Research focus

Teaching-learning processes at NS memorials

Colonial history in history lessons

Historical culture / regional history including its mediation

Habilitation project

Teaching and learning processes at Nazi memorials

In 2019, 2.5 million people visited the seven largest German Nazi memorials. Until the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, almost all memorials in Germany recorded a steady increase in visitor numbers. It is estimated that around one to two thirds of the visitors counted were schoolchildren who explored the memorial site together with their class.[1] Nazi memorials have changed considerably in recent decades. One of the reasons for this development is that memories of the Holocaust are slowly shifting from communicative to cultural memory. As a result, the function as a place of remembrance is also partially receding, while historical and political education is being increasingly expanded. However, the foundation and core of memorials is still the connection to a (supposedly) authentic place and the advocacy for the victims.[2]

The debate as to whether a visit to a Nazi memorial site should be compulsory for all pupils flares up time and again. It is believed, or at least hoped, that visiting a former concentration camp will immunise pupils against anti-Semitic and right-wing extremist ideas. In all the discussions, however, the question of how this immunisation should take place remained unanswered. The question not only remained unanswered in the public debate, the discipline of history didactics also struggled to find convincing, empirically based answers as to how the historical teaching and learning process takes place at the extracurricular Nazi memorial site.[3]

As early as 2013, Matthias Heyl stated that "German memorial educational practice is largely unexplored in terms of empirically valid studies, [...] especially in the setting of school memorial visits"[4] could be considered. Little has changed in the situation described by Heyl to date.[5]

Research project

In my habilitation, I would like to combine two research perspectives:

1. The proposed study will take a closer look at the teaching-learning processes during a visit to a Nazi memorial site and how these dovetail with historical learning in schools. Most of the existing studies have identified a clear dichotomy between cognitive learning at school and affective learning at the memorial site. The question is often whether one is superior to the other.[6] However, I am primarily concerned with the interactions between the learning processes at school and at the Nazi memorial and the influences of the respective learning environments.
2. The focus of my study will be on heterogeneous learning groups, primarily from lower and intermediate secondary schools. The Sinus study from 2016 showed that it is primarily young people with an 'educational background' who can be reached by a visit to the memorial, but not those from 'educationally disadvantaged' households.[7] Holger Thünemann and Oliver von Wrochem recently referred to "patterns of interpretation, commemoration and remembrance routines, ways of speaking and communication rituals that have become canonical"[8]which are not suitable for pupils with heterogeneous educational biographies and different social and ethnic backgrounds. I would like to take a closer look at this lack of connectivity, which has been recognised but not yet researched in detail, and at the same time investigate the framework conditions that nevertheless enable teaching-learning processes.

The following central questions arise from these two research perspectives :

• How can teaching-learning processes of pupils with heterogeneous social backgrounds be characterised during a visit to a Nazi memorial site and in pre- and post-school lessons?
• What effects of the different learning environments can be identified on pupils? Under what conditions does the Nazi memorial site have a positive influence on learning success? (And what would be considered "learning success" in the first place?)
• How can a teaching-learning process be initiated at Nazi memorial sites in which heterogeneity is seen as an opportunity for the initiation of historical learning and not as an obstacle?

My research project ties in with several topics currently being discussed in history didactics, two of which are mentioned here as examples: 1) Diversity in history and in history lessons: memorials are per se places where exclusion is addressed. They are therefore particularly suitable for making categories of difference the subject of historical learning.[9] 2) Emotions and historical learning: The significance of emotions in the historical learning process has still only been researched to a limited extent. Existing research has highlighted the paradox that Nazi memorials are decidedly not places for moralising and emotions, while in many cases teachers hope that a visit to a Nazi memorial will have precisely these effects.[10] I am particularly interested in how the interplay of affective and cognitive learning processes can promote historical learning.

Methodology

The research questions are to be answered with the help of a bricolage of methods primarily from the field of qualitative social research. This includes a qualitative observation, supported by audio or video recordings, of the school lessons associated with the visit to the memorial site as well as the visit to the memorial site itself. In addition, individual and/or group interviews or group discussions with pupils should be carried out in the sense of a pre-post design before and after the memorial visit. In addition, the evaluation of student-related media, such as annotated photo documentation of the visit, should be considered.

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Dissertation (completed)

From maid to cleaning lady? Domestic workers in the 20th century

"I was allowed to sit at a table with my masters, but the good food was at the other end of the table, where the masters were sitting. At my end of the table there was cheap fat instead of butter and only rarely meat. I wouldn't have dared to simply serve myself at the other end of the table."[1] This is how the then 18-year-old housemaid Elfriede Meyer described a daily situation during her time working in a household in Dortmund from 1958 to 1959. She had previously worked in another household and had left there "overnight" when a dispute arose. She also only kept her job in Dortmund for just under two years, until her wedding. Even though maids in the 19th century were not usually allowed to eat at the table of "their masters", this example shows that a number of admissions of maids in the 19th century also applied to their counterparts in the 20th century: they were young and usually came from a poor, rural background. Working as a maid was a typical transitory stage on the way to running a household or another academic appointment, so marriage almost always marked the end of this stage of life. Maids were primarily responsible for the menial and particularly strenuous seminar papers, while their legal security was always more than precarious, even in the 20th century. The topic of "maids in the 19th century" has already been well researched[2], but there are virtually no studies available for the 20th century[3]. This is certainly also due to the fact that the number of maids, or as they were called after 1918 "domestic helpers" or "domestic servants", fell steadily, albeit from a very high level. According to the Statistical Yearbook of the Federal Republic of Germany, there were still over 500,000 domestic helpers working in 1960, with cleaning staff listed separately. With my dissertation project "Domestic workers in the 20th century", I can build on this research on the 19th century, show continuities, draw parallels and work out breaks. My research interest is primarily focussed on the structure of the relationship between employer and employee. In doing so, I take up the theme of the last Historikertag "Inequalities" and place these and how they are dealt with at the centre of my work. There is no other employment relationship where this can be analysed so well, as nowhere else did the "inequalities" meet so clearly and so directly, where people from two different social classes lived under one roof and had to get along with each other on a daily basis. Following on from this, the guiding questions of my project will be what these inequalities were, how they were demonstrated, reinforced or even broken down in everyday life.

