Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2011, History

In the decades around 1900, Wilhelmine Germany embarked on a quest for world power status. This endeavor included the acquisition of overseas colonies and a naval arms race with Great Britain, but it also encompassed a broader effort to achieve global presence and economic might through a rapidly expanding merchant fleet. Accordingly, many Germans began to view the maritime community as an extension of the nation and its empire on and over the seas. This study argues that, between the advent of German expansion in 1884 and the outbreak of world war in 1914, a variety of German groups reconceived merchant mariners as emblems of the nation at home, on the oceans, and overseas. Consequently, state authorities, liberal intellectuals, social reform organizations, Protestants, and nautical professionals deployed middle-class constructions of masculinity in their attempts to reform civilian sailors' portside leisure and shipboard labor for the nation. A broader “crisis of masculinity” around 1900 informed this focus on mariners' bodies, sexualities, comportment, and character. Reform groups portrayed their efforts to mold model seamen as essential to the success of German overseas expansion and Weltpolitik. They created highly-gendered programs designed to channel mariners' transnational mobility into steady flows of national power, capital, and culture around the world. This investigation situates its analysis primary and secondary literature in a transnational framework. It follows merchant mariners on a journey across the Atlantic, where most German shipping was engaged, focusing on the ports of Hamburg, Bremen, New York, and Buenos Aires. This structure allows me to consider the tensions between sailors' urban leisure practices, both at home and overseas, and reformers' attempts to anchor these men in marriage, family, Volk, and Heimat. It also allows me to consider how masculinity and Weltpolitik shaped conflicts between traditional notions of skill, training, and co (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Dr. Alan Beyerchen (Committee Co-Chair); Dr. Robin Judd (Committee Co-Chair); Dr. Donna Guy (Committee Member); Dr. Birgitte Soland (Committee Member) Subjects: European History; Gender Studies; Modern History

Bachelor of Arts, Wittenberg University, 2019, German

In understanding the causes of the concurrent development of national identity in Germany and Russia in the early 19th century, how can we better comprehend this development and its effect on our perception of national identity, nationalism, and national self-consciousness in the post-modern era? National political identity is a term often used to describe the codification of the cultural ethos, colloquial narrative, and collective vision of a people living within, but not exclusive to, a particular geographic sphere. Understanding this definition of national political identity and its role in the social construct of the modern “nation-state” is vital in gaining a deeper understanding of both the peoples and polities that have governed the modern age, and continue to direct its course. Moreover, comprehending the ideological origins of such national political identities, and the historical continuum upon which they waned or thrived, are of paramount importance to any serious study of post-modern society. One extraordinary example is the concurrent development of nationalism in both Germany and Russia within the early 19th century. While it may appear to have evolved internally and without external influence, the sociopolitical discourse regarding national self-identification within both Germany and Russia was consistently dominated by the persistent effects of Napoleon's France; likewise, the similarities and differences regarding religious, linguistic, and political national prerequisites between the German and Russian national consciousness provide pivotal insight into the cultural context of a national political disposition.

Committee: Timothy Bennett (Advisor); Lila Zaharkov (Committee Member); Christian Raffensperger (Committee Member) Subjects: East European Studies; European History; European Studies; History; Modern History; Russian History; Slavic Studies

Master of Arts in History, Youngstown State University, 2020, Department of Humanities

In this thesis the researcher discusses the implementation of force multipliers in the Prussian and German military. Originating with the wars of Frederick the Great and the geographical position of Prussia, force multipliers were key to the defense of the small state. As time continued, this tactic would become a mainstay for the Prussian military in the wars for German unification. Finally, they would be carried through to a grim conclusion with the Second World War and the belief that this tactic would easily make up for Germany's shortcomings in material and manpower. Key discussions of this thesis are the origins, implementation and reliance on this tactic through the time periods discusses. Figures in German military history, such as Frederick the Great, Clausewitz, and Helmuth Von Moltke, and their philosophies relating to the tactic are examined. As well as the implementation of force multiplication through technological and political evolutions and their effect on the Prussian and German militaries in the conflicts discussed.

