Tag: Germany

Im Westen etwas Neues: The Modernisation of All Quiet on the Western Front

Im Westen etwas Neues: The Modernisation of All Quiet on the Western Front

Published March 1, 2023

Written by Helena Power

One of the legacies of the Great War Centenary is that there is a plethora of ‘forgotten’ stories about the war that remain to be explored. It is therefore somewhat ironic that the latest film about the conflict is a new adaptation of Erich Maria Remarque’s 1929 novel, All Quiet on the Western Front (Im Westen nichts Neues). The original film adaptation was released in 1930, so this presents an interesting opportunity to look at the retelling of an adaptation almost a century later. By comparing and contrasting the 2022 remake with the 1930 film, we can observe how modern filmography trends have changed the ways we tell stories about the past. For brevity, I will avoid the 1979 film adaptation. For ease of reference, the 2022 film will be referred to by its German title of Im Westen nichts Neues (or Im Westen), and the 1930 film as All Quiet on the Western Front (or All Quiet).

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Black Form (Dedicated to the Missing Jews): The Destruction of A Holocaust Memorial

Black Form (Dedicated to the Missing Jews): The Destruction of A Holocaust Memorial

Published February 8, 2023

Written by Stefan Goebel

Today it would be scandal, but back then, 35 years ago in February 1988, hardly anyone raised an eyebrow when the Black Form (Dedicated to the Missing Jews) was bulldozed to the ground. To be sure, this black cube built of blocks of aerated concrete was never meant to be a permanent memorial; it had been commissioned as a temporary work of art. The American artist Sol LeWitt (1928–2007) had created it for the second instalment of the international Skulptur Projekte exhibition in my home town Münster in 1987.

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‘Back to the Roofs’: The Spatial Propaganda of Munich’s Olympic Stadium

‘Back to the Roofs’: The Spatial Propaganda of Munich’s Olympic Stadium

Published September 29, 2022

Written by Peter Banks

From 11 to 21 August 2022, the multi-sport European Championships took place at Munich’s Olympic Park. Whilst this event occurs every four years, there is a particular historical resonance for this year’s championships for Munich, and Germany, as it coincides with the 50th anniversary of the 1972 Olympic Games held in Munich. Unfortunately, these Olympic Games will always be tainted by the terrorist attack carried out by the Palestinian group ‘Black September’ on the Israeli athletes in the Olympic village on 5 September 1972. However, the Munich games are also remembered and celebrated for how a new, democratic Germany was presented to the world only twenty-seven years after the end of the Second World War. Effectively utilised as a means of propaganda, the symbolic design of Munich’s Olympic stadium spatially exemplified this message and subsequently became a piece of iconic architecture. This is clearly illustrated by the slogan of this year’s European Championships, ‘Back to the Roofs’.

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Misinformation, Mass Observation and the Public Perception of the Norway Campaign, 1940

Misinformation, Mass Observation and the Public Perception of the Norway Campaign, 1940

Published February 23, 2022

Written by Charles Taylor

If you ask the modern-day Briton about the Norway campaign of 1940, you will likely be met with a blank face or a simple shrug. Eclipsed by the evacuation of Dunkirk and the fall of France, Britain’s involvement in this theatre has undoubtedly drifted into the background of British memory of the Second World War. Though little known, the campaign holds many significances for the armed forces. Erupting on 9 April 1940 with Germany’s Operation Weserübung, Norway was the first land campaign of the Second World War for Britain, the earliest meeting of British and German troops on the battlefield, the first joint Allied land operation, and the first modern sea, land and air campaign. Despite these considerations, Britain’s military involvement remains all but forgotten, condemned as a humiliating background episode and often glazed over in the history books.

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Culture in the Third Reich

Culture in the Third Reich

Published February 9, 2022

Reviewed by Kate Docking

‘Culture’ is not something that instantly springs to mind when one thinks of the National Socialist regime. Indeed, images of relentless barbarism dominate our perceptions, and rightly so, for extreme cruelty was perpetuated during the Third Reich. However, the violence committed by the Nazis does not mean that there was a total dearth of culture. In fact, as Moritz Föllmer adeptly shows in his significant book, Culture in the Third Reich, ‘culture’ – which Föllmer defines in broad terms, encompassing not only ‘high culture’ such as opera but also ‘popular’ leisure pursuits including film, radio and light fiction – actually abounded under Nazism. Building on the work of historians such as George Mosse and Fritz Stern, Föllmer has produced the most insightful and comprehensive history of National Socialist culture to date. The broader scholarly importance of the book lies in Föllmer’s powerful argument that the ‘cultural attractiveness’ (p. 25) of Nazism significantly enabled the movement’s success.

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The Forging of a Great Commander: Allenby of Armageddon

The Forging of a Great Commander: Allenby of Armageddon

Published October 14, 2020

Written by Julian Daggett.