Two developments that seem contradictory at first glance can be identified in advance. In the 1950s and 1960s, the number of domestic helpers fell by around 10,000 every year, while at the same time the financial situation improved. As early as 1938, earnings were already higher than industrial wages if one adds board and lodging to the cash wage, as well as the usual gifts. According to my first thesis, it was not the pay that attracted young women to other professions, but rather the daily experience of "inequalities", the lack of self-determination and the high degree of heteronomy inherent in the academic appointment that made the work of a domestic help increasingly unattractive and outmoded. As the introductory quote makes clear, nothing fundamental had changed in this area from the 19th to the 20th century.

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Monographs

Workplace private household. Urban domestic helpers in the 20th century, Göttingen 2023, 373 pp.

The SED and the APO. Reception of the student movement in the GDR press, Oldenburg 2008, 148 pp.

together with Gunilla Budde: Beethoven unterm Hakenkreuz. The Oldenburg State Orchestra during National Socialism, Oldenburg 2007, 117 pp.

Editorship

together with Christine Krüger/Franziska Meifort: Korrespondenzen aus der Vergangenheit. Letters as historical sources, Göttingen 2025, 272 pp.

together with Anna Mamzer/Eva Schöck-Quinteros: Bremen. A city of colonies?, Bremen 2016, 170 pp.

together with Eva Schöck-Quinteros/Harald Wixforth: Prunk & Pleite einer Unternehmerdynastie: der Konkurs der Nordwolle und die Bankenkrise 1931 (Aus den Akten auf die Bühne, Bd. 8.3), Bremen 2015, 86 p.

Oldenburg places of remembrance. From the Castle to the Hell of the North, from Count Anton Günther to Horst Janssen, Oldenburg 2012, 441 p.

Essays

The living and working environments of urban domestic servants in the 20th century, Zeischrift für Geschichtswissenschaft, 73rd volume, issue 10, 2025, pp. 859-870.

"Hell with distributed roles?" Violence in the private household workplace, in: Heying, Mareen/Jaeger, Alexandra/Kleinöder, Nina/Knoll-Jung, Sebastian/Voigt, Sebastian (eds.): Verschwiegener Alltag. Violence in the workplace since the 19th century, Bonn 2025, pp. 95-110.

Genuine co-determination or "democratic fig leaf"? Student representation since 1945, in: Geschichte lernen, 220/2024, pp. 40-47.

"That's not much." The payment of domestic helpers in the 20th century, in: Wiede, Wiebke/Wolf, Johanna/Fattmann, Rainer (eds.): Gender Pay Gap. Vom Wert und Unwert von Arbeit in Geschichte und Gegenwart, Bonn 2023, pp. 87-104.

Europe to go. Election posters in the first European election campaign in 1979, in: Geschichte lernen, 209/2022, pp. 22-27.

Die gewerkschaftliche Organisation der Hausgehilfinnen von 1918 bis in die 1960er Jahre, in: Artus, Ingrid/Bennewitz, Nadja/Henninger, Annette/Holland, Judith/Kerber-Clasen, Stefan (eds.): Arbeitskonflikte sind Geschlechterkämpfe. Social science and historical perspectives, Münster 2020, pp. 135-151.

Three years in prison for a joke: GDR court judgements of the 1950s and their reassessment by the Oldenburg Higher Regional Court, in: Freist, Dagmar (ed.): ArchivGeschichten (Festschrift für Gerd Steinwascher), Stuttgart 2018, pp. 98-113.

A relic of the 19th century? Domestic helpers from 1918 to the 1960s, in: Archiv für Sozialgeschichte, vol. 54, 2014, pp. 147-168.

The First World War. Von der Kriegsbegeisterung zur Kriegsmüdigkeit, in: Schneider, Gerhard/Gottschlich, Ralf/Ladleif, Christiane (eds.): Der Erste Weltkrieg im Spiegel expressiver Kunst. Battles, Passions, Dance of Death, Bönen 2014, pp. 25-32.

Oldenburg places of remembrance as examples of the interlocking of national and regional memory, in: Reznik, Milos/Rosenbaum, Katja/Stübner, Jos: Regionale Erinnerungsorte. Böhmische Länder und Mitteldeutschland im europäischen Kontext (Studien zur Europäischen Regionalgeschichte, Bd. 1), Leipzig/Berlin 2013, pp. 185-193.

Inequalities under one roof. Domestic helpers from 1918 to the 1960s, in: Ariadne. Forum for Women's and Gender History, Issue 63, May 2013, pp. 36-43.

Work without prestige or ideal female profession? Domestic helpers in Germany 1918-1960s, in: Österreichische Zeitschrift für Geschichtswissenschaften, Vol. 24, Vol. 2013, pp. 59-79.

"Young people rebel against the system of truncheons and pistols." The West German student movement in the GDR press, in: Presse in der DDR. Beiträge und Materialien, pressegeschichte.docupedia.de/wiki/Westdeutsche_Studentenbewegung_Version_1.html, accessed: 26 June 2013.

