Research Foci

Teaching and learning processes at Nazi memorial sites

Colonial history in history lessons

Historical culture / regional history, including its teaching

Habilitation project

Teaching and learning processes at Nazi memorial sites

In 2019, 2.5 million people visited the seven largest German Nazi memorial sites. Until the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, almost all memorial sites in Germany had been recording steadily rising visitor numbers. Estimates suggest that approximately one to two thirds of the recorded visitors were school pupils exploring the memorial site with their class.[1] Nazi memorial sites have undergone significant changes in recent decades. One reason for this development is that memories of the Holocaust are gradually shifting from collective to cultural memory. Consequently, their function as places of remembrance is receding to some extent, whilst historical and political education is being increasingly expanded. However, the foundation and core of memorial sites remain the connection to a (supposedly) authentic location and the advocacy for the victims.[2]

The debate flares up time and again as to whether a visit to a Nazi memorial site should be compulsory for all pupils. The belief – or at least the hope – is that visiting a former concentration camp provides immunity against anti-Semitic and far-right ideologies. Yet, amidst all the discussions, the question of how this immunity is to be achieved has remained unanswered. The question has remained unanswered not only in public debate; the discipline of history education also struggles to find convincing, empirically grounded answers as to how the historical teaching and learning process unfolds at the extracurricular learning site that is the Nazi memorial site.[3]

As early as 2013, Matthias Heyl noted that “the practice of educational work at German memorial sites, as far as empirically valid research is concerned, […] is largely unexplored, particularly in the context of school visits to memorial sites”[4] . Little has changed to date in the situation described by Heyl.[5]

research project

In my postdoctoral thesis, I aim to combine two research perspectives:

1. The proposed study aims to examine in greater detail the teaching and learning processes during a visit to a Nazi memorial site and how these interrelate with history learning in schools. Existing research generally identifies a clear dichotomy between cognitively oriented learning at school and affective learning at the memorial site. The question often raised is whether one is superior to the other.[6] My primary focus, however, is on the interactions between the learning processes at school and at the Nazi memorial site, as well as the influences of the respective learning environments.
2. My study will focus on heterogeneous learning groups, primarily from secondary schools (Haupt- and Realschulen). The 2016 Sinus study showed that visits to memorial sites are particularly effective in reaching ‘education-oriented’ young people, but not those from ‘education-distant’ households.[7] Holger Thünemann and Oliver von Wrochem recently referred to ‘patterns of interpretation that have become canonical, routines of commemoration and remembrance, ways of speaking and communication rituals’[8], which are not accessible to pupils with diverse educational backgrounds and different social and ethnic origins. I would like to focus on this observed—but as yet not thoroughly researched—lack of accessibility, whilst at the same time identifying the framework conditions that nevertheless enable teaching and learning processes.

The following central research questions arise from these two research perspectives :

• How can teaching and learning processes among pupils from diverse social backgrounds be characterised during a visit to a Nazi memorial site and in the preparatory and follow-up lessons at school?
• What effects of the different learning environments can be identified in pupils? Under what conditions does the Nazi memorial site, as a place of learning, have a positive influence on learning success? (And what, in fact, should be regarded as ‘learning success’?)
• How can a teaching and learning process be initiated at Nazi memorial sites in which heterogeneity is viewed as an opportunity to foster historical learning rather than as an obstacle?

My research project ties in with several topics currently under discussion in history didactics, two of which are cited here by way of example: 1) Diversity in history and in history teaching: memorial sites are, by their very nature, places where exclusion is addressed. They are therefore particularly well-suited to 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 explored to a limited extent. Research to date has highlighted the paradox that Nazi memorial sites expressly do not see themselves as places for moralising and emotional engagement, whereas teachers in many cases hope precisely for these effects from a visit to a Nazi memorial site.[10] I am particularly interested in how the interplay between affective and cognitive learning processes can promote historical learning.

Methodology

The research questions will be addressed using a ‘bricolage’ of methods drawn primarily from the field of qualitative social research. This includes a qualitative observation, supported by audio or video recordings, of the school lessons related to the memorial site visit as well as the visit itself. Furthermore, individual and/or group interviews or group discussions with pupils will be conducted before and after the visit to the memorial site, following a pre-post design. In addition, the analysis of pupil-generated media, such as an annotated photographic record of the visit, should be considered.

