Journalists and Religious Activists in Polish-German Relations
THE PROJECT OF RECONCILIATION: JOURNALISTS AND RELIGIOUS ACTIVISTS IN POLISH-GERMAN RELATIONS, 1956-1972 Annika Frieberg A dissertation submitted to the faculty of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of History. Chapel Hill 2008 Approved by: Dr. Konrad H. Jarausch Dr. Christopher Browning Dr. Chad Bryant Dr. Karen Hagemann Dr. Madeline Levine View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Carolina Digital Repository ©2008 Annika Frieberg ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ii ABSTRACT ANNIKA FRIEBERG: The Project of Reconciliation: Journalists and Religious Activists in Polish-German Relations, 1956-1972 (under the direction of Konrad Jarausch) My dissertation, “The Project of Reconciliation,” analyzes the impact of a transnational network of journalists, intellectuals, and publishers on the postwar process of reconciliation between Germans and Poles. In their foreign relations work, these non-state actors preceded the Polish-West German political relations that were established in 1970. The dissertation has a twofold focus on private contacts between these activists, and on public discourse through radio, television and print media, primarily its effects on political and social change between the peoples. My sources include the activists’ private correspondences, interviews, and memoirs as well as radio and television manuscripts, articles and business correspondences. Earlier research on Polish-German relations is generally situated firmly in a nation-state framework in which the West German, East German or Polish context takes precedent. My work utilizes international relations theory and comparative reconciliation research to explore the long-term and short-term consequences of the discourse and the concrete measures which were taken during the 1960s to end official deadlock and nationalist antagonisms and to overcome the destructive memories of the Second World War dividing Poles and Germans.
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