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This masters’ thesis analyses the connections between the first allied military trials held in postwar Germany and German public opinion toward the British and American occupation forces. Focused on the Belsen trial, held in the British occupation zone from September to November 1945, and the Dachau trial, held by the American military government in the U.S. occupation zone between November and December 1945, this study seeks to highlight the importance both trials held for the British and the Americans in establishing positive relations with the Germans. Using Belsen and Dachau as case studies, it argues that, while they were essential to British and American denazification and re-education programs, they also had to be conducted in a manner that ensured the best possible relationship the German public and the occupation forces in both the American and British occupation zones. I demonstrate that, from the initial steps implemented to set up the trials through their conclusion, both powers took German concerns and reactions to the judiciary procedures into account: first by anchoring the charges and the trials themselves in international law preceding the Second World War; then by providing the right to a defense to the accused. Both factors, the Allies believed, allowed them to claim a moral authority over their occupation zone. The memoir’s examination of the trials and their purpose is complimented by an analysis of the press coverage of the trials and public opinion surveys taken after the trials. This study states that the press coverage was oftentimes one the first instances in which Germans were confronted to the atrocities committed in the concentration camps. Finally, this study argues that, as a part of larger programs, the trials had a limited success as a tool to implement positive relations between the British and American occupation forces and the German population.
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This master’s thesis analyzes the dynamics between the German Democratic Republic and its citizens through complaint letters that East Germans sent to the State between 1953 and 1967 regarding housing problems. It argues that the complainants adopted “socialist values” throughout their discourses as a way of justifying the legitimacy of their complaints. In other words, they used the discourse and principles of the state against it in order to demand action and a resolution to their problems or concerns. This thesis not only highlight these various strategies, utilizing a “history from below” approach, but it also investigates the state’s reaction to the complaints of its citizens. It argues that the state responded overall better in the 1960s as it did in the 1950s, showing evolution in the relationship between state and society as well as a shift in the state’s way to understand socialism. By the 1960s the East German government had had time to slowly adapt its domestic politics towards the population’s needs. The analysis of these letters is at the crossroads of two methods: First I employ a discursive analysis that allows me to identify the recurring strategies by which the state and its citizens sought to influence each other. Second, I use a statistical analysis of the State’s responses coupled with an examination of domestic politics that allows me to capture the changing attitude of the government towards its population.
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Ab Herbst 1944 wurden schätzungsweise 12 Millionen Deutsche aus den östlichen Provinzen des Reiches oder aus verschiedenen zentral- und osteuropäischen Ländern Flüchtlinge oder Vertriebene. Dennoch fand die Behandlung dieser Personen nach ihrer Ankunft in den Westzonen in der Historiographie außerhalb Deutschlands bisher kaum Beachtung. Anhand der Untersuchung eines Flüchtlingslagers im oberfränkischen Bamberg, widmet sich diese Masterarbeit dem Ziel, die verschiedenen Gruppen innerhalb der Flüchtlingsbevölkerung zu identifizieren und die komplexen Entscheidungsprozesse der Stadt, der Diözese und der deutschen Hilfsorganisationen bezüglich der Integration der Neuankömmlinge zu analysieren. Vor dem Hintergrund der prekären Wohnungsnot, dem Fehlen von Basisgütern und der Politisierung der humanitären Hilfen, hebt diese Studie die Unterschiede, sowie die Bevorzugung einzelner Flüchtlingsgruppen zum Nachteil anderer hervor. Diese Arbeit widmet sich in besonderem Maße der Geschlechter- und Sozialgeschichte, um die in der traditionellen Geschichtsschreibung häufig vernachlässigten historischen Analysekategorien miteinzubeziehen. Weiterhin liegt der Fokus auf den deutschen Nachkriegsdebatten zur Entwicklung einer neuen Ordnung von Politik, Ökonomie, Gesellschaft und Geschlecht. Ich werde daher versuchen, im Kontext der aufkommenden Viktimisierung im Zuge der Gestaltung einer westdeutschen Identität und Erinnerungskultur, zu verstehen wie und warum manche Gruppen eher Zugang zu Nahrung, Wohnraum, Arbeit und medizinischer Versorgung erhielten als andere.