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Doctoral thesis (completed)

From maid to cleaner? Domestic workers in the 20th century

‘I was allowed to sit at the same table as my employers, but the good food was at the other end of the table, where they were sitting. At my end of the table there was cheap lard instead of butter, and meat only rarely. I wouldn’t have dared simply to help myself from the other end of the table.’[1] This is how Elfriede Meyer, then an 18-year-old domestic helper, describes a daily situation during her time in service in a Dortmund household between 1958 and 1959. She had previously worked in another household and had ‘left overnight’ when disputes arose. She also held her position in Dortmund for just under two years, until her wedding. Even though maids in the 19th century were generally not allowed to dine at the ‘masters’ table’, this example shows that many characteristics of 19th-century maids applied just as much to their female counterparts in the 20th century: Firstly, they were young and usually came from poor, rural backgrounds. Working as a maid was typically a stepping stone on the way to running one’s own household or taking up another profession; as such, marriage almost always marked the end of this phase of life. The maid was primarily responsible for carrying out menial and particularly strenuous domestic tasks; at the same time, her legal protection was always extremely 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 staff’ – fell steadily, albeit from a very high starting point. According to the Statistical Yearbook of the Federal Republic of Germany, there were still over 500,000 domestic helpers in employment in 1960, with cleaning staff listed separately. With my doctoral thesis project, ‘Domestic Workers in the 20th Century’, I can build on this research into the 19th century, highlight continuities, draw parallels and identify breaks. My research interest focuses primarily on the nature of the relationship between employer and female employee. In doing so, I take up the theme of the most recent Historians’ Day – ‘Inequalities’ – and place these, along with how they were addressed, at the centre of my work. No other employment relationship lends itself so well to this kind of examination, as nowhere else did ‘inequalities’ come into such clear and direct conflict; here, people from two different social classes lived under one roof and had to get along with one another on a daily basis. Building on this, the research questions guiding my project will be: what these inequalities consisted of, and how they were demonstrated, reinforced or even broken down in everyday life.

Two developments that appear contradictory at first glance can already be noted at the outset. In the 1950s and 1960s, the number of domestic workers fell by around 10,000 each year, whilst at the same time their financial situation improved. As early as 1938, their earnings – taking into account board and lodging in addition to their cash wage, as well as the customary gifts – were already higher than wages in industry. It was not, according to my first thesis, the pay that lured young women into other professions, but rather the daily experience of ‘inequalities’, the lack of autonomy and the high degree of external control inherent in the profession that made the work of a domestic helper increasingly unattractive and out of step with the times. As the introductory quotation illustrates, nothing fundamental had changed in this area from the 19th to the 20th century.

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Monographs

The Private Household as a Workplace: Domestic Workers in the City in the 20th Century, Göttingen 2023, 373 pp.

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

Co-authored with Gunilla Budde: Beethoven under the Swastika. The Oldenburg State Orchestra during the Nazi era, Oldenburg 2007, 117 pp.

Editors

in collaboration with Christine Krüger and Franziska Meifort: Correspondence from the Past. Letters as Historical Sources, Göttingen 2025, 272 pp.

with Anna Mamzer and Eva Schöck-Quinteros: Bremen. A City of Colonies?, Bremen 2016, 170 pp.

in collaboration with Eva Schöck-Quinteros and Harald Wixforth: The Rise and Fall of an Entrepreneurial Dynasty: The Bankruptcy of Nordwolle and the Banking Crisis of 1931 (From the Archives to the Stage, Vol. 8.3), Bremen 2015, 86 pp.

Places of Remembrance in Oldenburg: From the Castle to the Hell of the North, from Count Anton Günther to Horst Janssen, Oldenburg 2012, 441 pp.

Essays

The Lives and Working Worlds of Urban Domestic Workers in the 20th Century, Journal of Historical Studies, Vol. 73, No. 10, 2025, pp. 859–870.

‘Hell with assigned roles?’ Violence in the workplace: private households, in: Heying, Mareen/Jaeger, Alexandra/Kleinöder, Nina/Knoll-Jung, Sebastian/Voigt, Sebastian (eds.): Concealed Everyday Life. Violence in the Workplace since the 19th Century, Bonn 2025, pp. 95–110.

Genuine co-determination or a ‘democratic fig leaf’? Pupil representation since 1945, in: Learning History, 220/2024, pp. 40–47.

‘That’s not much.’ The Pay of Domestic Workers in the 20th Century, in: Wiede, Wiebke/Wolf, Johanna/Fattmann, Rainer (eds.): Gender Pay Gap. On the Value and Devaluation of Labour in History and the Present, Bonn 2023, pp. 87–104.

Europe to go. Election posters in the first European election campaign of 1979, in: Learning History, 209/2022, pp. 22–27.

The Trade Union Organisation of Domestic Workers from 1918 to the 1960s, in: Artus, Ingrid/Bennewitz, Nadja/Henninger, Annette/Holland, Judith/Kerber-Clasen, Stefan (eds.): Labour Conflicts Are Gender Struggles: Social Science and Historical Perspectives, Münster 2020, pp. 135–151.

Three Years’ Imprisonment for a Joke: GDR Court Judgements of the 1950s and their Re-evaluation by the Oldenburg Higher Regional Court, in: Freist, Dagmar (ed.): ArchivGeschichten (Festschrift for Gerd Steinwascher), Stuttgart 2018, pp. 98–113.

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

The First World War. From War Enthusiasm to War Weariness, in: Schneider, Gerhard/Gottschlich, Ralf/Ladleif, Christiane (eds.): The First World War Reflected in Expressive Art. Struggles, Passions, Dance of Death, Bönen 2014, pp. 25–32.

Places of Remembrance in Oldenburg as Examples of the Interplay between National and Regional Memory, in: Reznik, Milos/Rosenbaum, Katja/Stübner, Jos: Regional Places of Remembrance. The Bohemian Lands and Central Germany in a European Context (Studies in European Regional History, Vol. 1), Leipzig/Berlin 2013, pp. 185–193.

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

A Job Without Prestige or an Ideal Profession for Women? Domestic maids in Germany from 1918 to the 1960s, in: Austrian Journal of Historical Studies, Vol. 24, 2013, pp. 59–79.

“Young people rebel against a system of truncheons and guns.” The West German student movement in the GDR press, in: Press in the GDR. Articles and Materials, pressegeschichte.docupedia.de/wiki/Westdeutsche_Studentenbewegung_Version_1.html, accessed 26 June 2013.

In a subordinate position. Domestic servants under National Socialism, in: Kramer, Nicole/Nolzen, Armin (eds.): Inequalities in the “Third 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: Oldenburg Yearbook, Vol. 109, 2009, pp. 147–165.

Artwork of the Month: April. Programme for the Landestheater Oldenburg (1929/1930), in: Yearbook of the Oldenburg State Museum 2008, Oldenburg 2009, pp. 43–46.

‘Essen’ Replaces ‘Fressen’. The Staatstheater’s programme as ‘Artwork of the Month’, in: *Nordwest Zeitung*, 19 April 2008.

“With enthusiastic shouts of ‘Hurrah’ and ‘Hooray’”? War enthusiasm and disillusionment, in: Küster, Bernd (ed.): The First World War and Art, Oldenburg 2008, pp. 8–27.

Research, in: Budde, Gunilla/Freist, Dagmar/Günther-Arndt, Hilke (eds.): History. Studies – Academia – Career, Berlin 2008, pp. 198–215.

in collaboration with Gunilla Budde: ‘Music under the Swastika: The Oldenburg State Orchestra during the Nazi era’, in: *Das Orchester* 11/2007, pp. 34ff.

Reinterpretations and Gaps. Reporting on the West German Student Movement in the GDR Press, in: *Horch und Guck*, issue 2/2007, pp. 21–24.

Further publications

Robert Dannemann, *https://www.wardenburg.de/dokumente/strassennamen/robert-dannemann.pdf?cid=1is*

Reviews

Review: Knud Andresen/Peter Birke/Svea Gruber/Anna Horstmann/Nicole Mayer-Ahuja (eds.), *Arbeiten um zu leben! Zur Geschichte und Aktualität des Kampfes um Arbeitszeiten*, Campus Verlag, Frankfurt am Main/New York 2025, in: Archive for Social History (online) 66, 2026, URL: <HTTPS://library.fes.de/pdf-files/afs/82139.pdf> [14 April 2026].

Review: Maike Mittelsteiner: The Church’s Porcelain. Diaconal Identities in the History of the Oldenburg Regional Association for the Inner Mission 1918–1945, Göttingen 2023, in: Oldenburg Yearbook 125, 2025, pp. 11–13.

Review: Jessica Richter: The Production of Specialised Labour. Controversies surrounding domestic service in Austria (1880–1938), Berlin/Boston 2024, 515 pp., in: Arbeit – Bewegung – Geschichte, issue 1/2025, pp. 144–147.

Review: Manuela Rienks: Sold Out. The Working Worlds of Female Shop Assistants in the Federal Republic of Germany, Berlin 2024, H-Soz-Kult, 31 January 2025.

Review: Albrecht Eckhardt: From the Socialist Revolution to Practical Day-to-Day Politics and State Administration. The Directory of the Free State of Oldenburg in its Minutes 1918/19, Oldenburg 2017, in: Oldenburger Jahrbuch 118, 2018, pp. 237–238.

Review: Joachim Tautz: The Rüstring Local Heritage Association and National Socialism. The ‘Heimat’ Movement in the Northern Wesermarsch from 1933 to 1945, Nordenham 2017, in: Oldenburg Yearbook 118, 2018, pp. 254–255.

Review: Andrea Althaus (ed.): Mit Kochlöffel und Staubwedel. Stories from the everyday life of a maid (So that it is not lost… Vol. 62), Vienna/Cologne/Weimar 2010, in: Werkstatt Geschichte 61, Vol. 2, 2012, pp. 116–119.

Review: Astrid Mignon Kirchof: *Das Dienstfräulein auf dem Bahnhof*. Women in public spaces as seen by the Berlin Railway Station Mission 1894–1939, Stuttgart 2011, in: AKHFG Newsletter of 2 September 2011, p. 5.

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

Miscellaneous

‘Never again war!’, ‘Never again Auschwitz!’ – Imperatives of remembrance in the present day, 10/2022, https://doingph.hypotheses.org/1169

16 July 2026
Memory in the Plural – Processes of Negotiation in Heterogeneous Learning Groups at Nazi Memorial Sites, online lecture as part of Prof. Christian Kuchler’s seminar at the University of Augsburg

21 October 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 October 2025
Hard labour in private households, lecture as part of the conference ‘(Un)injured Bodies. Injury and Integrity in the Modern Age’, University of Augsburg

3 July 2025
Colonialism – A Marginal Topic in History Lessons? Further Comments from Ongoing Textbook Research, lecture as part of the workshop ‘Education on German Colonialism for All: Collaborative Textbook Design’, University of Bremen

16 June 2025
More than Just Street Names, keynote talk as part of the #VerständigungsOrte initiative by the Protestant Church, Varel parish hall

11 June 2025
Remembrance for All? Teaching and Learning Processes at Nazi Memorial Sites in Heterogeneous Learning Groups, lecture as part of the ‘Public History and Culture of Remembrance’ colloquium, University of Regensburg

5 February 2025
Erna Schlüter, lecture as part of the general meeting of the Erna Schlüter Opera Society, Oldenburg

5 November 2024
Street names in state-owned forests (Cloppenburg): Hanna Reitsch, Werner Baumbach, Werner Mölders and Ernst Udet, lecture as part of a study of street names in Cloppenburg, Cloppenburg

20 September 2024
Teaching and learning processes at Nazi memorial sites, lecture as part of the KGD (Conference on History Didactics), Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz

17 September 2024
Edith Ruß, lecture to the Culture Committee of the City of Oldenburg

14 March 2024
Book launch: No Job Like Any Other. Domestic Workers in Austria and Germany in the 20th Century, together with Jessica Richter, Vienna Chamber of Labour

1 December 2023
Colonialism – A Neglected Topic in History Lessons?!, lecture as part of the conference ‘The Elephant in the Room: Engaging with Bremen’s (Post-)Colonial History and Present’, together with Max-Simon Gündert, House of Science, Bremen

23 November 2023
Violence in the workplace: private households, lecture as part of the conference “Violence in the Workplace in the 20th Century”, Friedrich Ebert Foundation, Bonn

29 September 2023
The workplace in private households. Municipal domestic workers in the 20th century, lecture as part of the conference “Work – Everyday Life – Exploitation. Social History of Women Workers” organised by the Reich President Friedrich Ebert Memorial Foundation in Heidelberg

29 June 2023
The private household as a workplace. On the social history of domestic workers in the 20th century, lecture at the Lower Saxony State Archives, Oldenburg

4 May 2023
Commemorating NSDAP members? Street names in the Oldenburg municipality of Wardenburg, lecture for the Democracy Protection Network of the Central Police Directorate, jointly with Dr Joachim Tautz, Oldenburg

3 May 2023
Presentation of the study on street names in the municipality of Wardenburg, public lecture, in collaboration with Dr Joachim Tautz, Wardenburg

26 January 2023
Inequalities under one roof. Domestic workers in the Nazi ‘people’s community’, lecture as part of the research colloquium at the Chair of 20th-Century German History with a focus on National Socialism, Humboldt University of Berlin

7 October 2022
‘From one of the most daring and vibrant provincial theatres to the colourless world of court theatre’ – The Oldenburg State Theatre during the Weimar Republic, lecture as part of the 7th Conference on Oldenburg Regional History ‘Leisure in the Weimar Republic in the Free State of Oldenburg’, Oldenburg State Archives

23 March 2021
The value and worthlessness of a ‘par excellence’ women’s profession. The pay of domestic workers in the 20th century, lecture as part of the conference ‘Gender Pay Gap. On the Value and Worthlessness of Work’, Friedrich Ebert Foundation, Bonn

25 October 2019
On opportunities and challenges. Research into the Weimar Republic from 1918 to 1923, lecture delivered as part of the 6th Conference on Oldenburg Regional History, Oldenburg State Archives

26 September 2019
Gender Relations in the Private Household – Domestic workers and housewives from 1918 to the 1960s, lecture as part of the conference ‘Economics of the Household: Gender Relations in Work, Education and Standardisation Processes from a Historical Perspective’, Philipps University of Marburg

22 March 2019
The ‘organised domestic worker’ – (1918 to the 1960s), lecture as part of the conference ‘Labour Conflicts and Gender’, University of Erlangen–Nuremberg

21 November 2018
‘History of the GDR with sources from Oldenburg?’ Lecture as part of the ‘Historical Evenings’ series at the Lower Saxony State Archives in Oldenburg

22 October 2018
‘Electricity: The Domestic Helper’ – the mechanisation of the household, as part of the special exhibition ‘Design in Everyday Life – the Peter Veckenstedt Collection’, Aurich City Museum

15 June 2018
The ‘Certified Domestic Helper’ – Debates on the Professionalisation of Domestic Workers (1918 to the 1960s), lecture as part of the 13th Workshop on Gender Studies in Historical Education Research, University of Cologne

