A History of the Anglo-German Relationship, 1807-1952

In July 1950, the British government was questioned in Parliament as to whether it should give Heligoland, a small island in the North Sea, back to Germany. The answer was a resounding 'no'. As the minister responsible put it, the island represented everything that had gone wrong between the two countries: 'If any tradition was worth breaking, and if any sentiment was worth changing, then the German sentiment about Heligoland was such a one'.

My project takes Heligoland as a prism through which to re-assess the Anglo-German relationship. Throughout the past two centuries the island has been a symbol of contact and conflict. While a British colony, it was frequented by German émigrés and writers. It was from here that national liberals propagated the idea of a unified Germany. When the UK ceded Heligoland in 1890, it was intended by both sides as a token of friendship, but became a symbol of rivalry. After the war, it was occupied by British forces. Under the Nazis the island was re-militarised and again styled as a national symbol. For Hitler and Goebbels it represented past German weakness and the need to be bold with Britain; for Himmler it was the mystic island from which the Aryan race had originated. Heavy bombardment in 1945 reduced it to ruins. When it was finally given to Western Germany in 1952, Chancellor Adenauer proclaimed: 'Set in the seas between Britain and Germany, Heligoland will be a token of peace and friendship between us.'

Re-visiting the Anglo-German relationship from this site in the North Sea makes it necessary for us to step outside the traditional pattern of two parallel national historiographies. The British and German pasts have intersected in Heligoland for much of the past two centuries, suggesting that the two nations' boundaries were more blurred and permeable than the received national histories allow for. My research studies in detail the island's position between the two nations and its role in the many forms of Anglo-German contact and conflict.

However, this will not be a mere microhistory of the two nations' entanglement. Using Heligoland as a case study, the project will re-assess key questions in British and German historiography. It will focus on three related issues. The first is the schism that has opened amongst historians of the Anglo-German relationship. On the one hand there are those scholars who have explained the rivalry between Britain and Germany in strategic and economic terms, creating a sense of inevitability: the rise of Germany was bound to lead, sooner or later, to conflict with Britain. On the other hand there are those who have explored the two countries' cultural exchange and transfer. In their analysis war between Britain and Germany appears as an accident rather than the logical outcome of long-term trends. My project will go beyond these conflicting schools of thought by bringing together political and cultural approaches, offering an account that is neither deterministic nor relativistic.

Second, my research will suggest a fresh approach to the relationship between Britain and Europe. For too long, historians studying Britain's external relations have either focussed on the Continent as the main source of influence or emphasized British history as distinct from Europe and best understood in an imperial context. My research will demonstrate that the two perspetives need to be thought of in one context. Despite much rhetoric about 'splendid isolation', Britain was bound up with the Continent throughout the 19th century - in ways that escape categorisation as either 'imperial' or 'European'.

Third, the project will offer new insight into the history of German nationalism. It will analyse, in particular, the link between the quest for national unity and ideas of naval expansion, which can be found throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. This will lead to new findings about the continuities and ruptures in German thinking about nationhood and the sea.

Schools
A new interpretation of the Anglo-German relationship will be of particular benefit for teachers and pupils at secondary schools. There has been repeated criticism that the curriculum concentrates too much on the two wars as the main point of interaction between Britain and Germany. My project offers a broader context in which a range of different forms of Anglo-German contact and conflict can be appreciated alongside the established focus on the two world wars. One of the main arguments of my project is that the past does not always have to be understood as national history. And even when we focus on a national context, we ought to allow for this context to be bound up with other perspectives, whether transnational or international. My research can thus be seen as a giving teachers and students an opportunity to critically engage with the national emphasis that dominates in the curriculum. I will attempt to facilitate this through lectures at schools and conferences for A-Level students, which I give regularly, as well as through my teaching at Birkbeck, which involves mature students, amongst them history and language teachers.

Museums
My research will similarly benefit museums and other public sector institutions that offer an interpretation of the past to the public. My research has met with strong interest from the National Maritime Museum, where a temporary exhibition based on my research is planned. This will make use of the Museum's collections, which form a part of the sources on which my research is based. My research benefits the Museum by suggesting new ways in which to interpret its collections and use them in its exhibitions as well as educational and online facilities.

Wider public
The Anglo-German relationship continues to be a topic of broad public interest. My research engages with this interest by questioning established stereotypes. I aim to address a wider public not only through publications, but also through my co-operation with the National Maritime Museum, an institution that attracts 1.5 million visitors annually at its site in Greenwich and, through its popular web portal, 5 million visitors online. A public exhibition and a dedicated website, to be organised after the period that would be covered by the fellowship, will make it possible for a broad audience to engage with a new approach to the Anglo-German past.

Media
It is not only the interest shown by public sector institutions, but also by the media, that suggests that a wider public will benefit from my research. The producers of a BBC television documentary series for which I acted as a consultant ('Empire of the Seas', BBC 2, January 2010), are considering developing a programme, most likely for BBC 4, which would be based on my project. For those in the media interested in engaging critically with the stereotyped presentation of the Anglo-German relationship, my research should offer a welcome change in perspective. Rather that adopting an 'us versus them' pattern from the outset, my project shows that the two countries' past intersected in intriguing ways long before the two world wars.