Reframing Antifascism: Genre, Memory and the Life Writings of Greta Kuckhoff
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Birmingham
Department Name: Humanities
Abstract
Greta Kuckhoff was a member of an anti-Nazi resistance group, 'The Red Orchestra'. She was condemned to death in 1943, but although her husband and many of her friends were executed, her sentence was commuted and she was liberated by the Red Army in 1945. This project tells the story of her work to commemorate the resisters in the Soviet Zone of Occupation and German Democratic Republic through a policy of 'everyday antifascism'. By tracing the different genres of her recorded memories, from radio broadcasts, to letters, journal articles, film, exhibitions, memoir, and autobiography, this study intervenes in the current contentious debates about remembering antifascism and the past of East Germany. Based on previously unpublished archival sources, the monograph contributes to a cultural history of antifascism and refutes dominant discourse about the absence of commemoration of the Holocaust in the GDR. The monograph highlights the gendered politics of remembering anti-Nazi resistance, both within the GDR and after unification, and in doing so draws renewed attention to the possibilities of political subjectivities and policies of commemoration built on an active antifascist consensus.
Planned Impact
Beneficiaries of the research:
An exhibition on Greta Kuckhoff's resistance to Nazism and the way it has been remembered in her work will be created to accompany the launch of the monograph. It will be held at the University of Birmingham and then offered to the Memorial to German Resistance in Berlin for presentation in its temporary gallery.
In Birmingham invitees to the launch will include local politicians, members of the German Academic Exchange Service and German Embassy, schools, and the wider Birmingham community with an interest in Germany. The Memorial to Resistance in Berlin attracts large numbers of school groups, tourists and military personnel who will benefit from the more detailed focus on one resistance group currently profiled within the permanent exhibition. Responses from former GDR citizens to the project so far suggest that they will benefit from the recognition of their cultural heritage afforded by such an exhibition.
The British and international audiences will be confronted with ways of looking at the past which often contradict mainstream thinking. The exhibition will raise questions of resistance, collaboration and betrayal, tolerance of other political viewpoints, and understandings of dictatorship.
How they will benefit from this research:
The pedagogical value of commemorating resistance was recognised in both German states after the war, and the struggles over memory since unification have played a key role in educational agendas, from the re-naming of streets to negotiations in schools over suitable role-models named after communist figures. Members of the 'Red Orchestra', those who fought against Nazism and its racism, have been particularly prominent in such debates (Plum 2005). In addition, the recent Hollywood film on the history of the resistance of the group around Claus von Stauffenberg (20th July 1944) has increased the general level of knowledge and interest in anti-Nazi resistance in Germany and abroad. German school groups and others visiting the Berlin temporary exhibition will therefore have a pre-existing framework in which to situate the controversial histories under discussion. In Britain, touring exhibitions about the role of peaceful resistance in civil society that arise from transnational historical legacies (including anti-Nazi groups) have proven popular, and are becoming particularly necessary with the increasing prominence of groups such as the English Defence League and British National Party. Residents of Birmingham will therefore find similar resonance from the exhibition, particularly in the context of Birmingham City Council's recent campaign about the multicultural city.
Memories of the Nazi and GDR regimes still have a significant impact on the lives of German citizens. Such significance is evidenced, as Andrew Beattie has shown, by the 'German state's remarkable activism in the negotiation of memories of the GDR' (2010). Decisions about how to remember the GDR in Germany are now part of public policy. They relate to potential political futures and to the possibilities of civil society both within Germany and more widely across Europe. As such, the emphasis in the monograph and exhibition on the collaborative, international political agenda pursued by Kuckhoff will be of benefit for those wanting to find ways of engaging with society that challenge the political status quo.
The book launch and exhibition are timed to coincide with the seventieth anniversary of the first round of executions of members of the 'Red Orchestra' group, thus providing a realistic timescale and maximising public interest.
An exhibition on Greta Kuckhoff's resistance to Nazism and the way it has been remembered in her work will be created to accompany the launch of the monograph. It will be held at the University of Birmingham and then offered to the Memorial to German Resistance in Berlin for presentation in its temporary gallery.
In Birmingham invitees to the launch will include local politicians, members of the German Academic Exchange Service and German Embassy, schools, and the wider Birmingham community with an interest in Germany. The Memorial to Resistance in Berlin attracts large numbers of school groups, tourists and military personnel who will benefit from the more detailed focus on one resistance group currently profiled within the permanent exhibition. Responses from former GDR citizens to the project so far suggest that they will benefit from the recognition of their cultural heritage afforded by such an exhibition.
The British and international audiences will be confronted with ways of looking at the past which often contradict mainstream thinking. The exhibition will raise questions of resistance, collaboration and betrayal, tolerance of other political viewpoints, and understandings of dictatorship.
How they will benefit from this research:
The pedagogical value of commemorating resistance was recognised in both German states after the war, and the struggles over memory since unification have played a key role in educational agendas, from the re-naming of streets to negotiations in schools over suitable role-models named after communist figures. Members of the 'Red Orchestra', those who fought against Nazism and its racism, have been particularly prominent in such debates (Plum 2005). In addition, the recent Hollywood film on the history of the resistance of the group around Claus von Stauffenberg (20th July 1944) has increased the general level of knowledge and interest in anti-Nazi resistance in Germany and abroad. German school groups and others visiting the Berlin temporary exhibition will therefore have a pre-existing framework in which to situate the controversial histories under discussion. In Britain, touring exhibitions about the role of peaceful resistance in civil society that arise from transnational historical legacies (including anti-Nazi groups) have proven popular, and are becoming particularly necessary with the increasing prominence of groups such as the English Defence League and British National Party. Residents of Birmingham will therefore find similar resonance from the exhibition, particularly in the context of Birmingham City Council's recent campaign about the multicultural city.
Memories of the Nazi and GDR regimes still have a significant impact on the lives of German citizens. Such significance is evidenced, as Andrew Beattie has shown, by the 'German state's remarkable activism in the negotiation of memories of the GDR' (2010). Decisions about how to remember the GDR in Germany are now part of public policy. They relate to potential political futures and to the possibilities of civil society both within Germany and more widely across Europe. As such, the emphasis in the monograph and exhibition on the collaborative, international political agenda pursued by Kuckhoff will be of benefit for those wanting to find ways of engaging with society that challenge the political status quo.
The book launch and exhibition are timed to coincide with the seventieth anniversary of the first round of executions of members of the 'Red Orchestra' group, thus providing a realistic timescale and maximising public interest.
Organisations
People |
ORCID iD |
| Joanne Sayner (Principal Investigator) |
| Description | The most significant achievement from the grant is the substantial monograph which brought together original archival material and an innovative theoretical framework, which argues for the necessity of a transnational antifascism. More specifically, the book's originality, international significance and academic rigour are based on previously unpublished archival sources. Greta Kuckhoff's papers (Federal Archives, Berlin) comprise 7.16 metres which were only partially catalogued when work began. |
| Exploitation Route | As pointed out in the monograph, work on Kuckhoff's journal articles uncovered a still unexplored (and uncatalogued) archive of the GDR journal 'Die Weltbuehne'. There is significant potential here for work on the cultural history of journals in the GDR as well as journals as a form of memory. This will form the basis of a new bid to the AHRC by myself and a team of other GDR scholars. Similar gaps remain in relation to Kuckhoff's role as the first female head of the GDR state bank. |
| Sectors | Education,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections |