Annotation
The relationship between Germany and its Eastern neighbors in the 19th and 20th century was a peculiar one: In the second half of the 19th century nationalism and ethnic struggle transformed it from a relatively calm coexistence into a colonial relationship. National Socialism was responsible that it ended in extreme violence, genocide and the ethnic unmixing of peoples in Central and Eastern Europe. After a period of antipathetic silence since 1945, Willy Brandt’s "New Eastern Policy" made an important step forward, because it meant a qualitative change of German policy towards its Eastern neighbors. After 1989 burning questions of shared historical experience of the Germans and their Eastern neighbors reemerged and sometimes became a burden of politics in integrating Europe. Today, these questions seem to be finally settled and a new era in the relationship between Germany and its Eastern neighbors has begun.
Historical research on the relationship of Germans and their Eastern neighbors has intensified since the 1990’s and brought a lot of new insights. Besides shedding new light on the dynamics of nationalism and the ethnic struggles in Central and Eastern Europe, It has shown how writers, historians and other German experts on "the East" constructed Eastern Europe as a site of German domination, expansion and colonization - culminating in Hitler’s idea of "Lebensraum" and the "Generalplan Ost". On the other hand, the Slavonic peoples of Central and Eastern Europe created their own imagination of Germany, like the idea of an eternal German "drive towards the East"; some parts of the Polish political specter even promoted the idea of a "return" to territories in the West, which in the Middle ages had been settled by Slavonic tribes.
In the seminar we will analyze the changing German imagination of "the East" and its counterpart - the imagination of Germany in Central and Eastern Europe (Bohemia/Czechoslovakia, Poland, Russia/USSR) in the 19th and 20th century and its practical "application" in the ethnic struggles and during World War II. What was the general development of these mutual imaginations over time, who were the main proponents, which their incentives? What were the sources of change in these imaginations? What were the reasons of the ethnic struggles, which roles were being played by the different parties engaged - ethnic groups, their organizations, the state? During the course we will discuss recent research and analyze sources. The students will acquire knowledge on the development of German-Czech-Polish-Jewish relations, mutual imaginations and Germany’s policy towards its Eastern neighbors in the 19th and 20th centuries.