Committee: David Simonelli PhD (Advisor); Brian Bonhomme PhD (Committee Member); Kyle Starkey PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Armed Forces; History; Military History; Military Studies; Modern History; World History

PhD, University of Cincinnati, 2014, Arts and Sciences: History

This dissertation establishes the existence of organizational dysfunction within a socialist army. It then posits a cause and outlines the tragic effects of that dysfunction on the average East German soldier. The East German Army (NVA) of the German Democratic Republic was a representation of the state in many different ways. Its demographic closely matched that of the general population, not only in terms of class, but also in educational levels. The army also closely paralleled the larger state in structure and in political ideology. As the state was militarized in the broadest sense of the word, the NVA represented in the development of its political-ideological discourse and its socialist consciousness. There were surprising continuities between state organs and its army, including its politicization, its training, and its structure. Like the army, the GDR closely paralleled the operational hierarchies of industry, business, and education with its national security equivalents. Like the political committees on the factory floor, the army also had formal and informal structures of political operatives who oversaw operational and managerial leaders, as well as the political development of the lowest workers and soldiers. Because of this sharp parallel, the records of the NVA provide a unique view into the effect of politicization and ideology on the lowest soldiers. Army records are detailed and filled with its own analysis for the causes of special incidents, including accidents, disciplinary problems, training problems, desertions, and suicides. These records also provide rare insight into the operations and functions of a socialist bureaucracy. Clearly, Marxist-Leninist ideology had an impact on the progress of Soviet client states. What is new here is the ability to watch the ideology evolve into a political-military discourse that adversely affected the training and function of East German army officers. In turn, the reduction in effective (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Martin Francis Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Edward Ross Dickinson Ph.D. (Committee Member); Katherine Sorrels Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: History

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, 2023, History (Arts and Sciences)

After the Vietnam War, the US Army pivoted from counter-insurgency in Southeast Asia towards the renewed possibility of war with the USSR in Central Germany. This shift in perspective coincided with dramatic shifts in Army policy, most importantly the transition from conscription to the All-Volunteer Force, as well as the introduction of new battlefield technologies which transformed the battlespace. This dissertation analyzes the complicated military relationship between the US Army and an important European ally. It argues that during this period of intense reform, the US Army and the West German Bundeswehr used both new and preexisting institutions to engage in a period of intense, sympathetic, and mutually inspired reforms which developed significant new concepts in land warfare. This is significant because this period of cooperation helped to reaffirm a special relationship between the US and West Germany, which transformed to become the most significant within NATO and Western Europe. The focus of this dissertation is on the mechanics of the transatlantic exchange and how this shaped both forces through the last decades of the Cold War.

Committee: Ingo Trauschweizer (Advisor); Mirna Zakic (Committee Member); Paul Milazzo (Committee Member); Nukhet Sandal (Committee Member) Subjects: American History; European History; History; Military History

Master of Arts (MA), Wright State University, 2022, History

Existing scholarly literature on U.S. military bases in foreign nations does not adequately take films depicting such installations into account. This master's thesis is a corrective for this oversight. Recognizing the utility of foreign films featuring American military bases or troop presences, this thesis examines them in light of scholarly work on these installations. Of particular importance in this analysis are the periodization of U.S. basing favored by Robert Kaplan and the categorization of varieties of antibase protest favored by Kent Calder. Using these two writers as an analytical framework, as well as histories of U.S. basing and military occupations, it is possible to view these films as primary sources for these occupations. While depictions of Americans as individuals vary across films, generally U.S. occupations are viewed negatively by the non-American filmmakers examined. Local authorities of host nations are equally criticized for complicity in the crimes committed by the occupiers.

Committee: Jonathan Winkler Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Paul Lockhart Ph.D. (Committee Member); Kathryn Meyer Ph.D. (Committee Member); Arvind Elangovan Ph.D. (Other) Subjects: American History; Film Studies; History; International Relations; Military History; Modern History

Master of Arts, Miami University, 2022, History

My graduate thesis project is a museum exhibit on display through the end of May 2022 at the Harriet Beecher Stowe House in Cincinnati, Ohio which explores the ways in which the newspaper industry in Cincinnati fostered a toxic environment for racial relations in the antebellum era. Editors not only stoked racial tensions to encourage the riots that occurred in 1829, 1836, and 1841, they also shaped the narratives of the riots in their columns to blame the victims and exonerate the perpetrators. What follows is a brief history of the riots, the historiographical research pertaining to the exhibit, and an exploration of the methodological questions I faced when constructing the exhibit.

