Writing German History after the Fall of the Berlin Wall

'Writing German History after the Fall of the Berlin Wall: A Roundtable with Dr Udo Grashoff and former DAAD lecturers' celebrating the long and productive collaboration between UCL SSEES and the DAAD. 

The DAAD lectureship in Modern German History at UCL SSEES is named after the German-British Francis L. Carsten (1911-1998), a Berliner from a German-Jewish family who escaped the Nazis and found permanent refuge in London in 1939. He became a lecturer in history in 1947 and was appointed Professor of European History at the University of London in 1961. Carsten was an expert in the history of the Weimar Republic and the Socialist movement, as well as a lifelong champion of British-German intellectual exchange and cooperation. 

At a time when the political discourse of the day is again marked by alienation and the rhetoric of exceptionalism in Anglo-German dialogue, Udo Grashoff, the current Francis L. Carsten DAAD lecturer at UCL SSEES, will join four of his predecessors at a roundtable to discuss the twists and turns of writing German history after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. After the euphoria of the ‘peaceful revolution’, current historians are more pessimistic, stressing the side effects of the economic and political unification of the 1990s and their long-term impact on German and European memory and culture. By examining key aspects of the historiographical development in recent decades from a personal perspective, the roundtable will discuss opportunities and challenges of how to write German history in the globalized world of the twenty-first century.

The event will be introduced and chaired by Professor Diane P. Koenker, UCL SSEES Director. Welcoming remarks will be given by the DAAD United Kingdom and Ireland.

Confirmed speakers include:
Dr Udo Grashoff (UCL SSEES)
Dr Egbert Klautke (UCL SSEES)
Dr Rudolf Muhs (Royal Holloway, University of London)
Prof Kay Schiller (Durham University)
Prof Daniel Siemens (Newcastle University)

Please register via Eventbrite: https://daad2019.eventbrite.co.uk