The Germans and East

Description

This volume provides an historical overview of the relationship between Germany, German speakers, and successive waves of German colonists with their eastern neighbors over the period from the Middle Ages to the present. The collection of essays by 28 leading experts includes the most recent scholarship together with fresh perspectives on the subject. Contents Introduction I. The Middle Ages Before Colonization: Christendom at the Slav Frontier Medieval Colonization in East Central Europe The Most Unique Crusader State: The Teutonic Order in the Development of the Political Culture of Northeastern Europe during the Middle Ages An Amicable Enmity: Some Peculiarities in Teutonic-Balt Relations in the Chronicles of the Baltic Crusades II. The Early Modern Period Absolutism and Reform in Eighteenth-Century Central and Eastern Europe German Writers, Power and Collapse: The Emergence of Polenliteratur in Eighteenth-Century Germany German Colonization in the Banat and Transylvania in the Eighteenth Century III. The Long Nineteenth Century Changing Meanings of “German” in Habsburg Central Europe Controversies on German Cultural Orientation in the “Croatian National Renewal”: German Language and Culture in Croatian Everyday Life, 1835–1848 “Germans” in the Habsburg Empire: Language, Imperial Ideology, National Identity, and Assimilation IV. The Age of Total War German Military Occupation and Culture on the Eastern Front in World War I Comrades, Enemies, Vicims: The Prussian/German Army and the Ostvölker From “verloren gehen” to “verloren bleiben”: Changing German Discourses on Nation and Nationalism in Poznania The National State and the Territorial Parish in Interwar Poland Interwar Poland and the Problem of Polish-speaking Germans The Birth of a Sudeten German Nobility, 1918–1938 Askaris in the “Wild East”: The Deployment of Auxiliaries and the Implementation of Nazi Racial Policy in Lublin District A Blind Eye and Dirty Hands: The Wehrmacht’s Crimes in the East, 1941–1945 Nazi Foreign Policy towards Southeastern Europe, 1933–1945 The Second World War and Its Aftermath: Ethnic German Communities in the East V. The Era of European Integration Austrian and Czech Historical Memory of World War II, National Identity, and European Integration Austro-Czechoslovak Relations and the Expulsion of the Germans West Germany and the Lost German East: Two Narratives Conclusion: The “Germans and the East”: Back to Normality—But What Is Normal? Contributors Index