In a subordinate position. Hausgehelfinnen im Nationalsozialismus, in: Kramer, Nicole/Nolzen, Armin (eds.): Ungleichheiten im "Dritten Reich", Göttingen 2012, pp. 155-175.

Vasa sacra, in: Vasa sacra. Where heaven and earth meet. Treasures from the Catholic churches of the Oldenburg region, Löningen 2010, pp. 150-151, 158-161, 224-225.

"1968" in Oldenburg, in: Oldenburger Jahrbuch, vol. 109, vol. 2009, pp. 147-165.

Artwork of the month April. Spielplan Landestheater Oldenburg (1929/1930), in: Jahrbuch des Landesmuseums Oldenburg 2008, Oldenburg 2009, pp. 43-46.

The food replaces the food. Programme booklet of the State Theatre as work of art of the month, in: Nordwest Zeitung from 19.04.2008.

"With enthusiastic cheers and hurrahs"? War Enthusiasm and Disillusionment, in: Küster, Bernd (ed.): Der Erste Weltkrieg und die Kunst, Oldenburg 2008, pp. 8-27.

Research, in: Budde, Gunilla/Freist, Dagmar/Günther-Arndt, Hilke (eds.): Geschichte. Studium - Wissenschaft - Beruf, Berlin 2008, pp. 198-215.

together with Gunilla Budde: Musik unterm Hakenkreuz. Das Oldenburgische Staatsorchester während des Nationalsozialismus, in: Das Orchester 11/2007, p. 34f.

Reinterpretations and blanks. Reporting on the West German student movement in the GDR press, in: Horch und Guck, Heft 2/2007, pp. 21-24.

Further publications

Robert Dannemann, www.wardenburg.de/dokumente/strassennamen/robert-dannemann.pdf

Reviews

Review: Maike Mittelsteiner: Porcelain of the Church. Diakonische Identitäten in der Geschichte des Oldenburgischen Landesvereins für Innere Mission 1918-1945, Göttingen 2023, in: Oldenburger Jahrbuch 125, 2025, pp. 11-13.

Review: Jessica Richter: The production of special labour. Disputes over domestic service in Austria (1880- 1938), Berlin/Boston 2024, 515 p., in: Arbeit - Bewegung - Geschichte, Heft 1/2025, pp. 144-147.

Review: Manuela Rienks: Sold out. Arbeitswelten von Verkäuferinnen in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Berlin 2024, H-Soz-Kult from 31 January 2025.

Review: Albrecht Eckhardt: From socialist revolution to practical day-to-day politics and state administration. Das Direktorium des Freistaates Oldenburg in seinen Protokollen 1918/19, Oldenburg 2017, in: Oldenburger Jahrbuch 118, 2018, pp. 237-238.

Review: Joachim Tautz: Rüstringer Heimatbund and National Socialism. Die Heimatbewegung in der nördlichen Wesermarsch von 1933 bis 1945, Nordenham 2017, in: Oldenburger Jahrbuch 118, 2018, pp. 254-255.

Review: Andrea Althaus (ed.): Mit Kochlöffel und Staubwedel. Erzählungen aus dem Dienstmädchenalltag (Damit es nicht verlorengeht... Bd. 62), Vienna/Cologne/Weimar 2010, in: Werkstatt Geschichte 61, vol. 2, 2012, pp. 116-119.

Review: Astrid Mignon Kirchof: Das Dienstfräulein auf dem Bahnhof. Frauen im öffentlichen Raum im Blick der Berliner Bahnhofsmission 1894-1939, Stuttgart 2011, in: Newsletter des AKHFG vom 2. September 2011, p. 5.

Review: Maria Anna Zumholz (ed.): Starke Frauen, volume accompanying the exhibition of the same name in the Luzie Uptmoor Gallery in the Lohne Industrial Museum, Münster 2010, in: Oldenburger Jahrbuch 2010.

Other publications

"Never again war!", "Never again Auschwitz!" - Remembrance imperatives in today's world, 10/2022, https://doingph.hypotheses.org/1169

21.10.2025
Remembering together? Teaching and learning processes in heterogeneous learning groups at Nazi memorial sites, lecture as part of the network meeting of the association "Gegen Vergessen - Für Demokratie e.V.", Bad Zwischenahn

10.10.2025
Maloche am Arbeitsplatz Privathaushalt, lecture at the conference "(Un)verletzte Körper. Injury and integrity in the modern age", University of Augsburg

03.07.2025
Colonialism - A marginal Topic in History Lessons? Further Comments from Ongoing Textbook Research, lecture at the workshop "Education on German Colonialism for All: Collaborative Textbook Design", University of Bremen

16.06.2025
More than just street names, keynote speech as part of the #VerständigungsOrte campaign of the Protestant Church, Varel community centre

11.06.2025
Remembering for everyone? Teaching and learning processes at Nazi memorial sites in heterogeneous learning groups, lecture as part of the colloquium Public History and Remembrance Culture, University of Regensburg

05.02.2025
Erna Schlüter, lecture at the general meeting of the Erna Schlüter Opera Society Oldenburg

05.11.2024
Street names in Staatsforsten (Cloppenburg): Hanna Reitsch, Werner Baumbach, Werner Mölders and Ernst Udet, lecture as part of the study of Cloppenburg street names, Cloppenburg

20.09.2024
Teaching-learning processes at Nazi memorial sites, lecture at the KGD (Conference for History Didactics), Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz

17/09/2024
Edith Ruß, lecture at the Cultural Committee of the City of Oldenburg

14.03.2024
Book presentation: No work like any other. Domestic workers in Austria and Germany in the 20th century, together with Jessica Richter, Vienna Chamber of Labour

01.12.2023
Kolonialismus - Schattendasein im Geschichtsunterricht?!, lecture as part of the conference "Der Elefant im Raum: Zur Auseinandersetzung mit Bremens (post-)kolonialer Geschichte und Gegenwart", together with Max-Simon Gündert, Haus der Wissenschaft Bremen

23/11/2023
Gewalt am Arbeitsplatz Privathaushalt, lecture as part of the conference "Gewalt am Arbeitsplatz im 20. Jahrhundert", Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung Bonn

29/09/2023
Private household workplace. Städtische Haushaltsgehelfininnen im 20. Jahrhundert, lecture as part of the conference "Arbeit - Alltag - Ausbeutung. Social History of Women Workers" organised by the Reichspräsident-Friedrich-Ebert-Gedenkstätte foundation in Heidelberg

29.06.2023
Workplace private household. On the social history of domestic helpers in the 20th century, lecture at the Lower Saxony State Archive in Oldenburg

04.05.2023
Remembrance of NSDAP members? Street names in the Oldenburg municipality of Wardenburg, lecture for the Democracy Protection Network of the Central Police Headquarters, together with Dr Joachim Tautz, Oldenburg

03.05.2023
Presentation of the study of street names in the municipality of Wardenburg, public lecture, together with Dr Joachim Tautz, Wardenburg

26.01.2023
Inequalities under one roof. Hausgehelfinnen in der NS-"Volksgemeinschaft", lecture as part of the research colloquium at the Chair of German History in the 20th Century with a focus on National Socialism, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin

07.10.2022
"Von einem der darmutigsten und lebendigsten Provinzbühnen zum farblosen Hoftheaterbetrieb" - Das Landestheater Oldenburg in der Zeit der Weimarer Republik, lecture as part of the 7th conference on Oldenburg regional history "Freizeit in der Weimarer Republik im Freistaat Oldenburg", Landesarchiv Oldenburg

23.03.2021
Value and disvalue of a women's profession 'par excellence'. Die Bezahlung von Hausgehilfinnen im 20. Jahrhundert, lecture at the conference "Gender Pay Gap. The value and disvalue of labour", Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung Bonn

25.10.2019
On opportunities and challenges. The Weimar Republic from 1918 to 1923 in research, lecture as part of the 6th conference on Oldenburg regional history, Landesarchiv Oldenburg

26.09.2019
Gender relations in the private household - domestic helpers and housewives from 1918 to the 1960s, lecture as part of the conference Ökonomien des Haushaltens, Geschlechterverhältnisse in Arbeits-, Bildungs- und Normierungsprozessen in historischer Perspektive, Philipps-Universität Marburg

22.03.2019
Die "organisierte Hausgehilfin" - (1918 to 1960s), lecture as part of the conference Arbeitskonflikte und Gender, University of Erlangen/Nuremberg

21.11.2018
GDR history with sources from Oldenburg? Lecture as part of the Historical Evenings at the Lower Saxony State Archive Oldenburg

22.10.2018
"Hausgehelfin Elektrizität" - the mechanisation of the household, as part of the special exhibition "Design in everyday life - the Peter Veckenstedt Collection", Aurich City Museum

15.06.2018
Die "geprüfte Hausgehilfin" - Debatten um die Professionalisierung von Hausangestellten (1918 bis 1960er Jahre), lecture as part of the XIII Workshop on Gender Studies in Historical Educational Research, University of Cologne

03.03.2018
Oldenburger Erinnerungsorte: Definitionen und Erfahrungen mit einem Projekt, lecture at the conference of the Arbeitskreis Mittelalterliche Geschichte der Historischen Kommission für Niedersachsen und Bremen, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen

27.10.2017
Tracing back the history of paid domestic labour in Germany, lecture at the DomEqual Local Workshop, Hamburg

16.06.2016
Precarious work. Domestic helpers in the 20th century, lecture at the Bremen Research Colloquium on Modern History, University of Bremen

22.01.2016
Hausgehilfinnen in der nationalsozialistischen "Volksgemeinschaft", lecture at the 4th colloquium "Geschichte der Arbeitswelten und der Gewerkschaften", Ruhr-Universität Bochum

25.10.2013
War enthusiasm everywhere? The beginning of the First World War in Oldenburg (read out by Dietmar von Reeken due to illness), Landesarchiv Oldenburg

12.09.2013
Inequalities under one Roof. Domestic Workers from 1918 to the 1960s, lecture at the 49th International Conference of Labour and Social History, "Towards a Global History of Domestic Workers and Caregivers", Linz

26 August 2013
(together with Markus Evers): Oldenburg Places of Memory and their National Facets (or The Metamorphoses of Count Anton Günther), lecture series at The Smart House Oldenburg

11.10.2012
"From Housemaids to Cleaning Ladies. Domestic Workers During the 20th Century", lecture as part of the workshop "Work-Employment-Vocation. The Production of Differences and Hierarchies of Livelihood in the 19th and 20th Centuries", University of Vienna

12.11.2011
"Oldenburger Erinnerungsorte", lecture at the Greiz Colloquium "Regionale Erinnerungsorte: West Bohemia and Central Germany in the European Context, together with Markus Evers, Greiz

12.11.2010
"Hausgehilfinnen von 1918 bis in die 1960er Jahre", lecture at the
1. interdisziplinären Niedersächsischen DoktorandInnentag, Leibniz Universität Hannover

08.10.2010
"Das Bremer Kränzchen - Treffen von Hausgehilfinnen im Wichernhaus von 1918 bis in die 1960er Jahre", lecture as part of the Mental Health Week in Bremen and Bremerhaven, Bremen

23 June 2010
"Hoping for the national community? Hausgehelfinnen im Nationalsozialismus", lecture as part of the Oldenburg series of lectures organised by the Institute of History, University of Oldenburg

20.11.2008
"1968 in Oldenburg", lecture as part of the lecture series "Oldenburg 1968. Eine Region im Spannungsfeld gesellschaftlicher Umbrüche", Landesarchiv Oldenburg

12.06.2008
"Kriegsbegeisterung im August 1914", lecture in the framework programme of the exhibition "Der Erste Weltkrieg und die Kunst", Augusteum Oldenburg

06.04.2006
"Die Grand Tour: Adeliges Reisen vom 16. bis zum 18. Jahrhundert", lecture as part of the annual conference with students of the Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, University of Oldenburg

Master's thesis supervised as first supervisor:

"Certainly a peculiar moment for a German sailor" - Representations of self and others in travelogues by sailors of the Imperial Navy (1888-1897) (2021)

"The other war". Representations of the home front in exhibitions about the First World War, using the example of the Historisches Museum Berlin and the Imperial War Museum London (2020)

The 2nd phase of the Emsland cataloguing (1963-1973). The discussion about a changed development policy based on the minutes from the planning and supervisory board meetings of Emsland (2018)

The call of freedom - reports from German emigrants to the USA using the example of the Richard brothers from the Osnabrücker Land (1849-1867) (2018)

Petition for clemency by the Bodelschwingh Institutions for Karl Brandt in the Nuremberg Doctors' Trial 1946/1947 (2017)

"The promise of Utopia." The myth of the "Wild West": symbolic language, development and interaction (2017)

"We are anvils, not hammers." Von Galen's stance on euthanasia under National Socialism (2017)

Postcolonial perspectives in regional museums - two East Frisian tea museums (2016)

Object presentations in museum and commercial exhibitions (2016)

The reception of the Cuban Missile Crisis in the GDR press (2015)

The Middle Ages in exhibitions of the Nazi era (2015)

"You can't present hand grenades like Augsburg silverware." The presentation of war artefacts in special exhibitions on the First World War in German historical museums (2015)

Exhibiting memories - the presentation of contemporary witness videos at the Ahlem Memorial (2015)

"July crisis" and "August experience" 1914 in the city and state of Oldenburg (2015)

Anti-Semitism in West Germany after the Second World War. An analysis based on incidents in north-west Germany between 1945 and 1967 (2015)

"We killed them all" - The mass murder in Indonesia 1965/1966 in Joshua Oppenheimer's documentary film The Act of Killing (2015)

Exhibition experience. An investigation into mediation concepts of experience-oriented exhibitions using the example of the Green Science Centre Botanika in Bremen (2015)

'Can you feel the adrenalin?' - mediation practice of German football club museums' (2013)

The symbolic figure and 'icon' of the Oldenburg community of remembrance - On the history of remembrance and the current presence of the memorial site of Count Anton Günther von Oldenburg (2010)

The change in the SED's youth policy between the second youth communiqué and the XI Plenum of the Central Committee of the SED using the example of the Leipzig Beat Uprising (2010)

Bachelor thesis supervised as first examiner:

The methods of the Ministry for State Security (MfS) and their consequences using the example of Jürgen Fuchs (2022)

The post-war period from a Jewish perspective in the transatlantic correspondence of the Neukamp family (1946-1951) (2019)

Willingness to integrate or administrative act? Baltic displaced persons in Oldenburg in the post-war period (2017)

The final phase of the Weimar Republic. The Brüning government. Reception in historical scholarship (2017)

German soldiers' memories of D-Day 1944 using the example of "Resistance Nest 62" (2016)

Lebensborn e.V. The veiled instrument of National Socialist racial policy (2016)

The beginning of the end? The portrayal of the break-up of the Grand Coalition and the transition to the first presidential cabinet under Brüning in the contemporary press (2016)

The rural people's movement in Oldenburg 1928-1933: A portrayal using the example of the southern Oldenburg rural people's leader Dr Heinrich Große Beilag (2016)

Representation of Judaism in Neues Deutschland (2016)

Welfare education for girls and young women in post-war West Germany - stories and practices in the context of the Dietrichsfeld girls' residential home (2015)

The field post as a means of family communication in the Second World War. A case analysis of the field post of Arnold and Johann Miller 1942-1943 (2015)

The Emsland Plan and the Emsland GmbH. An investigation of the initial phase (1950 - ca. 1965) (2015)

The Congo Conference 1884-1885: A comparative analysis of the German and British press (2015)

"A Moral, a Social and a Political Wrong." The role of slaves, their development and emancipation during the American Civil War of 1861-1865 (2015)

"Wehrkraft durch Erziehung" - Militarisation of gymnastics lessons by the Central Committee for the Promotion of Popular and Youth Games in the Oldenburg area in the period 1904-1914 (2015)

The sinking of the Titanic in newspapers - false reports, speculation and propaganda (2015)

The "Kwami Affair" and its significance for the conflicts within the Protestant Church in the National Socialist Free State of Oldenburg (2015)

Living History as a historical presentation in the museum? Development of a concept based on an analysis of a scenic tour in the Northwest German Museum of Industrial Culture in Delmenhorst (2015)

The exhibition of perpetrators at the Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp Memorial as a contributor to political education (2015)

"It's the policy of Mil Gov that refugees cease to be refugees as soon as they arrive at their reception area [...]." The regulatory and moral behaviour of the British military government in dealing with displaced persons and refugees in the state of Oldenburg in 1945/46 (2015)

The eugenics discourse in the Weimar Republic using the example of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society (2015)

The Cold War on television - overcoming the conflict of the nuclear arms race in the TV series "Star Trek" (2014)

The impact of the First World War on relations between Ireland and Great Britain (2014)

"Yes, I do!" - Marriage in the German bourgeoisie of the 19th century. Male expectations of the (married) woman (2014)

Hitler in Oldenburg. The special position of the Free State of Oldenburg until 1932 (2013)

From Modernism to National Socialism - The Oldenburg State Theatre in the Years 1927-1932 (2013)

The social and pedagogical transformation of the concept of childhood in the 19th century bourgeoisie. With the example of "Criticism of the relationship between children and servants" (2012)

Esterwegen concentration camp 1933-1936: the origins and everyday life of the model camp (2012)

Master's thesis supervised as second examiner:

On the presentation of history in Schleswig-Holstein's Nazi memorials (2024)

The right to individual support in history lessons at upper secondary school? Internally differentiating measures in school history textbooks in selected Federal States (2024)

Exhibiting sensitive topics: Current debates, strategies and measures in a museum context (2023)

Between castles, churches and markets. Pupils' ideas about the medieval city and their significance for history lessons (2023)

German colonialism in history textbooks for grammar schools in Lower Saxony. Representation and potential readings (2023)

Journey overseas or ride to the East? Franz Xaver Ritter von Epp's colonial ideas in the context of the "Third Reich" (2023)

The didactic potential of local and regional history in history lessons: analysed using the example of the persecution of Jews during the National Socialist era in the town of Leer (2022)

One house, many expectations - The Quelle prefabricated house from Winsen (Luhe) comes to the open-air museum at Kiekeberg (2022)

Constitutional diagrams in history lessons - an analysis of the didactic and methodological potential in textbooks (2022)

German colonialism in postcolonial history lessons. An analysis of the implementation of the historical-didactic principle of multi-perspectivity in Lower Saxon schoolbooks of the 7th/8th grade (2022)

"... but it must not become a woman's prerogative". On the changing social significance of women smoking at the beginning of the 20th century (2022)

'Aryanisation' in Oldenburg. A regional perspective on the economic destruction of the existence of Jewish Germans from 1933-1945" (2022)

"A generation that seems to have gone wild." - Depictions of the 'Halbstarken' youth movement in a filmic comparison between West Germany and the German Democratic Republic (2021)

"Put on the line?" - The potential of escape rooms to promote skills in history lessons (2021)

The application of the 'Law for the Prevention of Hereditarily Diseased Offspring' in the historical district of Leer (Gau Weser-Ems) in the period from 1934 to 1944 as reflected in the files of the Aurich Hereditary Health Court (2021)

Bourgeois Family Concepts between the World Wars. Using the example of an exchange of bridal letters from 1923-1925 (2021)

The changing art of midwifery - on the development of midwifery training in the 19th and
20th centuries (2021)

Between event and science: commemorations of controversial personalities of the Nazi state in German docudramas (2021)

"Ulrike Meinhof, that was murder!". On the posthumous reception of the RAF terrorist (2020)

From the life of a police officer in the German Reich during the years 1928-1938 -
The diary of the Upper Silesian policeman Adolf R. Himmel (2020)

From Goethe to the 'Volkssturm' - the 'Third Reich' in written examinations of non-students to obtain the secondary school leaving certificate at the Oldenburg Boys' School (2020)

The persecution of homosexual men in Oldenburg during the Nazi era in the light of the 'Volksgemeinschaft' (2020)

The official party image of women under National Socialism: The magazine NS-Frauen-Warte (2019)

National Socialist school policy 1933-1945: The indoctrination of children and young people under National Socialism using the example of selected subjects (2019)

The establishment of football around 1900 as a mass cultural phenomenon (2019)

'[...] what are kingdoms other than the caves of highwaymen?' The subject of spoils in Hugo Grotius' 'Three Books on the Law of War and Peace' (2019)

From 'flight' and 'expulsion' to integration and German-Polish understanding. The connections between Lower Saxony and Poland since the 1970s as an example of the history of European relations (2018)

Destination Heligoland - On the development of tourism on the island from 1952 to the turn of the century (2018)

On the negotiation of exhibition practice in memorial sites. An evaluation of the literature (2018)

Transformations of the police. The Free State of Oldenburg and the Gau Weser-Ems (2018)

When footballers become heroes. The mythicisation of the 1954 Football World Cup (2018)

The "Expansion Pack" for history lessons. On the thematisation of digital history culture in history lessons for upper secondary school (2018)

"When are we going to watch a film again?" - The historical feature film as a didactic tool for 9th grade history lessons using the example of "Ein Sack voll Murmeln" (2018)

Stumbling stones as places of remembrance. A comparison of the cities of Gelsenkirchen and Oldenburg (2017)

Empress Elisabeth of Austria as Sisi. Aspects of the history of a multifaceted place of remembrance (2017)

Home education in Lower Saxony in the post-war period - For the benefit of young people? (2017)

The 'monster' on the doorstep: reporting on Josef Mengele in his home town of Günzburg (2016)

"The Bookholzberg is a sandy elevation." The invention of the Bookholzberg as a place of worship 1909-1939 (2015)

Home worth protecting or place of traitors? Patterns of interpretation of the relationship between front and homeland in German army newspapers of the First World War (2015)

"It looked as if the world was coming to an end." Interpretations of the end of the war in 1945 in school essays (2015)

The rise of the NSDAP in the Free State of Oldenburg as reflected in the regional daily press in 1931 and 1932 (2015)

"Hereditarily inferior" - Continuity of eugenic thinking in the Oldenburg judiciary between National Socialism and the early Federal Republic (2015)

Flight and integration, the example of Dalum (2015)

Happiness in marriage "entirely a matter of chance"? Marriage concepts and their representation in selected film adaptations using the example of Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice" from 1940 and 2005 (2015)

The use of Wilhelmine youth literature in contemporary history lessons. An analysis of selected novels (2014)

Absolutely exhibit? The status and significance of non-existent objects in exhibitions at memorial sites (2014)

Service provider or actor? The contribution of cultural history museums to Germany's reappraisal of the Nazi era (2014)

Comprehend - grasp - climb through. On the production of body knowledge in children's museums (2013)

Stylised - Sterilised: Sterilisation Processes as a Mirror of a Nazi Male Ideal? (2013)

On the invention of the early Middle Ages. Early medieval reception in the legal and constitutional history of the 19th century (2013)

The development and (de)construction of masculine and feminine role models in heavy metal (2013)

The 9th of November in the history of remembrance in the FRG (2013)

From the Special Hospital Facility of "Aktion Brandt" to the DP Hospital. Change and continuity of a hospital 1944-1949 (2013)

Dingley Hall. "... typical and extraordinary at the same time!" (2012)

The Berlin Cabaret in the Weimar Republic (2012)

The other part of the collection. The Schaudepot as an interface between museum preservation and exhibition (2012)

The German's favourite child? Cycles of the West German automobile nimbus before and after the 1973/74 oil price crisis (2011)

Oldenburg 1848: Reform or Revolution? (2011)

Departure into freedom, modernity and independence? German governesses in England as reflected in biographical records (2011)

The representation of the topic "Industrial Revolution" in two history textbooks for secondary school (grade 7/8) - A critical analysis (2011)

Anti-democratic agitation in the satirical political press of the Weimar Republic. The "Kladderadatsch" smear campaign against Matthias Erzberger (2010)

The involvement of psychiatry in Lower Saxony in National Socialist "euthanasia" (2009)

Bachelor thesis supervised as second examiner:

The denazification and reorganisation of the school system in West Germany after the Second World War (2024)

"And why all this carnage?" Competence-orientated history lessons through field post letters? (2023)

Between "hypermorality" and "incorrigible ancestors" - A local historical-cultural conflict with potential for history lessons? (2023)

"The Turks are coming, save yourself who can". An examination of the memory of the German-Turkish recruitment agreement of 1961 using the example of articles from "Der Spiegel" (2023)

Bremen Cathedral and its treasures: Altar silver and bishop's vestments. A spatial analysis of the exhibition of sacred exhibits in sacred space (2023)

Racism in school. Textbooks under National Socialism 1933-1945 (2023)

segu on the test bench - A historical-didactic comparison with the textbook denkmal Geschichte and segu (2022)

Comparative analysis and reflection of representational texts in current Lower Saxony history textbooks (2022)

The 27th of January in the school history textbook of the upper secondary school - an exemplary analysis (2022)

The bilingual history textbook - the epitome of intercultural learning in history lessons? An analysis of the history book "Geschichte und Geschehen Bilingual - 20th century (2022)

Telling history digitally - The extent to which digital storytelling in history lessons can promote digital and subject-specific skills (2022)

Forced labour at Krupp during National Socialism - The role of Alfried Krupp and Berthold Beitz (2022)

Perception of Bismarck in the Weimar Republic (2021)

To what extent can the pedagogical approaches developed in the Weimar Republic be described as a new start for the German education system? (2021)

Living in repression. Homosexuals as victims of National Socialism in Oldenburg (2021)

The Oldenburg Gambler Trials - The court cases of 1903 as reflected in local newspapers (2021)

In the name of science? 'Euthanasia' crimes under the guise of research using the example of Hans Heinze (2021)

Almuth Kögel-Willms and her contribution to solving the housing shortage in Rastede in the historical context of the Second World War (2021)

"Now the West must act!" - Recording the construction of the Wall in print media in the West (2021)

The use of images in history textbooks, method pages as a useful aid? (2021)

Social identity through dealing with colonialism? Offers of identification in school history books (2021)

"What the SA men achieved in the early years under the greatest hardship and on their own initiative can hardly be expressed in words": An analysis of the exhibition at the Esterwegen Memorial with regard to the portrayal of the perpetrators (2021)

The potential of museums' online offerings for historical learning. An exemplary analysis of a virtual museum tour (2020)

The depiction of the National Socialist 'euthanasia' murders in current school textbooks. An analysis with special consideration of the categories of multi-perspectivity and contemporary relevance (2020)

The self-immolation of Oskar Brüsewitz in 1976 and its reception in the media (2020)

Promotion of historical competences according to the FUER competence model using the historical feature film "Anne Frank: The Whole Story" (2020)

National Socialists as Heroes of the Present? A historical-didactic analysis of the graphic novel "20 July 1944. Biography of a Day" (2020)

Doping in GDR sport. Structures, practice and players (2020)

Voluntary duty? Reserve Battalion 101 between duty, voluntariness and a sense of responsibility (2020)

Between fact and fiction - The potential of historical youth literature to promote historical awareness using the novel "Jenseits der blauen Grenze" (2020)

Historical narration in feature films. De-construction of the narrative structure in 'Dunkirk' by Christopher Nolan with historical didactic intent (2019)

From East to West. The German-German prisoner release programme using the example of selected political prisoners in the 1970s (2019)

'The granary is full, your lordship! Authentic storytelling in historicising computer games using the example of 'Stronghold' (2019)

The changing image of Erwin Rommel. From the post-war period to the present (2019)

Nursing and ideology: A comparative study of the 'Krankenlehrbuch' between 1928 and 1946 (2019)

Learning from propaganda? A historical-didactic analysis of National Socialist propaganda with a special focus on the present and future (2019)

