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Race in 20th-century German history is an inescapable topic, one that has been defined overwhelmingly by the narratives of degeneracy that prefigured the Nuremberg Laws and death camps of the Third Reich. As the contributions to this innovative volume show, however, German society produced a much more complex variety of racial representations over the first part of the century. Here, historians explore the hateful depictions of the Nazi period alongside idealized images of African, Pacific and Australian indigenous peoples, demonstrating both the remarkable fixity race had as an object of fascination for German society as well as the conceptual plasticity it exhibited through several historical eras.
List of contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction Oliver Haag & Lara Day PART I: CATEGORIES: CONTINUOUS, HETEROGENEOUS NARRATIVES Chapter 1. The 'Origin of the Germans'. Narratives, Academic Research, and Bad Cognitive Practice
Ulrich Charpa Chapter 2. Fantasies of Mixture, Politics of Purity: Narratives of Miscegenation in Colonial Literature, Literary Primitivism, and Theories of Race (1900-1933)
Eva Blome Chapter 3. Blüte und Zerfall: "Schematic Narrative Templates" of Decline and Fall in
Völkisch and National Socialist Racial Ideology
Helen Roche PART II: GERMANY AND INTERNAL OTHERNESS Chapter 4. Ernst Lissauer: Advocating
Deutschtum Against Cultural Narratives of Race
Arne Offermanns Chapter 5. The Jewish CEO and the Lutheran Bishop: The impact of German Colonial Studies on Young Jewish and Christian Academics' Cultural Narratives of Race
Lukas Bormann PART III: GERMANY AND TRANSNATIONAL OTHERNESS Chapter 6. Race and Ethnicity in German Criminology: On Crime Rates and the Polish Population in the
Kaiserreich (1871-1914)
Volker Zimmermann Chapter 7. Narratives of Race, Constructions of Community, and the Demand for Female Participation in German-Nationalist Movements in Austria and the German
Reich Johanna Gehmacher Chapter 8. In the Crosshairs of Degeneracy and Race: The Wilhelmine Origins of the Construction of a National Aesthetic and Parameters of Normalcy in Weimar Germany
Lara Day PART IV: GERMANY AND COLONIAL OTHERNESS Chapter 9. "The White Goddess of the Masses": Stardom, Whiteness and Racial Masquerade in Weimar Popular Culture
Pablo Dominguez Andersen Chapter 10. Idealized Australian Aboriginality in German Narratives of Race
Oliver Haag Index
About the author
Oliver Haag teaches at the University of Barcelona and is Visiting Professorial Fellow at Queen Mary's College, Chennai. He is the co-editor of
Ngapartji Ngapartji: Reciprocal Engagement (Australian National University Press) and has authored a special issue of
National Identities (Routledge). His scholarship has appeared in
Continuum,
Aboriginal History,
Journal of New Zealand Studies, and
Neohelicon, among others.
Summary
Race in 20th-century German history is an inescapable topic, one that has been defined overwhelmingly by the narratives of degeneracy that prefigured the Nuremberg Laws and death camps of the Third Reich. As the contributions to this innovative volume show, however, German society produced a much more complex variety of racial representations over the first part of the century. Here, historians explore the hateful depictions of the Nazi period alongside idealized images of African, Pacific and Australian indigenous peoples, demonstrating both the remarkable fixity race had as an object of fascination for German society as well as the conceptual plasticity it exhibited through several historical eras.
Additional text
“This is an impressively coherent and highly engaging volume. Although it covers ostensibly well-trodden ground, it offers numerous insights and makes thought-provoking connections into a variety of fields in which ‘race’ is significant. Each chapter offers a stimulating read and provides much food for thought.” · Dan Stone, Royal Holloway, University of London
“This edited volume is a welcome addition to existing scholarship on the German history of race. By focusing on cultural narratives in the crucial period between 1871 and 1945, and by incorporating global and transnational insights, the volume sets itself apart from previous work.” · Tuska Benes, College of William & Mary