3 March 2018
Places of Remembrance in Oldenburg: Definitions and Experiences with a Project, lecture given as part of the conference of the Working Group on Medieval History of the Historical Commission for Lower Saxony and Bremen, Georg-August University of Göttingen

27 October 2017
Tracing back the history of paid domestic work in Germany, presentation as part of the DomEqual Local Workshop, Hamburg

16 June 2016
Precarious work: Domestic workers in the 20th century, lecture delivered as part of the Bremen Research Colloquium on Modern History, University of Bremen

22 January 2016
Domestic workers in the National Socialist ‘Volksgemeinschaft’, lecture as part of the 4th Colloquium on ‘History of the World of Work and Trade Unions’, Ruhr University Bochum

25 October 2013
War enthusiasm everywhere? The outbreak of the First World War in Oldenburg (read out by Dietmar von Reeken due to illness), Oldenburg State Archives

12 September 2013
Inequalities under one Roof. Domestic Workers from 1918 to the 1960s, lecture delivered 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’s places of remembrance and their national facets (or The Metamorphoses of Count Anton Günther), lecture series at The Smart House Oldenburg

11 October 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 November 2011
“Places of Remembrance in Oldenburg”, lecture as part of the Greiz Colloquium “Regional Places of Remembrance: West Bohemia and Central Germany in a European Context”, together with Markus Evers, Greiz

12 November 2010
‘Domestic Workers from 1918 to the 1960s’, lecture as part of the
1st Interdisciplinary Lower Saxony PhD Students’ Day, Leibniz University Hannover

8 October 2010
‘The Bremen Kränzchen – Gatherings of domestic workers at the Wichernhaus from 1918 to the 1960s’, lecture as part of Mental Health Week in Bremen and Bremerhaven, Bremen

23 June 2010
“Hoping for a ‘People’s Community’? Domestic helpers under National Socialism”, lecture as part of a series of lectures organised by the Institute of History, University of Oldenburg

20 November 2008
“1968 in Oldenburg”, lecture as part of the lecture series “Oldenburg 1968. A region caught between social upheavals”, Oldenburg State Archives

12 June 2008
“War Enthusiasm in August 1914”, lecture as part of the programme accompanying the exhibition “The First World War and Art”, Augusteum, Oldenburg

6 April 2006
“The Grand Tour: Aristocratic Travel from the 16th to the 18th Century”, lecture as part of the annual conference with students from the University of Groningen, University of Oldenburg

Supervised Master’s theses as first supervisor:

‘Certainly a peculiar moment for a German sailor’ – Self-representations and representations by others in travel accounts by sailors of the Imperial Navy (1888–1897) (2021)

‘The Other War’. Representations of the home front in exhibitions on the First World War, using the examples of the Historisches Museum Berlin and the Imperial War Museum, London (2020)

The second phase of the Emsland development scheme (1963–1973). The debate over a change in development policy based on the minutes of the planning and supervisory board meetings of the Emsland (2018)

The Call of Freedom – Reports sent home by German emigrants to the USA, using the example of the Richard brothers from the Osnabrück region (1849–1867) (2018)

The Bodelschwingh Institutions’ petition for clemency on behalf of Karl Brandt in the Nuremberg Doctors’ Trial of 1946–1947 (2017)

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

‘We are the anvil, not the hammer.’ 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 coverage of the Cuban Missile Crisis in the GDR press (2015)

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

“You can’t display hand grenades as if they were 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 eyewitness videos at the Ahlem Memorial (2015)

The ‘July Crisis’ and the ‘August Experience’ of 1914 in the city and countryside 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 killings in Indonesia in 1965/1966 in Joshua Oppenheimer’s documentary film *The Act of Killing* (2015)

Experiential Exhibitions. A study of educational concepts for experiential exhibitions, using the example of the Grüne Science Centre Botanika in Bremen (2015)

‘Can you feel the adrenaline?’ – Educational practices at German football club museums (2013)

The symbolic figure and ‘icon’ of the Oldenburg remembrance community – On the history of remembrance and the contemporary presence of the memorial site dedicated to Count Anton Günther von Oldenburg (2010)

The transformation of the SED’s youth policy between the Second Youth Communiqué and the 11th Plenum of the Central Committee of the SED, using the Leipzig Beat Uprising as a case study (2010)

Supervised bachelor’s theses 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)

A desire for integration or an administrative act? Baltic displaced persons in Oldenburg in the post-war period (2017)

The final phase of the Weimar Republic. The Brüning Government. Its reception in historical scholarship (2017)

German soldiers’ memories of D-Day 1944: the case of ‘Resistance Nest 62’ (2016)

Lebensborn e.V.: The Veiled Instrument of Nazi Racial Policy (2016)

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

The Landvolk Movement in Oldenburg 1928–1933. An account based on the example of the South Oldenburg Landvolk leader Dr Heinrich Große Beilag (2016)

Portrayal of Judaism in *Neues Deutschland* (2016)

Welfare education for girls and young women in the post-war Federal Republic – stories and practices in the context of the Dietrichsfeld girls’ residential home (2015)

Field post as a means of family communication during the Second World War. A case study of the field post correspondence of Arnold and Johann Miller, 1942–1943 (2015)

The Emsland Plan and Emsland GmbH. A study of the initial phase (1950 – c. 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 from 1861 to 1865 (2015)

“Military Strength through Education” – The Militarisation of Physical Education by the Central Committee for the Promotion of Folk and Youth Games in the Oldenburg Region between 1904 and 1914 (2015)

The Sinking of the Titanic in the Press – False Reports, Speculation and Propaganda (2015)

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

Living History as a Form of Historical Representation in Museums? Development of a Concept Based on an Analysis of a Scenographic Tour at the North-West German Museum of Industrial Culture in Delmenhorst (2015)

The ‘Perpetrators’ Exhibition’ at the Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp Memorial as a Contribution to Political Education (2015)

“It is the policy of the Military Government that refugees cease to be refugees as soon as they arrive at their reception area […].” The regulatory and moral actions of the British Military Government in dealing with displaced persons and refugees in 1945–46 in the State of Oldenburg (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)

“I do!” – Marriage amongst the 19th-century German middle classes. Men’s expectations of their (married) wives (2014)

Hitler in Oldenburg. On the special status 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 educational transformation of the concept of childhood in the 19th-century middle classes. Using the example of ‘Critique of the Relationship between Children and Servants’ (2012)

Esterwegen Concentration Camp 1933–1936. The Origins and Daily Life of the ‘Model Camp’ (2012)

Supervised master’s theses as a second examiner:

On the Presentation of History in Schleswig-Holstein’s Nazi Memorial Sites (2024)

The right to individual support in upper secondary school history lessons too? Measures for internal differentiation in school history textbooks from selected Federal States (2024)

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

Between castles, churches and markets. Pupils’ perceptions of the medieval town and its significance for history teaching (2023)

German colonialism in school history textbooks for upper secondary schools in Lower Saxony. Representation and potential interpretations (2023)

A voyage overseas or a 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: examined using the example of the persecution of Jews during the Nazi era in the town of Leer (2022)

One House, Many Expectations – The Quelle prefabricated house from Winsen (Luhe) arrives at the Kiekeberg Open-Air Museum (2022)

Constitutional diagrams in history lessons – An analysis of the didactic and methodological potential in school textbooks (2022)

German colonialism in postcolonial history lessons. An analysis of the implementation of the history-teaching principle of multi-perspectivity in Lower Saxony school textbooks for classes 7 and 8 (2022)

“… but it must not become a privilege of women”. On the changing social significance of women who smoked at the beginning of the 20th century (2022)

‘Aryanisation’ in Oldenburg. A regional perspective on the economic destruction of the livelihoods of Jewish Germans from 1933 to 1945 (2022)

“A generation that seems to have gone wild.” – Portrayals of the ‘Halbstarken’ youth movement in a comparative film analysis between West Germany and the German Democratic Republic (2021)

“Put on the line?” – The potential of escape rooms for promoting skills in history lessons (2021)

The application of the ‘Law for the Prevention of Hereditary Diseases in Offspring’ in the historic district of Leer (Gau Weser-Ems) between 1934 and 1944, as reflected in the records of the Aurich Hereditary Health Court (2021)

Middle-class conceptions of the family between the world wars. The example of a correspondence between a bride and her fiancé from 1923–1925 (2021)

The evolution of midwifery – On the development of midwifery training in the 19th and
20th centuries (2021)

Between Event and Academia: Representations of Controversial Figures from 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 between 1928 and
The Diary of the Upper Silesian Police Officer Adolf R. Himmel (2020)

From Goethe to the ‘Volkssturm’ – the ‘Third Reich’ in written examinations sat by non-school pupils to obtain their 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 Party’s Official View of Women under National Socialism: The Magazine *NS-Frauen-Warte* (2019)

Nazi School Policy 1933–1945. The Indoctrination of Children and Young People under Nazism, Illustrated by Selected Subjects (2019)

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

‘[…] what are kingdoms other than the dens of highwaymen?’ The issue of spoils in Hugo Grotius’s ‘Three Books on the Law of War and Peace’ (2019)

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

Helgoland as a tourist destination – On the development of tourism on the island from 1952 to the turn of the century (2018)

On the negotiation of exhibition practices in memorial sites. A review of the literature (2018)

Changes in the police force. The Free State of Oldenburg and the Weser-Ems district (2018)

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

The ‘Expansion Pack’ for History Lessons. On Addressing Digital Historical Culture in History Lessons for Upper Sixth Form Students (2018)

‘When shall we watch a film again?’ – The historical feature film as a teaching tool for Year 9 history lessons, using the example of ‘Ein Sack voll Murmeln’ (2018)

Stolpersteine 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)

Residential care in Lower Saxony in the post-war period – For the good of the young? (2017)

The ‘monster’ on our doorstep: Media coverage of Josef Mengele in his home town of Günzburg (2016)