The school textbook as a seismograph of historical reappraisal - The representation of the German colonial period from 1884-1914 in Namibian and Lower Saxon school textbooks (2018)

The limits of NS ideology. Jewish cattle dealers and hereditary farmers in the years 1933-1939 (2018)

"The portrayal of the soldierly 'hero' in Ernst Jünger's diaries and his novel 'In Stahlgewittern'" (2018)

From Putten to Engerhafe. The subcamp system in Aurich in 1944 (2018)

How do social reformers in the late 19th century portray the working class? A German-English comparison (2018)

"We are just as guilty as they are." The post-war drama 'Ehe im Schatten' as an attempt to come to terms with the past in an artistic-intellectual way (2018)

Telling story(s). 'Naked Among Wolves' as part of the legitimisation of the GDR (2018)

The letters of Inge Christina Petersen: On the identity construction of a seafaring woman from Föhr in her lifeworld (1831-1835) (2017)

Life under observation. The significance of the 'Stasi' for biographies in the GDR (2017)

Cato Bontjes van Beek - The life and rehabilitation of a German resistance fighter (2017)

From sports partner to military object. The human-horse relationship in the first quarter of the 20th century (2017)

History and future in the depiction of the 1955-2014 Weichsel-Warthe yearbooks (2016)

'Hanoverian vs. Trakehner'? Two breeds in portrait - differences in the breeding development of Hanover compared to East Prussia (2016)

'Burial of German art'?! The 'Great German Art Exhibition' and
the exhibition 'Degenerate Art' (2016)

Germany From Afar - American reporting on Germany between the world wars using the example of the Chicago Tribune (2015)

Friedrich Paffrath - A figure of his time. His dismissal in 1933 and reinstatement to the city administration in 1945 (2015)

Activities of the KPD in the National Socialist Free State of Oldenburg. Between abstention, dissatisfaction and resistance (2015)

"He who betrays his people dies." An analysis of the legal processing of Nazi crimes using the example of the trial for the murder of Willi Rogge (2014)

On the reception of the film "Die Brücke" - Generation-specific differences in perception in the late 1950s (2014)

Changing ideas of resistance. The 20th July 1944 in West German speeches (2014)

The cult of the body in Leni Riefenstahl's Olympic films (2014)

Headline "Anne Frank". Reception of the theatre play "The Diary of Anne Frank" in the GDR press (2014)

The GDR Revolution 1989/1990: A revolution in the spirit of Hannah Arendt? (2013)

The "Spanish flu" of 1918/19 in the Oldenburg region (2013)

"To cure the Germans, to heal them, only a German remedy can be found." The treatment of Jewish doctors in National Socialist propaganda in 1933 (2013)

Aspects of the German-Israeli relationship between 1948 and 1965: politics, the press and the Eichmann trial (2013)

Reception of the feature film "Jud Süß. Film without conscience" (2013)

Liberation or burden for women? Media debates about the pill in the 1960s (2013)

"Guarantor of the future". GDR youth policy under Walter Ulbricht and Erich Honecker (2013)

Racial hygiene in the context of German colonial medicine (2012)

Culture of remembrance around von Galen in Dinklage (2012)

Family image and reality in the GDR (2012)

The Eastern Front of the First World War in German nationalist fiction of the 1920s and 30s (2012)

The First World War - Motor of the Women's Movement in Oldenburg? (2012)

Memories of the Hitler Youth in autobiographies: The retrospective examination of the individual past in the Hitler Youth from an autobiographical perspective: Subjective reasons, explanations and justifications for past and present behaviour (2012)

The "New Woman" in the twenties (2012)

Tolerance - Prohibition - Acceptance: On the history of women's football (2012)

Lex Zwickau - Discussions about forced sterilisation in Oldenburg (2012)

In the "neighbourhood" of Adolf Hitler (2010)

"Long Live Holy Germany" - Resistance to the National Socialist Regime by the Military on 20 July 1944 and at the Civilian Level using the Example of the "Kreisau Circle" (2010)

The Oldenburg press and the "Pogrom Night" (2010)

Company social measures and pension schemes in the 19th century using the example of Fried. Krupp Essen-Ruhr (2010)

Field Post Letters in the First World War. An investigation into the mood among German soldiers in everyday trench life (2009)

Bourgeois patronage in the 19th century using the example of James Simon (2009)

Rape of women by the Red Army after 1945 (2009)

Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach and Berthold Beitz in literature and the contemporary press (2009)

Images of the Father in the Second World War. Correspondence and memories from a child's perspective (2009)

The legal status of maids in the 19th century. A comparison of municipal ordinances (2009)

"Centre of Terror" - Prisoners in Berlin-Hohenschönhausen (2008)

The co-operation of the Ministry of State Security with the RAF. The example of Silke Maier-Witt (2008)

The female teacher in the narrative literature of the GDR. On the representation of female teacher figures 1950-1968 (2008)

State Examination:

Hitler and big industry. Was Hitler a puppet of big industry? (2017)

Leisure under fascism. A comparison of Germany and Italy (2011)

Women and Freemasons: Was there a consistent ban on women in the Freemasons? (2009)

Conference for History Didactics. Association of History Didactics in Germany (Verband der Geschichtsdidaktikerinnen und Geschichtsdidaktiker Deutschlands e.V.)

Working Group for Applied History/Public History in the Association of Historians in Germany

Working Group on Historical Women's and Gender Studies

ICOM

Juror in the history competition of the Federal President

Friends and Patrons of the Oldenburg City Museum (Chair)

Friends and Sponsors of the Horst Janssen Museum Oldenburg e.V. (Member of the Board)

Oldenburg Museum Society e.V.