Panels – Historikertag 2021

Visualisation of Historical Data – Chances and Risks

Viola Muraro — Thu, 20 May 2021 08:51:23 +0000

Der Beitrag Visualisation of Historical Data – Chances and Risks erschien zuerst auf Historikertag 2021.

Contested Boundaries: Negotiating Medieval Ecclesiastical Sanctions

Viola Muraro — Thu, 20 May 2021 08:51:23 +0000

During the long struggle between Empire and Papacy since the high Middle Ages, the ecclesiastical sanctions of excommunication and interdict were at the same time topics, media and instruments of of political and legal struggles of interpretation. Both punishments were the sharpest weapons in the church‘s arsenal of penalties. Excommunication temporarily excluded persons or groups of persons from the church community by denying the church‘s offer of salvation and by imposing a social ban in everyday life. In contrast, the interdict deprived a spatially delimited area (church, city, diocese, political territory) of pastoral care in the form of masses, sacraments and ecclesiastical burials. The validity, scope and escalation of such sentences of excommunication and interdict were at the centre of controversies between state and church, sometimes with European-wide ramifications. The effects of excommunication and interdict on individuals, groups and spatial entities were accompanied by a constant process of negotiation. This not only allows to gain deeper insights into the perception of self and others by the parties concerned, but also into the range of interventions and ideas of order on the part of spiritual and secular powers. This section examines this structural disposition of medieval ecclesiastical sanctions as an arena of conflicting claims to justice, validity and obedience. By combining macro- and micro-historical perspectives, ecclesiastical sanctions reveal themselves as specific areas of interaction between centre and periphery, Roman central power and Latin-Christian border areas.

Der Beitrag Contested Boundaries: Negotiating Medieval Ecclesiastical Sanctions erschien zuerst auf Historikertag 2021.

Maritime Violence, Markets, and the State. Conflicting Interpretations between Middle Ages and Early Modern

Paul Otting — Thu, 20 May 2021 08:51:23 +0000

Until recently, research on maritime violence has been determined by concepts of the emergence of the state: By fighting pirates and smugglers, authorities are said to have enforced their monopoly on violence. But the historical change of conflict management at sea could also be conceived as an outcome of economic competition between primarily coequal actors. In this, claiming to be fighting criminality was only one possible means of enforcing one’s own interests. All actors used violence to gain access to markets and resources. “smuggling” and “piracy” were merely categories used to disqualify competitors and exclude them from access. Stately authority we ascribe retrospectively to those actors who prevailed.
Generally, legal anthropology has come to dispute the idea of a successive restriction of individual violence by the emergence of the modern state. In economic history, the transition from the later middle ages to the early modern is described as an ongoing formation and integration of markets. But this “commercial revolution” is not seen as a pacifying process anymore, either. Both approaches could best be understood as disputes on access and belonging. The suggested shift from a political to an economic narrative thus mirrors conflicting interpretations of the present age.
But both approaches tend to construe historical change teleologically in retrospect: inherent in narratives of state building are concepts of progress on the way to modernity, while to explain transition referring to economic competition means to impute long lasting intentions to actors, which very presumably are only projections ex post. So, how could we describe the emergence of an early modern violence regime without referring to the paradigm of state building?

Der Beitrag Maritime Violence, Markets, and the State. Conflicting Interpretations between Middle Ages and Early Modern erschien zuerst auf Historikertag 2021.

Competing Memories of the Rus’: Places of Memory in the Early Modern Period

Viola Muraro — Thu, 20 May 2021 08:51:23 +0000

Historical narratives play a major role for the definition of national identity, for the legitimization of statehood as well as for the selfpositioning of the post-soviet states in and in relation to Europe. Since the breakdown of the Soviet Union the histories of Ukraine, Belorus’ and – in connection with them – Russia have been subjected to a radical revision. These often highly politicized debates about the origins of statehood notwithstanding, serious research of identity building processes in the settlement areas of the eastern slaves which would take into account a multiplicity of perspectives still remains a desideratum. In order to enable a more rational debate about the origins of the respective statehoods it is necessary to study the creation of protonational mythologies during the Early modern period. Taking this into account the section will raise the following questions: Can we observe collective identity building processes well beyond the local level in the period from the end of the 15th up to the middle of the 18th century? Does it make sense to interpret the protonational mythologies of the eastern slaves within the overall context of a European Early modern type of natiogenese? In order to give an answer to these questions the section uses the concept of “lieux de memoire” (places of memory). The individual papers are focusing on the complex formative processes of different and often contradictory pantheons of the Rus’ during the Early modern period. Taking as examples the myth of the Babtism of the Rus’, the topos of “Moscow”, the historiographic synthesis of the Rus’ in the “Kievian Synopsis” as well as in the ethnogenealogical myth about the “prime fathers” (Prus, Rus, Palemon, Mosoch, Sarmat, Seruh, Chasares) they will discuss some of the most important “lieux de memoire” in the Belorussian, Ukrainian and Russian memory cultures as well as their potential counter-narratives.

Der Beitrag Competing Memories of the Rus’: Places of Memory in the Early Modern Period erschien zuerst auf Historikertag 2021.

My Home is Your Castle? Embattled Property from the Third Reich to the Present

Viola Muraro — Thu, 20 May 2021 08:51:23 +0000

The twentieth century has seen major conflicts over property relations. Two world wars, mass murder, large-scale expulsion, flight from East to West Germany during the Cold War, and extensive confiscations brought about immense struggles over property and its allocation. Our panel views land registries (Grundbücher) as arenas where struggles over houses and land took place. In doing so, we ask the following questions: How did the relationships people developed with their homes and land affect social processes of integration, compromise, and compensation in Germany during the twentieth century? How did specific events and systems in twentieth-century Germany shape concepts, conflicts and practices of property? The exploration of these questions is based on three case studies: firstly, the implications of the Nazi plunder of Jewish property (“Aryanization”) for the implementation of the West German Equalization of Burdens Law (Lastenausgleichsgesetz); secondly, landed property claims and disputes as part of the Cold War in Germany; and, thirdly, conflicts regarding home ownership in East Germany before, during, and after 1989. Central to these case studies is the assumption that land registries, as the material loci where information about property and its owners is recorded, offer a unique window into struggles over societal resources. Our panel thus works towards two related goals. The first is a reappraisal of key transitional periods in modern German history based on new empirical evidence derived from land-and-home related property transfers and conflicts. The second is carving a more prominent role for land registries in the study of twentieth-century Germany. Indeed, we believe that Grundbücher can be used as a generative source for exploring “Deutungskämpfe” on property ownership.

Der Beitrag My Home is Your Castle? Embattled Property from the Third Reich to the Present erschien zuerst auf Historikertag 2021.

Photography in the 20th Century: Between Privacy and the Public

Viola Muraro — Thu, 20 May 2021 08:51:23 +0000

Der Beitrag Photography in the 20th Century: Between Privacy and the Public erschien zuerst auf Historikertag 2021.

Dynamics of Distrust. Secret Intelligence and the Public Sphere in the Western World since 1945

Viola Muraro — Thu, 20 May 2021 08:51:23 +0000

Intelligence agencies in liberal democracies are ambivalent institutions. While they are considered vital for security reasons, they do not fully comply with customary expectations of democratic control. The increasing emphasis on transparency in liberal democracies over the last decades has produced a growing tension regarding the inherently arcane nature of intelligence agencies. While most researchers focus on political attempts to extend parliamentary control of secret intelligence, we propose another starting point. It is based on the initial hypothesis that the institutionalization of public distrust has become a counterpart for the unattainable transparency of secret intelligence. While distrust is normally considered a shortcoming, in this panel we will show how distrust became instrumental in dealing with conflict. Consequently, we can speak of an ongoing bargaining process between acceptance of the arcane nature of intelligence agencies and public distrust. A fragile and constantly shifting equilibrium has become institutionalized, one which easily could be destroyed and result in a destructive spiral of distrust, potentially threatening trust in liberal democracy at large. Shifting the analytical thrust to mistrust implies intelligence agencies are not only considered objects of attempts to control, but also as actors trying to manage public mistrust. The proposed panel shall analyze the changing relations between trust in democracy and distrust in secret intelligence from 1945 to the present, focusing on Germany, Britain, the United States and the Netherlands. The aim is to offer a historical explanation of the dynamics of distrust and thus to contribute to a better understanding of the complex role of secret intelligence in liberal democracies.

Der Beitrag Dynamics of Distrust. Secret Intelligence and the Public Sphere in the Western World since 1945 erschien zuerst auf Historikertag 2021.

Contested „Globalization.“ Perceptions of Interconnectedness and Western Politics since the 1970s

Viola Muraro — Thu, 20 May 2021 08:51:23 +0000

This panel brings together several ongoing research projects to explore the ways in which the idea of an increasingly interconnected world has shaped the political history of the recent past. Diagnoses of a shrinking world have influenced political commentary since the late 19th century. In the 1970s, however, they gained a new quality. Alarmed by currency turmoil and oil shocks, politicians began to consider growing worldwide “interdependence” as the major challenge of the future. At the beginning of the 1990s, observers declared what they now called “globalization” the sign of a new era after the end of the Cold War. They identified an increasing number of developments – ranging from financial markets and new communication technologies to terrorist networks – as either the causes or the products of this overarching process. In both historical moments, the idea of a globe that was rapidly growing together served as a consequential political argument. Western governments referred to “interdependence” and “globalization,” respectively, to make far-reaching readjustments in both their domestic and foreign policies. In the eyes of civil movements, by contrast, increasing worldwide interlinkage highlighted the necessity of international human rights protection or of the struggle against predatory capitalism. This made perceptions of interconnectedness a highly contested terrain. While hardly anybody doubted the supposed reality of “interdependence” or “globalization” as such, controversy raged around the nature of these processes and the political conclusions that should be drawn from them. The panel examines the worldviews and self-understandings that manifested themselves in the ideas of global interconnectedness as well as the political projects that these ideas motivated. At the same time, the panel analyzes the historical connections between the moments of the 1970s, the 1990s, and today’s globalization discourse.

Der Beitrag Contested „Globalization.“ Perceptions of Interconnectedness and Western Politics since the 1970s erschien zuerst auf Historikertag 2021.

Comics and Conflicting Interpretations in the 20th Century

Viola Muraro — Thu, 20 May 2021 08:51:23 +0000

Conflicting interpretations are closely tied to the media they are conveyed with. In different historical epochs, controversial perceptions, positions and ideas of order have been expressed with different media. At the same time, these media themselves could become the subject of such struggles, for example in recurring discussions about the opportunities and dangers of the – at the respective time – ‘new media’. In many cases, such as in cinema, television or computer games, the social appreciation of everything visual played a central role in this context, either by “demonizing the image” (Grunder) or by emphasizing its potential as an independent approach to interpreting the world. Although an increasing significance of visuality is assumed for the 20th century, the “century of the image” (Paul), historical research has not yet looked at all visual media to the same extent. This applies in particular to comics, which have received some attention from the perspective of history didactics in recent years, but are largely unused as a source of research. This shows not least a connection between the exploration of a medium in its various forms and its assignment to ‘high culture’ or ‘popular art’. This panel examines comics, first, as the subject of conflicting interpretations (Christine Gundermann) and, second, as a means of visualization in interpretive struggles (Kalina Kupczynska), reflecting in the process, third, its potential as a historical source (Michael Scholz). The focus is on the second half of the 20th century, during which the prevalence and significance of comics increased worldwide. We will look at the perspectives of different countries; in addition to a case study each on Sweden and Poland, one contribution will adopt a clearly transnational perspective.

Der Beitrag Comics and Conflicting Interpretations in the 20th Century erschien zuerst auf Historikertag 2021.

Theories, Key Concepts and Terms: Categories of Historiography and their Contemporary Origins

Viola Muraro — Thu, 20 May 2021 08:51:23 +0000

Der Beitrag Theories, Key Concepts and Terms: Categories of Historiography and their Contemporary Origins erschien zuerst auf Historikertag 2021.