General Allenby, as Basil Liddell Hart observed, was something of an enigma. In the public eye he became both a great and popular First World War general. His war, however, did not start well. The official historian, James Edmonds, held that his career in France was one of ‘gross stupidity’. Allenby was a cavalry officer; at the outbreak of the war he commanded the Cavalry Division and – by late 1915 – Third Army. He also commanded a fearsome reputation, being known as ‘the Bull’ – a rough, headstrong general who just butted forward in a blind sort of fashion. The initial, tactically impressive, triumph of Third Army at The Battle of Arras (1917) almost changed Allenby’s reputation on the Western Front. But the triumph was short-lived; the fighting soon turned into the familiar attritional grind and Allenby reverted to type. Three of his divisional commanders broke ranks and complained to Haig about Allenby’s murderous orders. In June 1917 Allenby was recalled to Britain.

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Allied Communication to the Public during the Second World War: National and Transnational Networks

Allied Communication to the Public during the Second World War: National and Transnational Networks

Published September 15, 2020

Reviewed by Will Butler.

This edited collection, which covers a diverse range of inter-related subjects, is a triumph, and a welcome collection to the study of the use of propaganda during the Second World War. It brings together a diverse range of scholars (both established and early career), who all tackle their subjects with aplomb, taking the reader on an exploration of their individual areas of study, without losing sight of the overall theme of the collection.

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Promise Me You’ll Shoot Yourself: The Downfall of Ordinary Germans in 1945

Promise Me You’ll Shoot Yourself: The Downfall of Ordinary Germans in 1945

Published January 20, 2020

Reviewed by Charlie Hall.

The question at the heart of Florian Huber’s book is: why did so many ‘ordinary Germans’ take their own lives at the end of the Second World War, in an act of mass suicide which has no parallel in modern conflict? There is no doubt that this is an important question, and one which promises to shed new light on the personal stories and experiences of individuals who lived (and died) in the Nazi age of extremes. However, while Huber’s work is a compelling, and often powerful, collection of stories, it struggles to reach a conclusion which satisfactorily answers this main question.

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Reflections on the Christmas Truce: Myth, Football and the Christmas of 1914

Reflections on the Christmas Truce: Myth, Football and the Christmas of 1914

Published December 10, 2019

Written by Natasha Silk.

The Christmas Truce forms one of the central focal points for the modern memory and commemorations of the First World War. Terri Blom Crocker in her exploration of the subject, has suggested that behind this myth that all soldiers ceased hostilities in rebellion against war is actually a complicated story. She argues that through its mythology and position in modern memory it has become a reflection of modern anti-war sentiment. Within the cultural memory of this event, the idea that British and German soldiers played football up and down the frontline is the dominant narrative. As Stanley Weintraub explored in Silent Night: The Remarkable Christmas Truce of 1914 (2001), there is evidence to suggest that there were a number of football matches in no man’s land between the British and the Germans, however, it was not widespread. Weintraub pointed to examples where the Germans refused to participate and the British played the matches alone. Yet, the idea that soldiers ceased hostilities and played football during the season of peace and goodwill to all men holds a certain charm for modern audiences. It allows for the myths and widespread interpretations which have existed since the war to endure. This being, that the soldiers of 1914 were just ordinary men fighting a war that they did not want, forced to fight by politicians who did not understand, or care, about the horrors of war.

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Reckonings: Legacies of Nazi Persecution and the Quest for Justice

Reckonings: Legacies of Nazi Persecution and the Quest for Justice

Published October 21, 2019

Reviewed by Kate Docking.

Reckonings, authored by Mary Fulbrook, analyses the various implications of Nazi atrocities on both an individual and state level. A key aspect of the book explores how the judicial punishment of those involved in National Socialist persecution in the decades following the war could vary vastly between states. The stories of Rudolf Zimmerman and Walter Thormeyer provide a particularly poignant example of this. Zimmerman lived a seemingly innocuous life before the German invasion of Poland in September 1939. Residing in a village near the city of Mielec in Poland, Zimmerman helped his father’s farming business. When the SS came to Mielec, Zimmerman soon became involved in Nazi atrocities; he murdered Jews, and was later also involved in selections and deportations. After the war, Zimmerman became a ‘model’ socialist citizen in East Germany; he even acquired awards for his work. However, Zimmerman’s dark past soon caught up with him. He was arrested by East German authorities in 1966, put on trial, and sentenced to life imprisonment in 1967. Walter Thormeyer, who was Zimmerman’s superior during the war, was tried in West Germany, and received a lesser sentence; he was condemned to twelve years in prison, in spite of the copious amount of evidence pertaining to his participation in murderous crimes. The cases of Thormeyer and Zimmerman are reflective of how East and West Germany often adopted different approaches to the handling of those involved in Nazi crimes; harsher punishments were (generally) dealt out in the GDR, whereas the Federal Republic embodied a more lenient approach.

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