German Historical Institute London Bulletin Volume XXIX, No. 1 May 2007 CONTENTS Seminars 3 Articles Hitler’s Games: Race Relations in the 1936 Olympics (David Clay Large) 5 The Long Shadows of the Second World War: The Impact of Experiences and Memories of War on West German Society (Axel Schildt) 28 Review Articles Prussian Junkers (William W. Hagen) 50 Flirting with Hitler: Biographies of the German and British Nobility in the Interwar Years (Karina Urbach) 64 Book Reviews Dieter Berg, Die Anjou-Plantagenets: Die englischen Könige im Europa des Mittelalters (1100–1400) (Karsten Plöger) 75 Lyndal Roper, Witch Craze: Terror and Fantasy in Baroque Germany (Johannes Dillinger) 79 Helke Rausch, Kultfigur und Nation: Öffentliche Denkmäler in Paris, Berlin und London 1848–1914 (Matthew Jefferies) 85 Sonja Levsen, Elite, Männlichkeit und Krieg: Tübinger und Cambridger Studenten 1900–1929 (Thomas Weber) 89 Zara Steiner, The Lights that Failed: European International History 1919–1933 (Eckart Conze) 97 (cont.) Contents Michael Kater, Hitler Youth (Sybille Steinbacher) 101 James J. Barnes and Patience P. Barnes, Nazis in Pre-War London, 1930–1939: The Fate and Role of German Party Members and British Sympathizers (Lothar Kettenacker) 107 Dieter Kuntz and Susan Bachrach (eds.), Deadly Medicine: Creating the Master Race (Winfried Süß) 112 Kazimierz Sakowicz, Ponary Diary, 1941–1943: A Bystander’s Account of a Mass Murder; Rachel Margolis and Jim G. Tobias (eds.), Die geheimen Notizen des K. Sakowicz: Doku- mente zur Judenvernichtung in Ponary (Helmut Walser Smith) 115 Bastian Hein, Die Westdeutschen und die Dritte Welt: Entwick- lungspolitik und Entwicklungsdienste zwischen Reform und Revolte 1959–1974 (Armin Grünbacher) 119 Conference Reports Chivalric Heroism or Brutal Cruelty—How Violent were the Middle Ages? (Hanna Vollrath) 122 The Holy Roman Empire, 1495–1806 (Michael Schaich) 125 Fifth Workshop on Early Modern German History (Michael Schaich) 135 Royal Kinship: Anglo-German Family Networks 1760–1914 (Matthew S. Seligmann) 140 The Dignity of the Poor: Concepts, Practices, Representations (Andreas Gestrich) 146 Noticeboard 157 Library News Recent Acquisitions 174 2 SEMINARS AT THE GHIL SUMMER 2007 15 May CHRISTOPHER CLARK (CAMBRIDGE) Rethinking the History of Prussia Christopher Clark has been a Fellow of St Catharine’s College, Cambridge since 1990. An expert on modern Ger- man history, he has published widely on subjects at the interface between religion, culture and politics. His most recent book is Iron Kingdom: The Rise and Downfall of Prussia, 1600–1947 (2006, German trans. 2007). 24 May GEOFF ELEY (MICHIGAN) (Thurs.) Hitler’s Silent Majority? Conformity and Resistance under the Third Reich Geoff Eley is the Karl Pohrt Distinguished University Profes- sor of Contemporary History at the University of Michigan. In addition to German history of the nineteenth and twen- tieth centuries, on which he has published widely, his research and teaching interests include Europe since 1945, nationalism, cultural studies, and historiography. He is the author (with K. Nield) of The Future of Class in History: What’s Left of the Social? (2007). 29 May MARTIAL STAUB (SHEFFIELD) The Republic of the Dead in Reformation Nuremberg: Endowment, Freedom and Solidarity in an Age of Partici- pation Martial Staub has been Professor of Medieval History at the University of Sheffield since September 2004. From 1993 to 2004 he was a Research Fellow at the Max Planck Institute of History in Göttingen. His main research interests range from the history of the medieval Church to the history of urban societies in late medieval and Renaissance Germany and Italy. He is the editor (with M. Derwich) of Die ‘neue Frömmigkeit’ in Europa im Spätmittelalter (2004). (cont.) 3 Seminars 26 June JOST DÜLFFER (COLOGNE) Are Democracies Really more Peaceful? Democratic Peace Theory Revisited Jost Dülffer was appointed Professor of Modern History at the University of Cologne in 1982, the only history chair in Germany with a specialization in peace and conflict research. In 2005/6 he was Konrad Adenauer Visiting Pro- fessor at the BMW Center for German and European Studies, Georgetown University, Washington, DC. His main research areas are the history of international rela- tions, modern German history, and European history since 1945. He is the author of Europa im Ost-West-Konflikt, 1945– 1991 (2004). Seminars are held at 5 p.m. in the Seminar Room of the GHIL. Tea is served from 4.30 p.m. in the Common Room, and wine is available after the seminars. 4 ARTICLES HITLER’S GAMES: RACE RELATIONS IN THE 1936 OLYMPICS David Clay Large On 29 April 1931 the International Olympic Committee (IOC) voted 43 to 16 to hold the 1936 Olympic Summer Games in Berlin, Ger- many, over runner-up Barcelona, Spain. At that time Germany was still a democracy, albeit a beleaguered one. Less than two years later, the country was under the control of a Nazi-led government that stood as a mockery of the Olympic ideals of internationalism and peaceful competition among the peoples of the world, independent of religious, racial, and ethnic considerations. Nonetheless, despite protests from a number of quarters and the threat of a boycott by some nations, most notably the USA, the IOC held fast to its decision to stage the Summer Games in Berlin. In June 1933, five months after Hitler came to power, the IOC awarded the 1936 Winter Games to the Bavarian twin villages of Garmisch-Partenkirchen. Holding the 1936 Olympics in an avowedly racist and anti-demo- cratic nation was undoubtedly the most controversial move ever made by the IOC, a body that has seen more than its share of contro- versy and scandal over the years. For Nazi Germany, which enthusi- astically embraced the games after initial misgivings about hosting them, the Olympic venture proved in general to be an organization- al and propaganda success, promoting the image of a friendly and harmonious nation open to the world.1 One can never know what would have happened had the IOC denied Hitler his greatest propa- This article is based on a lecture given at the German Historical Institute London on 14 Nov. 2006. 1 There is a wealth of literature on the 1936 Olympics. The most useful book- length contributions include Richard D. Mandell, The Nazi Olympics (New York, 1971); Duff Hart-Davis, Hitler’s Games: The 1936 Olympics (New York, 5 Articles ganda coup, but some observers at the time believed that such a move would have strengthened resistance within Germany to the Nazi tyranny.2 Apart from the valuable propaganda boost for the Nazis, the 1936 games introduced technical innovations and set organizational stan- dards that have shaped the Olympic movement ever since. Although the inaugural ‘modern’ Olympics were held in Athens in 1896, the German games of 1936 were the first to take on the scope and trap- pings familiar to us today. The Germans games were the first to re- ceive extensive logistical and financial support from a national gov- ernment. They were the first to be broadcast worldwide by radio and (albeit very primitively and only locally) by television. They pio- neered the pre-competition Olympic Torch Relay from Olympia in Greece to the host site as well as the release of doves on opening day. They featured a wide range of the now-ubiquitous ancillary hoopla, such as dress balls, banquets, art exhibitions, parades, and concerts. They encouraged corporate advertising and endorsements (Coca- Cola was a ‘proud sponsor’ of the ’36 games, as were Mercedes-Benz and Lufthansa). And, most ominously, they made ‘safety’ for visitors and athletes a major priority, providing a security apparatus of unprecedented proportions. Given the limits of space here, this article obviously cannot tell the whole story of the 1936 Olympics. What I propose to do is to focus on some of the political and racial dimensions of this affair, honing in on the boycott threat and the German response to it. Following that I shall discuss the unprecedented success of American black athletes in the track and field competition in Berlin, paying particular attention to the manner in which that success was interpreted, both in 1986); Arnd Krüger, Die Olympischen Spiele 1936 und die Weltmeinung: Ihre außenpolitische Bedeutung unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der USA (Berlin, 1972); Arnd Krüger and William Murray (eds.), The Nazi Olympics: Sport, Politics, and Appeasement in the 1930s (Urbana, Ill., 2003); Guy Walters, Berlin Games: How Hitler Stole the Olympic Dream (London, 2006); and David Clay Large, Nazi Games: The Olympics of 1936 (New York, 2007). 2 America’s consuls in Berlin argued vociferously that a loss of the 1936 Olympics would constitute a significant domestic political blow to the Nazi regime. See cables from Consuls Messersmith and Geist to the State Department, in Olympic Games, 862.4016, National Archives, Washington, DC (hereafter NA). 6 Hitler’s Games Germany and the United States. Here I hope to dispel some of the misconceptions that persist to this day regarding the American blacks’ experience in Berlin, including the myth that Jesse Owens was snubbed by Hitler, and the all-too confident conclusion that the black triumphs represented a major blow to the doctrines of white racial superiority that were prevalent at that time. I I should preface my comments on the boycott threat by noting that before Hitler assumed power in January 1933 it seemed unlikely that a Hitler-run government, should one in fact come to pass in Germany, would even want to host the Olympic Games. The Nazi leadership and Nazi sports commentators had shown nothing but contempt for the modern Olympic movement, and indeed for all international sporting events, calling instead for purely German com- petitions and fitness programmes focusing on Turnen, the synchro- nized group-gymnastics that had been developed in Germany in the early nineteenth century.