Von Erdhügeln, Massengräbern und Einzelgrabstätten - Militärische Begräbniskultur von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart

in Leisner, Barbara (Ed.) Soldat - Kind - Zwangsarbeiterin - Deserteur. Wer ist in den Soldatengräbern auf dem Friedhof Ohlsdorf bestattet (2021)

Justiz, Richter und Anwälte während der nationalsozialistischen Besatzung im Großherzogtum Luxemburg. Ein Forschungsbericht

in Lölke, Janna; Staats, Martina (Eds.) richten - strafen - erinnern. Nationalsozialistische Justizverbrechen und ihre Nachwirkungen in der Bundesrepublik (2021)

The Museum of American War Letters

in HSOZKULT - Kommunikation und Fachinformation für die Geschichtswissenschaften (2021)

Zwangsrekrutierung: Geschichte von unten erzählen

in Kuntzmann, Morgan (Ed.) Luxemburger Wort (2021)

PROJECT WARLUX Ambiguities in biographies of Luxembourgish conscripts during and after WWII

E-print/Working paper (2021)

More than 10,000 Luxembourgish soldiers and recruits and an unknown number of Luxembourgish men and women wore German uniforms during WWII in armed forces and civil organisations, such as the Wehrmacht ... [more ▼]

More than 10,000 Luxembourgish soldiers and recruits and an unknown number of Luxembourgish men and women wore German uniforms during WWII in armed forces and civil organisations, such as the Wehrmacht, Waffen-SS, armed police forces and the Reichsarbeitsdienst (RAD). The "WARLUX" project, based at the University of Luxembourg in the Luxembourg Centre for Contemporary and Digital History (C2DH), intends to collect the biographical data of Luxembourgers who were drafted into the German Army and the Labour Service. Around 3,000 young men and women are used in a case study to research their biographies and individual stories during the war, highlight different approaches to researching World War II, and show different résumés and personal experiences during this period. WARLUX aims to review the categories that have tended to be used in the national history discourse. For these women and men were called different like "forced recruit", "volunteer", "réfractaire" and "déserteur" were used, next to mentions of "Mort la patrie" for whom who died in German uniform. Are these terms appropriate to describe the experiences of these individuals, or do they need to be elucidated and challenged? Who were the people behind these abstract terms? What were their individual experiences, stories, reactions, choices, contradictions and survival strategies during and after World War II (Tames 2016)? The term "forced recruit" has come to suggest the general victim status of all conscripted Luxembourgish soldiers. In this content between the dualism of the official narrative and the historiography of the last decades, the project WARLUX wants to apply another concept: "situative opportunism", to question the cumulative heroism and the power of collective forms of decision-making in "forced environments", like the enrolment of young women and men (Fickers/Brüll, 2019). Following the biographical approach by analysing documents and personal views (letters, diaries), Andreas Fickers and Christoph Brüll (2019) use the term "situative opportunism" to emphasise the link between biographical research and sociological decision theory. Based on Schimank (2005), the authors state that every historical actor has multiple options in a complex decision-making process; these decisions are not necessarily egoist, neither the result of external constraints, but grounded in a situational logic of doing what seems most suitable in this very moment. The project is still in the initial phase but will soon deepen the analysis of the biographies of the individuals using the term "situational opportunism". With the application for the conference, the project team would like to discuss other approaches and start an exchange about other/opposite concepts. [less ▲]

Rezension - Ewige Ruhe? Grabkulturen in Luxemburg und den Nachbarregionen / Concession à perpétuité? Culture funéraires au Luxembourg et dans les régions voisines, hg. v. Sonja Kmec, Robert L. Philippart, Antoinette Reuter, Luxembourg : Capybarabooks, 2019

in Hemecht: Zeitschrift für Luxemburger Geschichte (2020), 3

DEUTSCHE SOLDATENGRÄBER DES ZWEITEN WELTKRIEGES ZWISCHEN HELDENVERHERRLICHUNG UND ZEICHEN DER VERSÖHNUNG – KULTURWISSENSCHAFTLICH-HISTORISCHE FALLSTUDIEN ZUR ENTWICKLUNG DES UMGANGES MIT DEM KRIEGSTOD

Doctoral thesis (2019)

Ten cultural-historical case studies investigate how deaths in war were dealt with based on soldier graves of the Second World War. In this dissertation, the resting places of the fallen German soldiers ... [more ▼]

Ten cultural-historical case studies investigate how deaths in war were dealt with based on soldier graves of the Second World War. In this dissertation, the resting places of the fallen German soldiers offer a unique perspective in the evaluation of death during a violent conflict and in the post-war period. The examination frame extends from 1939 to the present and follows the reception and importance of the graves and the fallen in military, politics and society. Some single chapters of this thesis have been already published or are intended for publication. Methodologically, the study consists of empirical work, such as the analysis of unpublished archival sources, as well as hermeneutical tools in the form of interviews, surveys, local documentation, and field studies of burial sites and exhumations. Two terms – hero glorification and signs of reconciliation – illustrate the differences in how the meaning of the graves and their dead soldiers was perceived. This difference highlights the change in values and meaning that the graves had to face. In the Second World War, the Wehrmacht responded to the nearly five million German casualties with mythical hero stories, propaganda and parades, but also with an elaborate administration system and rules concerning the dead and their graves. The instructions for the soldier’s death included details about the material and inscription of the gravestone to the identification of unknown dead. The graves sustained a structure and organization in accordance with a modern military grave system. The claim to a single grave and the registration and notification of the relatives was included in the Wehrmacht. The denotation of the dead as heroes and their resting places as heroes' graves (Heldengräber) and heroes' groves (Heldenhaine) shows the attempt to integrate them into the ideology and propaganda of the National Socialist regime. However, the management of graves, as well as the cult of heroes, had to fail due to the reality of war – i.e., the number of casualties, the chaotic conditions at the front and the defeat of the Germans. The hero's glorification could not be maintained after the end of the war. In post-war society, an attempt was made to defuse the symbolism of military death and put it into a neutral and harmless context other than National Socialism. The continuation of the graves’ management, the search for unknown resting places and the construction of cemeteries could no longer be operated by the military. Under the slogan of reconciliation and the expression of peace and understanding instead, access to the Wehrmacht graves was reached first in Western Europe, after 1989 in Eastern Europe by the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge e.V. The Volksbund builds and cares for cemeteries and exhumes the remains until the present. This effort is still being made by the Germans today and illustrates the importance of war graves care in modern international context. The studies show how mutable and dependent are the meaning and symbolism of the death of a soldier within different political and social constructs and epochs. In these studies, the range of soldiers' graves as a research topic is clarified and further perspectives for questions and investigation contexts are shown. The investigation of German soldiers' graves of the Second World War in terms of their relevance is of particular importance. The fact that great efforts are still being made to find and maintain the resting places of dead soldiers more than 70 years after the war demonstrates the political dimension of the war dead and their graves. Above all, the distinctiveness of these objects as resting places for German soldiers makes an interesting and even controversial topic for science, politics and society not only in Germany but also in other European countries. [less ▲]

Aus der Arbeit zweier Gräberoffiziere an der Ostfront 1941–1944

in Portal Militärgeschichte (2018)

The Documents on Soviet prisoners of war in the German Archives. Sources, documents and research opportunities

in Reuss, Anja; Dinkellager, Philipp; Kolata, Jens (Eds.) et al Occupation, annihilation, forced labour papers from the 20th Workshop on the History and Memory of National Socialist Concentration Camps (2017, September)

The essay offers an overview of the sources in German archives on, and also originating from Soviet prisoners of war in German custody during World War II. Hereby, the focus is on the German Federal ... [more ▼]

The essay offers an overview of the sources in German archives on, and also originating from Soviet prisoners of war in German custody during World War II. Hereby, the focus is on the German Federal Archives (Bundesarchiv, BArch), on the files from military departments and organisations. A complete overview, however, cannot be given here as documents of captured Red Army soldiers are to be found as well in numerous state archives and a lot of small and private collections. This essay particularly addresses scholars who want to begin with research on prisoners of war from the Soviet Union, and in the first place want to make themselves familiar with the sources’ situation in Germany. [less ▲]

From Battlegrounds to Burial Grounds - The Cemetery Landscapes of the German Army, 1939 -1945

in Jacob, Frank; Danielsson, Sarah K. (Eds.) War and Geography. The Spatiality of Organized Mass Violence (2017)

War is always related to many different aspects, e.g. religion, technology etc. However, one of the aspects of central importance for the history of warfare is geography. The present volume will analyze ... [more ▼]

War is always related to many different aspects, e.g. religion, technology etc. However, one of the aspects of central importance for the history of warfare is geography. The present volume will analyze this interrelationship from several different perspectives. Geography is not only integral to the planning of tactics and strategies, but plays an important role in the outcome of war and its long-term aftermath. Furthermore, the interplay between war and geography is not purely a modern phenomenon but can be traced back through the ages of history. Geography always had the potential of providing an advantage or disadvantage. The aim of the volume is to grant historical perspectives on that special interrelationship in different time periods and regional settings. The purpose is to provide a deeper insight and an interdisciplinary discussion, which will open new perspectives on military history in general and the history of warfare in particular. [less ▲]