Committee: Lindsay Schakenbach Regele (Advisor); Helen Sheumaker (Committee Member); Erik Jensen (Committee Member) Subjects: African American Studies; African Americans; American History; American Studies; Black History; Black Studies; Modern History; Museum Studies

Master of Arts, Miami University, 2018, History

This thesis considers the origins of the embourgeoisement of the mid-nineteenth-century German aristocracy through the lens of the summer 1855 travel diary of twenty-year-old Landedelfraulein (country noble maiden) Marie von Bonin, the oldest daughter of Maria Keller and landowner and politician Gustav von Bonin. Scholars of German history have often contended that the influence of middle-class values on German nobles originated with print culture and socio-political movements. While this thesis neither contradicts, nor focuses on these claims, it examines the ways that the lived experiences of everyday people also gave birth to middle-class values. Focusing on the themes of Heimat (home), travel and education, and romantic courtship, this thesis concludes that Marie's bourgeois views were not revolutionary; rather, they exemplified the influence of middle-class values on the mid-nineteenth century German aristocracy.

Committee: Erik Jensen PhD (Advisor); Steven Conn PhD (Committee Member); Nicole Thesz PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Education History; European History; Families and Family Life; Foreign Language; Gender; Gender Studies; Germanic Literature; History; Language; Literature; Modern History; Modern Language; Modern Literature; Pedagogy

Master of Arts, Case Western Reserve University, 2017, History

Ernst Haeckel was one of the nineteenth century's most famous and influential scientists, and science popularizers. According to one historian of biology, he was “the chief source of the world's knowledge of Darwinism” in his time. He was also one of the chief sources of the world's knowledge of what has come to be called, in our time, the “conflict thesis” in the history of science and religion. At the same time, he endeavored to set up his own Darwinian-romantic theology, the forgotten religion of monism, in the place of Christianity. This paper makes use of new information technologies to gather documents which have been largely inaccessible in the past, on account of the difficulty of finding and sorting them. It aims at a comprehensive discussion of Haeckel's influence in the United States at this time – with lay people, with clerical audiences, and with other scientists. I find that Haeckel's ideas met with a poor reception in the United States, because they faced a steep “cultural gradient,” as between the monarchical, romantic, and sharply anti-Catholic values prevalent in Haeckel's native Prussia, and the democratic, empirical, and mildly anti-Catholic values prevalent in the United States. In the “struggle for their existence,” Haeckel's evolutionary monism faced superior competition from evolutionary world-explanations which originated within an Anglo-American context, and which were, in consequence, better “adapted,” so to speak, to their “environment.”

Committee: Alan Rocke Dr. (Advisor); Kenneth Ledford Dr. (Committee Member); Miriam Levin Dr. (Committee Member) Subjects: History

BA, Oberlin College, 2016, History

In 1960, during a resurgence of anti-Semitism, the Munich government initiated a program to invite Jewish former residents of Munich (who left during the 1930s and early 1940s due to the Nazis) back to their hometown for two-week visits. This program offered the participants a chance to reminisce about their childhoods, reconnect with their heritage, and visit their former communities. For the government, this program provided a crucial connection between the old prewar Munich and the new Munich of the 1960s, between Munich as the birthplace of National Socialism and Munich as a newly rebuilt city, ready to move forward from the Holocaust. This thesis relies primarily on correspondence between program participants and the Munich government from the Munich City Archive, oral interviews with individuals involved with the program, and secondary sources about postwar Munich and historical memory.

Committee: Annemarie Sammartino (Advisor) Subjects: European History; European Studies; Foreign Language; Germanic Literature; History; Holocaust Studies; Judaic Studies; Language; Modern History; Modern Language; Religion; Religious History

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2005, Germanic Languages and Literatures

The subject of this study is two printed books from the 1530s on metal mining and mining law, Der Ursprung gemeynner Berckrecht (“The Origin of Common Mining Laws”) and the Bergkordnung des Loblichen newen Bergkwergs/ auff dem Golmsbergk/ im Konigreich Norwegen (“Mining Regulation for the praiseworthy new mine at Gullnes in the Kingdom of Norway”). I have created scholarly editions of each German text, translations into English, and the annotations and commentary requisite for understanding the works synchronically and diachronically in their historical and linguistic contexts. The two books occupy important positions in the early German literature on mining. Ursprung, probably dating from 1535-1538, is the earliest printed compendium of legal and scientific texts on mining, containing several texts originally dating from the 13th to early 16th centuries. The collection, by known book producer Johan Haselberg, prints key early German laws on mining previously existing only in manuscripts, and it provides a new edition of the earliest printed book on mining and metallurgy, Ulrich Rulein's “Bergbuchlein” from ca. 1500. A glossary of mining and smelting terms, a listing of mines in Bohemia, and information on mining officials complete the collection. The other book, Bergkordnung Norwegen, was composed and printed in Saxony in 1540 for use in Norway. Commissioned by King Christian III of Denmark and Norway, the book constitutes the first mining regulations produced in Germany for use in another country. This work clearly and systematically summarizes prevailing contemporary German practices and served as the legal basis for Norwegian mining for several centuries. The introduction to this study begins with overviews of early German mining and mining literature. The two texts Ursprung and the Bergkordnung Norwegen are then discussed in their historical context, including earlier versions/sources and later editions of the works. Issues of textual transmission and compila (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Anna Grotans (Advisor) Subjects:

MA, Kent State University, 2007, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of History

Title: Comparing Ancient History Textbooks of Imperial Germany and the Weimar Republic History book for secondary schools of Imperial Germany and the Weimar Republic were compared to establish how the depiction of ancient Greek and Roman history is influenced by the two political constellations, how much they emphasized democracy and use ancient social values to support ideals of the monarchy and later the republic. In addition it is determined how much the different authors compared past historical events to more recent ones, how they evaluated the influence of socioeconomic developments on historical events, and how they met the educational policy of the two periods. The larger goal is to seek how these textbooks appropriated ancient history for the presentist purposes of the age in which they were written: how they served not only as political and cultural symptoms of their age, but perhaps even causes of political and cultural transformation in the German youth who read them. The history books of Imperial Germany and the Weimar Republic both mirror the political landscape of their time. In the Imperial period the advantages of a single leader are underpinned while democracy is downplayed. As the Burgertum of the monarchy became more assertive by defending and expanding their political rights, Athens' democratic achievements gained more attention. In the republic the support of such single leadership appeared as nostalgic longing for the more structured political system of the past however within a democratic frame. This argument is supported by the authors claiming that the Roman and German aristocracy through their selfless dedication helped the respective country to excel. These textbooks reflect not only the change from a monarchy to a republic but also the waning of the humanistic ideology as it made room for more science oriented education.

Committee: Dr. Richard Steigmann-Gall (Advisor) Subjects: History, Modern

Master of Arts, University of Akron, 2010, Clothing, Textiles and Interiors

In the late-nineteenth century notable interior decorators gradually emerged to help make interior decoration a serious, individualized, and worthwhile discipline. This study traces H. F. Huber & Co., one of New York's first American interior decorating firms to successfully design, execute, and install complete high-end commercial, hospitality, and residential interiors in close conjunction with the project architect. Despite significant commercial contracts Hugo F. Huber's career was built on a range of residential work for wealthy clients, often German-American like Huber. Two residences, each with fine archival resources and well-preserved interiors, provided the author with great insight into Huber's design philosophy, expertise, and work ethic. The Christian Heurich Mansion interiors (1892-1894), Washington, DC, provided an example of Huber's immense talent during his early-career, and Stan Hywet Manor (1911-1917), Akron, Ohio, provided an example of Huber's artistic genius during the peak of his career.

Committee: Virginia Gunn Dr. (Advisor) Subjects: American History; Architecture; Art Education; Art History; Biographies; Design; Fine Arts; History; Interior Design; Museums

Bachelor of Arts, Wittenberg University, 2021, Music

The bassoon is one of the most easily recognizable instruments due to both its unique shape and tone quality. Known for its versatility and extensive range, the bassoon has become an indispensable member of wind ensembles, symphony orchestras, and chamber ensembles alike. However, some of the earliest bassoons were such poor quality that musicians opted for their antiquated counterpart, the dulcian, instead. Despite its humble beginnings, the bassoon over hundreds of years and countless skilled craftsmen has been developed into an instrument of high quality, well suited for its solo and orchestral roles. As with many instruments in the modern orchestra, the history and development of the bassoon is anything but linear. This thesis focuses in particular on the contributions of German instrument makers Carl Almenraeder and Johann Adam Heckel. Their study of the mathematics, acoustics, and physical properties of the bassoon, and their creative and ingenious improvements, set the pair apart and ensured their enduring legacy as the most skilled, important, and influential bassoon makers in history.

Committee: Brandon Jones (Advisor); Kristin Cline (Committee Member); Joseph Hesseman (Committee Member) Subjects: Music

Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 2021, German/History (dual)

The East German Stasi stood among the most effective secret police forces in modern history, creating a surveillance apparatus that invaded all levels of society and affected many thousands of people, from ordinary citizens to the highest levels of the West German government. Artists and writers have long been preoccupied with the Stasi and have featured the organization in their productions since even the peak of the Cold War. Cultural productions like literature and film often serve as valuable “windows” into historical societies and the minds of those who dwelled therein, shedding light on values and norms that existed at the time, as well as the conditions that surrounded the publication of said productions. This study examines the portrayal of the Stasi in literature and film, starting during the Cold War in East German literature, moving to immediately after reunification, and ending in the twenty-first century. Specifically, it studies the general “character” of the organization as portrayed by various artists, and how these portrayals developed over time. This study draws on both history and German Studies as subjects, featuring intensive literature analysis and partial analysis of surveillance files, along with reference to a broad body of secondary research. This study shows that as time has passed, the portrayal of the Stasi in various media has become more nuanced and fact focused, owing to the increased amount of available information on the organization. Initially the organization is seen as a force of nature, with emphasis placed upon its mystery and influence. As time progressed, artists rejected the power of the Stasi by portraying them as human and fallible, occasionally as comedically incompetent.

Committee: Douglas Forsyth PhD (Advisor); Kristie Foell PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Germanic Literature; History

BA, Oberlin College, 2020, History

This thesis relies primarily on German soldiers' diaries, letters, and post-war memoirs in order to present an detailed narrative from those soldiers. The selected soldiers all came from West Germany and Austria. Through scrutiny of their voices as case studies, this thesis argues that in their writings in different time periods during and after the war, German soldiers struggled not just to physically survive the war, but also to morally justify their roles in the war. Participating in arguably the world's most destructive war in history, German soldiers of World War Two encountered an irreconcilable delima since they were on one hand both psychologically and physically unprepared for the magnitude of violence laying ahead. On the other hand, despite such unpreparedness, most German soldiers chose not waive the bloody business imposed by the regime even if knowing that sometimes rejection would not caused any serious punishment. To reconcile their personal abhorrence with war and their active participation during the war, German soldiers, during the heydays of slaughtering, found their relieves mainly by getting drunk, and seeking temporary refuges by exchanging letters with family members. While such methods enabled German soldiers to better cope with embattled frontline life, it also paved the ground for them to better fulfill the orders given by the Nazi authority, which included burning down villages and murdering enemy civilians. However, in soldiers' post-war memoirs, they tended to emphasize the wounded and embattled sides of themselves and avoided discussing their own participations in war atrocities. Practices like denial, selective remembrance, and self-victimization enabled German veterans to not just integrated into the post-war democratic society, but also reinvented the historiography of the war and Europe. Appealing Cold-War political discourses, German soldiers' historical narratives actually occupied the mainstream historiography in West Germany (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Leonard V. Smith (Advisor) Subjects: History

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2013, Comparative Studies

In 1809, Susanna Cox, a twenty-four year old servant living in Oley, Pennsylvania, was accused, convicted, and executed following the death of her newborn son. Throughout the next two hundred years, Susanna’s story would be transmitted through oral histories and printed and performed broadside ballads. Perhaps the most widely diffused version of the story began in the early 1960s at the Pennsylvania Dutch Folk Festival (now called the Kutztown Folk Festival) when the festival organizers revived her story in the public imagination. Over 50 years later, Cox’s story is still retold at the Kutztown Folk Festival, three times a day for nine days, with the visual addition of a hanging reenactment. This dissertation explores the interplay between history, social memory, and oral tradition as it occurs surrounding the ongoing use of Susanna Cox’s story. I explore the exposition of her story between the discovery of her son’s death and her execution, as well as the legal impact – real or perceived –of the case in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The broadside ballad also maintained currency as it was translated and reprinted in various North American locations throughout the nineteenth century. I go on to discuss the ways that the story has been transmitted and reinterpreted into the 21st century, examining the recorded, published, performed and electronically-disseminated versions and audience responses to them. This project combines textual interpretation, archival research, oral history interviewing, and ethnographic fieldwork conducted between 2009 and 2013I explore why various communities – ethnic, gendered, religious, or geographic – chose to claim Cox and redeem her soul, reputation, or memory. Susanna Cox was a woman whose actions went against the legal and moral standards of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. In her own time, she provided a focus for public debate over the death penalty and the (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Dorothy Noyes (Advisor); Richard Green (Committee Member); Margaret Mills (Committee Member); Randolph Roth (Committee Member) Subjects: American Studies; Folklore; History; Legal Studies; Womens Studies

PhD, University of Cincinnati, 2005, Arts and Sciences : Germanic Languages and Literature

