Doctoral Project
Internationale Veteranenverbände, der Kalte Krieg und europäische Vergangenheitspolitik am Beispiel Jugoslawiens (1945-1971)
International Veterans' Associations, the Cold War and European Politics of Dealing with the Past: The example of Yugoslavia (1945-1971)
How the Second World War was to be remembered was one of the central questions for European societies after 1945, also for socialist Yugoslavia. In the development of these official memories, national influence was naturally very strong but exchanges in international contexts should not be underestimated. The aim of this thesis is to examine the interconnections between the Yugoslav Veterans Union and two major international umbrella organizations, which were formed by associations of World War II veterans and former resistance fighters from Eastern and Western Europe: The World Veterans Federation (WVF) and the International Federation of Resistance Fighters (FIR). The analysis is based on the hypothesis that in a Europe divided by the Cold War nevertheless there existed an exchange which took place beyond the national framework and which in turn could have an impact on national discourses. By way of their involvement in international associations Yugoslav veterans came into contact with European postwar discourses, took an active part in their formation, and also brought back discussions from the international sphere into their national context. By looking at the exchanges taking place between Yugoslav veterans and their comrades from other European countries, points of contact with respect to memory culture are to be identified between Yugoslavia and the rest of Europe. Yugoslavia as a country between the two power blocks in which the remembrance of the Second World War played a paramount ideological role presents a particular enlightening case study for the analysis of these issues.
Curriculum Vitae
Since 05/2018 Project Assistant with bogner.knoll Vienna (Museum Planning). 04/2016 – 03/2018 Academic Trainee at the Historisches Museum der Pfalz, Speyer. 12/2012 – 03/2016 Doctoral Student at the Graduate School for East and Southeast European Studies, University of Regensburg. 10/2009 – 03/2012 Master Programme „East-West-Studies“ (M.A.), University of Regensburg. Major field of study: History and Cultural Science with focus on the countries of Middle and South Eastern Europe in the 20th century. 10/2006 – 07/2009 Anglistics with European History (B.A.) / BA Hons English and History, Studies at the University of Bayreuth and the University of Chester, Great Britain, within the joint-degree-programme of both universities.
Positions, Assignments and Memberships
- Former Member of the Study Group "Culture, Meaning, Orientation"
Publications
Monograph
Das Konzentrationslager Flossenbürg in der Erinnerung und der ‚erinnerten Erinnerung‘ – Die Lebensgeschichte eines serbischen Überlebenden der nationalsozialistischen Verfolgung und ihre transgenerationelle Verhandlung, Regensburg 2012 (= Institut für Ost- und Südosteuropaforschung – Mitteilungen; Vol. 61). URL: https://www.dokumente.ios-regensburg.de/publikationen/mitteilungen/mitt_61.pdf.
Journal Articles and Book Chapters
Zus. mit Sabina Blomann, Roxana Hila, Friederike Kind-Kovács und Markus Meinke: Die erzählten Grenzen. Geschichte von Unten – Lebensgeschichtliche Interviews im bayrisch-böhmischen Grenzraum. In: Blick in die Wissenschaft 23, 2011, 3-10.
Reviews
Birgit Schwelling (Hg.), Reconciliation, Civil Society, and the Politics of Memory. Transnational Initiatives in the 20th and 21st Century, Bielefeld: transcript Verlag 2012. In: Südost-Forschungen 73 (2014), p. 610–613.
Further Publications
Aufbruch in ein gemeinsames Europa: Feier des Pfingstfestes im Kaiserdom. Kurienkardinal Joseph Ratzinger am 2. und 3. Juni 1990 in Speyer. In: Alexander Schubert (Hg.): Weltbühne Speyer. Die Ära der großen Staatsbesuche, Heidelberg: verlag regionalkultur 2016, 90–91.
Dreaming an Unlimited Dream in a World of Division: A Veterans‘ Utopia? In: Erinnerungskulturen. Erinnerung und Geschichtspolitik im östlichen und südöstlichen Europa, 17.06.2015, URL: https://erinnerung.hypotheses.org/276.
Presentations (selected)
2016
January 2016 – "Die Europäische Dimension jugoslawischer Erinnerung. Diskursverschiebungen in Europa als Wandlungsoptionen für die (inter-)nationale Veteranengemeinschaft“, Forschungskolloquium „Geschichte und Sozialanthropologie Südost- und Osteuropas“, Universität Regensburg.
2015
November 2015 – “To Acknowledge or to Disregard the ‘Facts’? Yugoslav Resistance Fighters of WWII and the Challenge of an International Collective Memory of Veterans”, Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies (ASEEES) 47th Annual Convention, Philadelphia.
October 2015 – “The Impact of Transnational Discourses on National Memory in Socialist Yugoslavia: The Case of Veteran and Victim Associations”, International Workshop "New Research in the Social History of State Socialism", Karls-Universität Prag.
2013
June 2013 – Vorstellung des Promotionsprojekts auf dem Nachwuchsworkshop "Verflechtungsgeschichte des östlichen Europas im 20.Jahrhundert" der Forschungsplattform „Wiener Osteuropaforum“, Wien.
2012
October 2012 – „Das Konzentrationslager Flossenbürg in der Erinnerung und der ‚erinnerten Erinnerung‘“, Forschungskolloquium zum ehemaligen KZ Flossenbürg, KZ-Gedenkstätte Flossenbürg.
October 2012 – „Ein Blick durch den Vorhang? (Trans-)nationale Akteure und das jugoslawische Nachkriegsgedenken“, Internationaler Trialog „Die Veränderungen des Gedächtnisses und die Visionen der Zukunft – Deutschland, Russland, Tschechische Republik“; Prag.
2011
October 2011 – „Erinnerungen eines serbischen Überlebenden an das KZ Flossenbürg“, Internationaler Trialog „Die Erinnerung an den Zweiten Weltkrieg – Deutschland, Russland, Tschechische Republik“; St. Petersburg.
2010
October 2010 – „‘Ich habe nicht viel gehabt von meinem Leben‘: Lebensgeschichtliche Erinnerungen an Krieg, Vertreibung und Systemkonflikt im bayerisch-böhmischen Grenzraum“ (zusammen mit Sabina Blomann und Roxana Hila), Internationaler Trialog „Die Erinnerung an den Zweiten Weltkrieg – Deutschland, Russland, Tschechische Republik“; Regensburg.
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