“The Bookholzberg is a sandy hill.” The invention of the Bookholzberg as a place of worship, 1909–1939 (2015)

A homeland worth defending or a place of traitors? Interpretative patterns regarding the relationship between the front and the homeland in German army newspapers during the First World War (2015)

“It looked as though the world were 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)

“Genetically Inferior” – Continuity of eugenic thinking within the Oldenburg judiciary between the Nazi era and the early Federal Republic (2015)

Refugee Flight and Integration: The Case of Dalum (2015)

Is happiness in marriage ‘entirely a matter of chance’? Concepts of marriage and their portrayal in selected film adaptations, using the example of Jane Austen’s ‘Pride and Prejudice’ from 1940 and 2005 (2015)

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

Must they be exhibited? The status and significance of non-existent objects in exhibitions at memorial sites (2014)

Service provider or active participant? The contribution of cultural-historical museums to Germany’s reappraisal of the Nazi era (2014)

Understanding – Comprehending – Getting to grips with. On the production of embodied knowledge in children’s museums (2013)

Stylised – Sterilised: Are sterilisation processes a reflection of the Nazi ideal of masculinity? (2013)

On the Invention of the Early Middle Ages. The Reception of the Early Middle Ages in 19th-Century Legal and Constitutional History (2013)

The Development and (De-)Construction of Masculine and Feminine Role Models in Heavy Metal (2013)

9 November in the history of remembrance in the Federal Republic of Germany (2013)

From the ‘Aktion Brandt’ Special Hospital Facility to the DP Hospital: Change and Continuity in a Hospital, 1944–1949 (2013)

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

Berlin cabaret in the Weimar Republic (2012)

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

Germany’s favourite child? The rise and fall of the West German automotive aura before and after the 1973–74 oil price crisis (2011)

Oldenburg 1848: Reform or Revolution? (2011)

A Journey Towards Freedom, Modernity and Independence? German Governesses in England as Reflected in Biographical Accounts (2011)

The portrayal of the ‘Industrial Revolution’ in two history textbooks for secondary school (Years 7/8) – A critical analysis (2011)

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

The involvement of Lower Saxony’s psychiatric services in the Nazi ‘euthanasia’ programme (2009)

Supervised bachelor’s theses as a 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-based history teaching through field post letters? (2023)

Between ‘hypermorality’ and ‘incorrigible forefathers’ – a local historical-cultural conflict with potential for history teaching? (2023)

‘TheTurks are coming, save yourselves!’An investigation into the memory of the 1961 German–Turkish labour recruitment agreement, using articles from *Der Spiegel* as examples (2023)

Bremen Cathedral and its treasures: altar silver and bishop’s vestments. A spatial analysis of the exhibition of sacred artefacts within a sacred space (2023)

Racism in schools. School textbooks under National Socialism, 1933–1945 (2023)

segu under scrutiny – A historical-didactic comparison with the ‘denkmal Geschichte und segu’ school textbook (2022)

Comparative analysis and reflection on narrative texts in current Lower Saxony history school textbooks (2022)

27 January in upper secondary school history textbooks – an exemplary analysis (2022)

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

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

Forced labour at Krupp during the Nazi era – on the role of Alfried Krupp and Berthold Beitz (2022)

Perceptions of Bismarck in the Weimar Republic (2021)

To what extent can the educational approaches developed during the Weimar Republic be described as a fresh start for the German education system? (2021)

Life under repression. Homosexuals as victims of Nazism in Oldenburg (2021)

The Oldenburg Gambling Trials – The court cases of 1903 as reflected in local newspapers (2021)

In the Name of Science? ‘Euthanasia’ Crimes under the Guise of Research: The Case of Hans Heinze (2021)

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

“Now the West must act!” – Coverage of the construction of the Berlin Wall in Western print media (2021)

The use of images in school history textbooks: are the methodology pages a useful aid? (2021)

Social identity through engagement with colonialism? Opportunities for identification in school history textbooks (2021)

“What the SA men achieved in the early years, through their own efforts and initiative and in the face of the greatest privations, can scarcely be put into words”: An analysis of the exhibition at the Esterwegen Memorial with regard to the portrayal of the perpetrators (2021)

The potential of museums’ online resources for historical learning. An illustrative analysis of a virtual museum tour (2020)

The portrayal of the Nazi ‘euthanasia’ murders in current school textbooks. An analysis with particular regard to the categories of multi-perspectivity and contemporary relevance (2020)

Oskar Brüsewitz’s self-immolation in 1976 and its reception in the media (2020)

Developing historical competences according to the FUER competence model using the historical feature film ‘Anne Frank: The Whole Story’ (2020)

Nazis as heroes of the present day? A history-didactic analysis of the graphic novel ‘20 July 1944: Biography of a Day’ (2020)

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

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

Between fact and fiction – The potential of historical youth literature to promote historical awareness, based on the novel ‘Beyond the Blue Border’ (2020)

Historical Narrative in Feature Films. Deconstructing the Narrative Structure in Christopher Nolan’s ‘Dunkirk’ with a View to History Education (2019)

From East to West. The German-German prisoner exchange, illustrated by the example of selected political prisoners in the 1970s (2019)

‘The granary is full, my lords!’ Authentic narrative style in historical computer games, using ‘Stronghold’ as an example (2019)

The changing image of Erwin Rommel: from the post-war period to the present day (2019)

Nursing and ideology: A comparative study of the ‘Nursing Textbook’ between 1928 and 1946 (2019)

Learning from propaganda? A historical-didactic analysis of Nazi propaganda with particular regard to its relevance to the present and the future (2019)

The School Textbook as a Seismograph of Historical Reconciliation – The Depiction of the German Colonial Period from 1884 to 1914 in Namibian and Lower Saxony School Textbooks (2018)

The Limits of Nazi 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 system of satellite concentration camps in Aurich in 1944 (2018)

How did 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 at artistic and intellectual coming to terms with the past (2018)

Telling stories. ‘Naked Among Wolves’ as part of the GDR’s legitimisation (2018)

The letters of Inge Christina Petersen: On the construction of identity of a Föhr sailor’s wife in her everyday world (1831–1835) (2017)

Life under surveillance. 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 Asset: On the Human–Horse Relationship in the First Quarter of the 20th Century (2017)

History and the Future as Portrayed in the ‘Weichsel-Warthe’ Yearbooks, 1955–2014 (2016)

‘Hanoverians vs. Trakehners’? A portrait of two breeds – differences in breeding developments in Hanover compared with East Prussia (2016)

‘The Funeral of German Art’?! The ‘Great German Art Exhibition’ and ‘
’ the ‘Degenerate Art’ Exhibition (2016)

Germany From Afar – American reporting on Germany between the World Wars, using the Chicago Tribune as an example (2015)

Friedrich Paffrath – A Figure of His Time. His Dismissal in 1933 and Reinstatement in 1945 to the City Administration (2015)

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

“Whoever betrays their people shall die.” An analysis of the legal reckoning with Nazi crimes, using the trial for the murder of Willi Rogge as an example (2014)

On the reception of the film ‘Die Brücke’ – generational differences in perception in the late 1950s (2014)

Evolving ideas of resistance. 20 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 play “The Diary of Anne Frank” in the GDR press (2014)

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

The ‘Spanish Flu’ of 1918–19 in the Oldenburg region (2013)

“To heal the Germans, to restore them to health, only a German remedy can be found.” The treatment of Jewish doctors in Nazi propaganda in 1933 (2013)

Aspects of German-Israeli relations between 1948 and 1965. Politics, the press and the Eichmann trial (2013)

Reception of the feature film “Jud Süß: A Film Without Conscience” (2013)

Liberation or Burden for Women? Media Debates on the Pill in the 1960s (2013)

‘Guarantor of the Future’. GDR youth policy under Walter Ulbricht and Erich Honecker (2013)

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

The culture of remembrance surrounding von Galen in Dinklage (2012)

The image and reality of the family in the GDR (2012)

The Eastern Front of the First World War in German Nationalist Fiction of the 1920s and 1930s (2012)

The First World War – a driving force behind the women’s movement in the Oldenburg region? (2012)

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

The ‘New Woman’ in the 1920s (2012)

Tolerance – Prohibition – Acceptance: On the history of women’s football (2012)

Lex Zwickau – Debates on forced sterilisation in Oldenburg (2012)

In the ‘closest circle’ of Adolf Hitler (2010)

‘Long Live Holy Germany’ – Resistance to the Nazi regime by the military on 20 July 1944 and at a civilian level, as exemplified by the ‘Kreisau Circle’ (2010)

The Oldenburg press and the ‘Night of Broken Glass’ (2010)

Corporate social measures and old-age provision in the 19th century: the case of the firm Fried. Krupp Essen-Ruhr (2010)

Field post letters during the First World War. An investigation into the mood amongst German soldiers in everyday life in the trenches (2009)

Bourgeois patronage in the 19th century: the case 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 fathers during the Second World War. Correspondence and memories from a child’s perspective (2009)

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

‘Headquarters of Terror’ – Imprisoned in Berlin-Hohenschönhausen (2008)

Co-operation between the Ministry for State Security and the RAF. The case of Silke Maier-Witt (2008)

The female teacher as portrayed in the narrative literature of the GDR. On the depiction of female teacher characters, 1950–1968 (2008)

State Examinations examined:

Hitler and Big Business. Was Hitler a puppet of big business? (2017)

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

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

Conference on History Education. Association of History Educators in Germany e.V.

Working Group for Applied History/Public History within the Association of German Historians

Working Group on Historical Women’s and Gender Studies

ICOM

Juror in the Federal President’s History Competition

Friends and Patrons of the Oldenburg City Museum (Chair)

Friends and Patrons of the Horst Janssen Museum, Oldenburg e.V. (board member)

Oldenburg Museum Society e.V.