During the past two decades, a vast body of German literature has appeared that is interested not only in the Holocaust but also in the way Germans have dealt with the legacy of National Socialism over the last sixty years. Especially since the fall of the Berlin Wall and the German reunification, a number of literary works have appeared that use photographs to approach this limit-event and its remembrance in German national and private discourses. At the same time, the scholarly attention given to questions of memory and its representation has also sharply increased over the last few decades. Such debates have brought forth a number of demands in order for Holocaust literature to become productive for remembrance as well as for the creation of the present and the future. The following study investigates works by Monika Maron, W. G. Sebald, and Irina Liebmann. Of particular interest is the question of how these authors have integrated photographs within their texts in order to address and overcome the problems of Holocaust representation: the generational distance, absences and silences as well as the institutionalization and instrumentalization of memory. The first chapter lays out the theoretical framework that informs the discussion of the most vital concepts treated in this study: fact and fiction, history and memory, photography and text. The subsequent three chapters investigate the respective works written by the three authors: Monika Maron's Pawels Briefe (1999), W. G. Sebald's Die Ausgewanderten (1992) and Austerlitz (2001), and Irina Liebmann's Stille Mitte von Berlin (2002). I maintain that the complex and paradoxical nature of photography, most significantly its simultaneous claim to truth and to deception, renders it a particularly fruitful means to negotiate questions of factuality and fiction as well as memory and history. It allows these authors to engage the reader in a problematization of the concept of truth as well as the constructedness of all f (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Dr. Katharina Gerstenberger (Committee Chair); Dr. Sara Friedrichsmeyer (Other); Dr. Todd Herzog (Other); Dr. Richard Schade (Other) Subjects:

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 2009, History

This thesis examines the German Air Force Monograph Project, also known as the Karlsruhe Project, through which the United States Air Force employed former Luftwaffe generals to record the history of World War II from the German perspective. Historians have explored parallel programs in the U.S. Army and Navy, but the Karlsruhe Project has received little attention; however, the Air Force monographs have proven useful to historians because of their high quality. This paper attributes the Karlsruhe monographs' strength as works of history primarily to the Air Force's limited interest in them, which insulated the writers from outside pressure to produce studies of immediate utility to the military. Whereas policy needs drove the Army and Navy programs and often caused them to search for convenient tactical “lessons” in German history, the German Air Force Monograph Project was effectively autonomous, but this was a mixed blessing. Chronically undermanned and inadequately funded, the project ended with most studies still unfinished. The Air Force ignored the monographs and failed to benefit from the experience of the Luftwaffe. This paper illustrates the inherent tensions in writing official military history and utilizes the Karlsruhe Project as a lense to examine problems plaguing the Air Force during the early Cold War. Still, cooperative historical work proved to be an inexpensive and unexpected way of cementing the critical West German-American military alliance, and both air forces came to value this aspect of the project more than the historical studies it produced.

Committee: John Guilmartin Jr. (Advisor); Alan Beyerchen (Committee Member); Peter Mansoor (Committee Member) Subjects: Armed Forces; European History; History; Military History

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2003, History

When the Allies entered Germany in late-1944, most of the male population of Germany was either incapacitated or absent. German women, the majority of the German population, were confronted with rebuilding Germany under the supervision of military governments. This dissertation is a comparison of the experiences of German women in the Soviet, British, American and French zones of occupation. It also informs the historian and military commander regarding the effects of perceptions about women in the home country and how these can affect military occupation. The policies of the four occupying powers directly reflected the roles of women in the home countries. The Soviets immediately set up German socialist organizations to incorporate German women into the new communist government of the East. Through the benefits of these organizations and the communist punishment system, the communists worked to recruit German women to their cause. The British military government used a decentralized approach by allowing some British women to experiment with the education of German women. After the founding of a large centralized socialist German women's organization in March 1947 in the Soviet zone, the British officially began educating German women to participate in Germany's recovery. The Americans were rather late in recognizing German women as an important group. Once they did in late-1947 the Americans formed a Women's Affairs Branch of their military government, which had a limited effect on assisting German women to become politically active. The French never had a program to assist German women. Instead, the French watched German women as a potentially dangerous political faction. German women now hold more seats in the German representative assemblies than women in any other large western-style democracy. This is partially a result of the work of German women in the Soviet zone combined with the reaction of the western occupation powers to stir German women to a new level (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Alan Beyerchen (Advisor) Subjects: