques de la part des femmes sont aussi chargées de résoudre le problème posé par l’embarrassante présence des restes matériels du Troisième Reich.
Historians of gender often see the construction of hegemonic images of masculinity
as the result... more Historians of gender often see the construction of hegemonic images of masculinity
as the result of long-term cultural processes. In this article we investigate the
influence of short-term political events on the shaping of dominant political
masculinities by comparing the representations of the early French and Dutch
Restoration monarchies. The events of the political transition of 1813-1815 greatly
influenced the competition of different models of masculinity existing in the early
nineteenth century. In both countries the newly established monarchs aimed to
legitimate their insecure rule by presenting themselves as ‘loving fathers’ returning
to their despairing children after the dark years of exile. The Dutch monarchy
differed from the French case with regards to the role of women in the monarchical
representation and the duality of the representation of William I as father and hero.
Unlike Louis XVIII, William could present his fatherly rule as a return to the national
tradition of domesticity (huiselijkheid).
Masculinity and
During the Third Reich, a modern shape of everyday objects was propagated as realising a German n... more During the Third Reich, a modern shape of everyday objects was propagated as realising a German nation defined as an organic and racial entity. What happened to this cultural nexus after 1945? Historical scholarship has emphasized above all that modern design went on to be successfully framed as a cultural good that redeemed West Germany from the Nazi past. This redeeming opposition between the political meanings of modern design before and after 1945, however, appears less clear-cut if one acknowledges the structure of denial in post-war discourses by focussing on the silences, omissions and discrepancies in various publications. Such an analysis exposes how the coding of modern design as ‘timeless’ together with its promotion in the context of the Marshall Plan made it possible to blur any historical understanding of how the underlying notions of everyday aesthetics had been intertwined with racially loaded ideas of the German people. This obscurity in the context of a not yet decolonized West facilitated the continuing influence of at least some aspects of modern design’s more troubling political legacies.
Divided Dreamworlds? ideologies supported by 'dream communities' which share a common interpretat... more Divided Dreamworlds? ideologies supported by 'dream communities' which share a common interpretation of the world. But individuals, minorities or at times even majorities might not feel at home within these dreamworlds, creating instead their own alternatives. Traditionally, the history of the Cold War has often been described in terms of strict control: two antagonistic power blocs defining their own interpretation of the world, contesting each other's utopian claims as dystopian designs, and manufacturing consent by a combination of soft power (co-option, attraction, seduction) and hard power (coercion, intimidation, punishment) in the interest of collective security and identity. However, there are good reasons to qualify this rather onedimensional view. First of all, as suggested above, the collective dreamworlds of the Cold War were not all-encompassing. Both in the East and the West people experienced gaps between ideological promises and everyday reality. Their individual dreams did not necessarily coincide with the official collective ones. Even if they were forced to conform to political pressures, individual dreams remained ultimately outside the realm of enforcement. This was demonstrated not only in the shape of political dissent but also by the relative autonomy of cultural expressions. Although both power blocs claimed 'their' artistic and intellectual output to be an inalienable expression of their respective systems, and in spite of a welldeveloped system of censorship in the East, many cultural manifestations actually ran counter to dogmatic interpretations of capitalist or communist reality. In other words: culture could 'escape' the political straitjacket that was desired by those in authority. Alternative dreams could also be developed into counter-forces. However huge the differences between East European dissidents and the 'generation of 1968' in the West, both aimed at a free space, a radical alternative to a reality that, it was felt, failed to live up to its own promises. Secondly, the Cold War years were characterised by political, social and cultural developments, changes and ruptures that make it somewhat misleading to treat Eastern and Western cultural identities in a static and essentialist way. Taking the factor of time into account may lead us to a more nuanced view that not only focuses on the differences but also on the similarities between East and West, for instance with regard to comparable responses to the challenges and possibilities of modernity, varying from surveillance technologies to modern media and from theories of artistic progress to modern housing-construction techniques. Finally, apart from these parallel developments and reactions, it is important to note that the respective dreamworlds of the East and the West were not strictly divided. This was due in part to cross-border collaborations and cross-cultural exchange, especially in times of (relative) détente. But it was also due to the fact that the power blocs were not immune to each other's cultural forms and academic findings. These were spread by means of literature that was either available or smuggled into (or out of) the country, by cross-bloc media targeting (Radio Free Europe, East and West German television) or, less conspicuous but extremely 2
Bijdragen en Mededelingen betreffende de Geschiedenis der Nederlanden, 2012
historical debate on the political significance and functions of masculinity seems to be inextric... more historical debate on the political significance and functions of masculinity seems to be inextricably intertwined with the concept of crisis. 2 The resulting impression is that masculinity feels threatened and often turns into a political weapon particularly during political crises, the concept becoming thereby much more visible and explicit than usual. In the modern historical period this happens most frequently in moments of instability, moments in which the organisational principle of society, the order of the polity as such, is in jeopardy-either from the outside or from the inside-and has to defend itself. 3 This generally convincing analysis loses its sharpness however, if the concept of political crisis is defined so broadly that ultimately the whole of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries fit into it. Even if there are good arguments to stress the inherently fragile nature of modern polities, such an approach can result in a somewhat static view of masculinity's political role. In the general modern state of crisis then, the same 'hegemonic masculinity' of energy and will power, rationality and courage, establishes itself in the political imaginary with only slight nuances depending on the concrete societal and political circumstances. 4 Yet the strength of Robert Connell's concept of hegemonic masculinity consists of the way it theorises the simultaneous existence of different models of ideal masculinity. Today's hegemonic masculinity therefore can easily become tomorrow's marginalised 1 We would like to thank the anonymous reviewers, the editors of bmgn-Low Countries Historical Review, and the guest editor for their comments on earlier versions of this article.
La Restauration : son indissoluble conflit et sa politique symbolique Au cours de la période de l... more La Restauration : son indissoluble conflit et sa politique symbolique Au cours de la période de la Restauration, le problème de la division politique n’a pas été particulièrement important du seul fait que le débat politique a pu dès lors se dérouler plus librement en comparaison de la censure stricte mise en place sous Napoléon. En effet, la virulence avec laquelle la question s’est posée tient aussi au caractère singulier de la Restauration. Cette dernière se distingue de tous les autres ré..
Starting with the author's own experience of ghostliness in the archive, the article explores the... more Starting with the author's own experience of ghostliness in the archive, the article explores the political meaning of the postwar Volkswagen in West Germany as embodiment of the country's “economic miracle.” The investigation follows the uncanny in texts and images about the Volkswagen between 1945 and 1960 and argues that the car carried with it a “public secret” as a “debris” from the Nazi empire that silently transcended the 1945 divide. This reading of the Volkswagen as well as the methodological path toward it highlight a phenomenon that postcolonial scholars have described as “haunting”: a confusion about the relationship between past and present that also bears on those who study the past. Taking this analysis as an encouragement to revisit the powerful myths and “miracles” of postwar consumer cultures in the West from a new angle, the article calls for historical genealogies of these myths that conceive of the postwar West as a—not yet—postcolonial space and that cross the 1945 threshold.
