Events

Violence in German Literature and History

A half-day conference/workshop

18 November 2009, 14.00-18.00

CES Common Room

14.00-14.30: Sebastian Coxon: Crime, punishment and laughter in Werner der Gaertner's “Helmbrecht”
14.30-14.45: Discussion

14.45-15.15: Susanne Kord: Containing the Plague: Female Vampires in Literature
15.15-15.30: Discussion

15.30-16.00: Break, tea, biscuits

16.00-16.30: Mererid Puw Davies: Representing the Vietnam Conflict in West German Poetry, 1966-1973
16.30-16.45: Discussion

16.45-17.15: Mary Fulbrook: Generations, violence and memory through the German dictatorships
17.15-17.30: Discussion

17.30-18.00: General discussion, cookies and tea

Last year's top events:

My Top-Secret Codebreaking During World War II: The Last British Survivor of Bletchley Park’s Testery, Captain Jerry Roberts (UCL German 1939-41)

11 March 2009, 6.30 PM, Lecture Theatre 1, Cruciform Building, Gower Street, UCL

The lecture can be viewed in its entirety here.

After speaking to students in the German Department on 13 January 2009, Captain Jerry Roberts, one of the German Department's most distinguished alumni and a major historical figure, kindly agreed to speak to the wider UCL community about his experiences in and immediately after the Second World War.

Following the completion of his German degree at UCL, Captain Roberts became a founding member of the ‘Testery’ at Bletchley Park and a senior member of the élite team assigned to the regular breaking of messages enciphered on the Lorenz SZ40/42 machines, new 12-wheel machines designed especially to encrypt communications between German Army H.Q. in Berlin and the top generals in the field on all fronts, including a number signed by Hitler himself. Nicknamed ‘Tunny’, it was a much more complex machine than the better-known, and normally 3-wheeled, Enigma. Tunny was only declassified a few years ago (2000). By contrast, Enigma was declassified in the 1970s.

Captain Roberts has declined many other invitations to speak publicly and so we are delighted that he has agreed to tell his story at UCL.

See also recent news coverage on Bletchley Park and literature on Colossus by Jerry Roberts

Other Events in the German Department

Numerous extra-curricular events contribute to the Department's lively research culture and exchange of ideas every year. The Department regularly organizes an informal lecture series during which members of the Department (staff or students) present their latest research to each other and students and colleagues from other universities. Another highlight of every year is the student-organized the Departmental play (see our Student Initiatives site). Recent years have also seen a major conference, entitled Germany 1930-1990: Structures, lived experiences and historical representations (co-organized by UCL German and GHIL, 22-23 March 2007), a student-led Departmental project entitled 'What good are the arts? A German Perspective' (8-9 March 2007) which comprised a major art exhibit introduced by UCL's President and Provost Malcolm Grant, a lecture offered by Austrian Ambassador Dr Gabriele Matzner-Holzer, and a student-produced film provocatively entitled 'What Good Are the Arts? A German Perspective' (screened on 8 and 9 March 2007).

The student-led German Club has also distinguished itself in recent years by organizing several highly visible events that attracted audiences in the hundreds.  Highlights included a panel discussion among distinguished cultural figures and major writers on the subject of German-Jewish identity in today's Germany and Austria (special guest: Austrian writer Robert Menasse) and another public discussion among ambassadors from several nations on the subject of the enlargement of the European Union, also introduced by UCL's President and Provost Malcolm Grant. For its outstanding contribution to the cultural life of UCL, the German Society was named the Society of the Year by the UCL Students’ Union in 2005-06.