This contribution takes a closer look at the role of emotions in order to examine the significanc... more This contribution takes a closer look at the role of emotions in order to examine the significance of associations during the nineteenth century. What happened to their supposed capacity to 'enlarge the citizens' heart'? Is it true that the culture of sensibility was gradually replaced by one in which men, in particular, were expected to control their feelings and what would that mean for cultural effects of associations? Gefühle sind ein zentraler Aspekt in Tocquevilles Analyse der amerikanischen Gesellschaft, welche Stefan-Ludwig Hoffmann als Ausgangspunkt dient für seine eigenen Überlegungen zur Funktion und Entwicklung der Geselligkeitsformen in der 'zivilen Gesellschaft'. 'Tocqueville considered human feelings and the process of their formation more significant for politics than rationally thought-out rights and interests' heißt es bei Hoffmann und weiter 'The decisive question for Tocqueville was how to avoid, particularly in democracy, the impoverishment of citizens' souls that would lead to despotism.' 1 Das Vereinsleben nimmt deshalb einen so hohen Stellenwert ein in Tocquevilles Studie, weil es als dasjenige Mittel erscheint, das am besten geeignet ist, diese notwendige 'demokratische Herzensbildung' der Bürger zu bewerkstelligen, und zwar indem es eine bestimmte Art von nicht interessegeleiteter Kommunikation möglich macht und fördert. In seiner inspirierenden Überblicksdarstellung und Diskussion des Vereinslebens in Europa lässt Hoffmann diesen Aspekt der Emotionalität jedoch wieder in den Hintergrund treten. Die Herzensbildung, die noch im Zeitalter der Aufklärung als die Fähigkeit zur Sentimentalität und Empfindsamkeit begriffen wurde, welche sich in freien Formen der Geselligkeit Ausdruck verschaffen konnte, verwandelt sich in Hoffmanns Darstellung, wiederum im Rückgriff auf Tocqueville, relativ bruchlos in eine explizit männliche Bürgertugend, innerhalb welcher die Kontrolle der Gefühle mindestens ebenso wichtig ist wie ihr Ausdruck. Hoffmanns großes Verdienst besteht darin, die Historisierung der Erscheinungsformen bürgerlichen Geselligkeit dazu zu nutzen, ihr ambivalentes Ver-
ENSAIO * Artigo a ser publicado na revista francesa Clio em 2015. Os direitos para a realização d... more ENSAIO * Artigo a ser publicado na revista francesa Clio em 2015. Os direitos para a realização desta tradução foram gentilmente cedidos pela autora. Texto traduzido por Carla Milani Damião.
Genre, culture matérielle et héritage du passé nazi Ces dernières années, la notion de genre a jo... more Genre, culture matérielle et héritage du passé nazi Ces dernières années, la notion de genre a joué un rôle croissant dans le débat scientifique portant sur les efforts, parfois contradictoires, qu'a fournis l'Allemagne de l'après-guerre pour se confronter à son passé nazi. Certains historiens soutiennent que l'effondrement de la société nationale-socialiste y a entraîné une crise aiguë de la masculinité et que la reconstruction d'une quelconque forme d'autorité masculine relevait alors d'un vrai défi. Différentes études ont montré que, dans le contexte de la défaite, les femmes étaient à la fois considérées comme des coupables, qui avaient trahi sur le plan sexuel, et comme des icônes de pureté morale, que n'avaient pas souillées les crimes nazis. À ce titre, elles se virent confier la responsabilité de « recoller les morceaux », au sens littéral comme au sens figuré, celle d'assurer un nouveau départ et d'aider les hommes à assumer leur propre passé. Dans cette optique, Elizabeth Heineman a souligné l'importance des figures féminines, ces « femmes des ruines », dans le Trümmerfilm (littéralement, « film de décombres ») qui domine la production cinématographique allemande sous l'occupation alliée. Les plus célèbres de ces films apparaissent aussi dans les recherches historiques et cinématographiques, où ils viennent fréquemment illustrer cette théorie 1 .
Looking at the 1950s in West-Germany through the diffusing lens of ‘Americanization’ delivers con... more Looking at the 1950s in West-Germany through the diffusing lens of ‘Americanization’ delivers contradictory stories. On the one hand Americanization becomes visible where (and in a way) it was not at all intended by US foreign cultural politics: Halbstarke take on Rock’n Roll and other selected elements of an American youthculture which initially found nearly as critical reaction from a cultural elite in the US as it did in Germany. On the other hand ‘Americanization’ becomes almost invisible where US policy succeeded to a great extend, namely in its intention to transform the German Heim in a modern consumer’s home after the model of new American suburban culture. But, as recent research shows, this new home lost nearly all the traces of any concrete “America”, even in the US propaganda efforts, to become finally a place of – western – international style modernism.
Against this background the article takes a closer look at representations of the West-German domestic sphere in the 1950s and aims to unravel how the home became the site of very different stories – be it stories of ‘Americanization’, ‘internationalization’ or ‘modernization’. By analyzing the discourse around the modern home in lifestyle magazines, the home regains its quality as a sphere of mediation between past and present, old and new. Finally, these observations will be compared with recent research on the modern home in 1950s USA and their own cultural negotiations of ‘old’ and ‘new’, hereby adding a further dimension to the discussions about Americanization in West-Germany.
Das Attentat auf den Herzog von Berry bedeutete eine Zerreißprobe für das labile Gleichgewicht de... more Das Attentat auf den Herzog von Berry bedeutete eine Zerreißprobe für das labile Gleichgewicht der französischen Restauration und ließ die virulenten politischen Gegensätze in offene Konflikte ausbrechen. Doch der Tod Berrys war auch eines der ...
Historians of gender often see the construction of hegemonic images of masculinity as the result ... more Historians of gender often see the construction of hegemonic images of masculinity as the result of long-term cultural processes. In this article we investigate the influence of short-term political events on the shaping of dominant political masculinities by comparing the representations of the early French and Dutch Restoration monarchies. The events of the political transition of 1813-1815 greatly influenced the competition of different models of masculinity existing in the early nineteenth century. In both countries the newly established monarchs aimed to legitimate their insecure rule by presenting themselves as 'loving fathers' returning to their despairing children after the dark years of exile. The Dutch monarchy differed from the French case with regards to the role of women in the monarchical representation and the duality of the representation of William I as father and hero. Unlike Louis XVIII, William could present his fatherly rule as a return to the national t...
This article explores the ways in which the challenge of reconciling a politically
divided count... more This article explores the ways in which the challenge of reconciling a politically divided country is reflected in the memory culture of the early French Restora- tion. It analyzes both the official politics of representation and a broader popular discourse. The main argument is that these popular (lyrical) texts provided a specific way of dealing with the Restoration’s central problem of how to deal with the presence of the revolutionary past which was challenging the legitimacy of the present order. By combining certain symbolic-metaphoric devices with a style of pathos, these texts created a sentimental cultural practice of reconciliation which made it possible to remember the fundamental political conflict and simultaneously make it disappear behind the strong emotions that were evoked.
The essay focuses on two rubble films The Murderers Are Among Us and Between Yesterday and Tomorr... more The essay focuses on two rubble films The Murderers Are Among Us and Between Yesterday and Tomorrow in order to explore how these films deal with the legacy of Nazi material culture in gendered terms. The objects on screen are analyzed as ‘tangible events’ relating to the disrupted order of things in postwar Germany, including the legacy of dispossession and ‘Aryanization’ of German space. Just as the problem of male guilt relates in these films in a peculiar way to the dispossessed belongings of a female victim, the problem of dispossession (and the related mass murder) is intermingled with the challenge of postwar gender relations. The physical act of cleaning up and re-ordering is not only established as a female task but is also intended to solve the problem of the Third Reich’s uncomfortably present material leftovers through women’s bodily interventions.
Cet article s’attache à deux films représentatifs de l’« esthétique des décombres », Les Assassin... more Cet article s’attache à deux films représentatifs de l’« esthétique des décombres », Les Assassins sont parmi nous et Entre hier et aujourd’hui, pour analyser, du point de vue du genre, la présentation des objets légués par le nazisme. Les objets à l’écran sont compris comme des « événements tangibles » qui témoignent du bouleversement de l’ordre des choses dans l’Allemagne d’après-guerre, y compris celui de l’héritage de la confiscation et de l’« aryanisation » de l’espace allemand. Dans ces films, un parallèle est établi entre le sentiment de culpabilité éprouvé par les hommes par rapport aux objets arrachés à une femme, victime, et le problème de dépossession (ainsi que son corollaire, le meurtre collectif) qui vient se mêler aux défis des relations de genre dans l’après-guerre. L’activité même de nettoyage et de remise en ordre est représentée comme une forme féminine de travail ; ces interventions physiques de la part des femmes sont aussi chargées de résoudre le problème posé par l’embarrassante présence des restes matériels du Troisième Reich.
Historians of gender often see the construction of hegemonic images of masculinity
as the result... more Historians of gender often see the construction of hegemonic images of masculinity
as the result of long-term cultural processes. In this article we investigate the
influence of short-term political events on the shaping of dominant political
masculinities by comparing the representations of the early French and Dutch
Restoration monarchies. The events of the political transition of 1813-1815 greatly
influenced the competition of different models of masculinity existing in the early
nineteenth century. In both countries the newly established monarchs aimed to
legitimate their insecure rule by presenting themselves as ‘loving fathers’ returning
to their despairing children after the dark years of exile. The Dutch monarchy
differed from the French case with regards to the role of women in the monarchical
representation and the duality of the representation of William I as father and hero.
Unlike Louis XVIII, William could present his fatherly rule as a return to the national
tradition of domesticity (huiselijkheid).
Masculinity and
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Papers by Natalie Scholz
Against this background the article takes a closer look at representations of the West-German domestic sphere in the 1950s and aims to unravel how the home became the site of very different stories – be it stories of ‘Americanization’, ‘internationalization’ or ‘modernization’. By analyzing the discourse around the modern home in lifestyle magazines, the home regains its quality as a sphere of mediation between past and present, old and new. Finally, these observations will be compared with recent research on the modern home in 1950s USA and their own cultural negotiations of ‘old’ and ‘new’, hereby adding a further dimension to the discussions about Americanization in West-Germany.
divided country is reflected in the memory culture of the early French Restora-
tion. It analyzes both the official politics of representation and a broader popular discourse. The main argument is that these popular (lyrical) texts provided a specific way of dealing with the Restoration’s central problem of how to deal with the presence of the revolutionary past which was challenging the legitimacy of the present order. By combining certain symbolic-metaphoric devices with a style of pathos, these texts created a sentimental cultural practice of reconciliation which made it possible to remember the fundamental political conflict and simultaneously make it disappear behind the strong emotions that were evoked.
as the result of long-term cultural processes. In this article we investigate the
influence of short-term political events on the shaping of dominant political
masculinities by comparing the representations of the early French and Dutch
Restoration monarchies. The events of the political transition of 1813-1815 greatly
influenced the competition of different models of masculinity existing in the early
nineteenth century. In both countries the newly established monarchs aimed to
legitimate their insecure rule by presenting themselves as ‘loving fathers’ returning
to their despairing children after the dark years of exile. The Dutch monarchy
differed from the French case with regards to the role of women in the monarchical
representation and the duality of the representation of William I as father and hero.
Unlike Louis XVIII, William could present his fatherly rule as a return to the national
tradition of domesticity (huiselijkheid).
Masculinity and
Against this background the article takes a closer look at representations of the West-German domestic sphere in the 1950s and aims to unravel how the home became the site of very different stories – be it stories of ‘Americanization’, ‘internationalization’ or ‘modernization’. By analyzing the discourse around the modern home in lifestyle magazines, the home regains its quality as a sphere of mediation between past and present, old and new. Finally, these observations will be compared with recent research on the modern home in 1950s USA and their own cultural negotiations of ‘old’ and ‘new’, hereby adding a further dimension to the discussions about Americanization in West-Germany.
divided country is reflected in the memory culture of the early French Restora-
tion. It analyzes both the official politics of representation and a broader popular discourse. The main argument is that these popular (lyrical) texts provided a specific way of dealing with the Restoration’s central problem of how to deal with the presence of the revolutionary past which was challenging the legitimacy of the present order. By combining certain symbolic-metaphoric devices with a style of pathos, these texts created a sentimental cultural practice of reconciliation which made it possible to remember the fundamental political conflict and simultaneously make it disappear behind the strong emotions that were evoked.
as the result of long-term cultural processes. In this article we investigate the
influence of short-term political events on the shaping of dominant political
masculinities by comparing the representations of the early French and Dutch
Restoration monarchies. The events of the political transition of 1813-1815 greatly
influenced the competition of different models of masculinity existing in the early
nineteenth century. In both countries the newly established monarchs aimed to
legitimate their insecure rule by presenting themselves as ‘loving fathers’ returning
to their despairing children after the dark years of exile. The Dutch monarchy
differed from the French case with regards to the role of women in the monarchical
representation and the duality of the representation of William I as father and hero.
Unlike Louis XVIII, William could present his fatherly rule as a return to the national
tradition of domesticity (huiselijkheid).
Masculinity and