Erfurt's Christmas Market

I have just a few more days left of working in the archives in Erfurt. So I will soon introduce readers to my research findings for the year of 1920 as a starter. But I also want to show you some more photos; first, nice ones I took from Erfurt in December 2006. If you are interested in Erfurt's Christmas markets and some of my late afternoon walks, please click here.

Dictatorship, Terror and Human Rights in Iran

I have taken a break from archival work and writing to travel with my girlfriend Nicole from Berlin to Magdeburg, Erfurt and back. It was a much needed respite after months of being on the road. I plan to post more in the following days on my own research and writing, but I wanted to write today about the man I met while walking through Potsdamer Platz (Berlin) to the train station.

He was standing in the street bundled up in a long dark coat and gloves. He had metallic rim glasses, bushy eyebrows, gentle eyes and a mustache. He was waving his hands and asked me in German if he could speak to me about human rights violations in Iran, thanking me as he moved closer.

He had a folder in his hands and he quickly flipped through it to show me photo identification with his official proof of German citizenship and terrifying pictures of young people, both men and women, on the gallows.

He told me that he had been a teacher in Iran. When he refused to fight against the Iraqis in the Iran-Iraq War of the 1980s, he claimed that the Iranian government imprisoned him for three years. Afterwards he sought asylum in Germany and has been living in the southwestern German state of the Baden-Wurttemberg for the last ten years. He had taken a few days off from his job to travel to Berlin and sought to raise awareness by approaching people among the passageways of Potsdamer Platz.

He asserted that his fellow Iranians now live under a brutal dictatorship, which will not come as a surprise to many. He flipped back through the photos of young men and women marched to the gallows for public executions. He asked me to help with a donation or petition campaign. I told him that I am not a citizen of Germany and could not fill out any of his petitions or bank transfer forms. I had little money, but I suggested that I could take a flyer with his group’s contact information and give him some of my pocket change. He was interested in my pursuit of a dissertation in history and the fact that I am a US citizen. I told him that I wanted to support his efforts and that I am concerned about current US foreign policy, especially the public calls from our neo-conservative right for strong gestures of saber rattling and even military action against a radical Iranian government armed with nuclear weapons of mass destruction.

If you are interested, please check out his organization’s website address: www.hmiran.de. However, it is in German. HMIRAN stands for Help for Human Rights in Iran and is based in Dortmund, Germany.

His flyer makes some moving claims. German papers like Die Welt (from 05.08.2007) have been reporting on these public executions, but the German government, so HMIRAN claims, has been slow to act. Moreover, HMIRAN claims that since the beginning of 2007, the Iranian theocratic dictatorship, i.e., President Ahmadinejad, the Mullahs, the secret police and paramilitary squads, have carried out over 1400 death sentences and executions. Over 1.5 million people have been arrested. At least 7,300 of these arrests have been politically motivated. Over 670,000 people have been imprisoned. At least 6,500 of these people were arrested for political reasons. 255 newspapers and other forms of media have been banned. The list of problems goes on and on; the group cites numbers for those Iranians who are addicted to drugs, infected with HIV, homeless or female survivors of male violence. Most striking, HMIRAN claims that there have been over 2700 public forms of demonstration, strikes and protests all despite the government’s public reign of terror.

I find HMIRAN’s projects worth considering. They want to use donations from German citizens to hire lawyers in order to free Iranian political prisoners and stop executions. They claim to have already engaged the support of over 500 lawyers for international law. In order to protect Iranians’ human rights, they are initiating these public protests and supporting the broadcast of television programs with more information via satellite.

I had to catch a train, but I promised to do something. He looked me in the eyes as if to see if I meant what I said. Why don't Americans hear more about the details of what is actually going on in Iran? I hope there are some readers out there that can think of ways to help these Iranians help themselves despite such oppression. I do believe that war should remain the very last option when our leaders have proven that all other political options are ineffective. Opposition to such regimes does face the prospect that their government will label them as a dangerous foreign influence in order to legitimize going after them, but there are still signs of an active Iranian civil society (See the BBC’s online articles from this week on the Iranian Supreme Court’s decision to reopen the case of a dead Canadian-Iranian woman). Military action is not the only way to overthrow regimes and too many US and Iraqi citizens have died in the current approaches to regime change and political reforms so as not to consider other more creative alternatives. See also last week's Spiegel for the problems the German government faces in trying to exert economic pressure on Iran because of Germany's own economic ties with Iran.

What about those readers out there who are connected to American Voices Abroad here in Berlin already looking for ways to start dialog among US and Iraqi citizens and soldiers here in Germany in order to help deal with the trauma of the current US occupation – is this a chance to act proactively on Iran? What about those of us connected to groups like MoveOn.org or Amnesty International? How can we help fact-check and network these activists with those who can focus political support in constructive ways? What about Americans? Does saber rattling help? Is the Bush Administration actually interested in a new course with Iran? Can we help Iranians help themselves against their fellow Iranians who resort to violence and terror? Can we develop a different approach than that of our current US Administration that will move our national foreign policy, professional service and average, everyday American effort and sacrifice in more thoughtful and constructive directions in the wake of perhaps the worst foreign policy mistakes in our nation’s history?

Glimpses of Erfurt

I first came to Erfurt in the fall of 2006 on a fellowship from the local university. I came back here for a month in the fall of 2007 to follow up on my research and find a quiet place to read and write. I love taking walks in this city and I thought I would collect some of those glimpses. If you are interested, please click here.

Erfurt

View of Erfurt from The Schedelsche World Chronical (Nuremberg, 1493)

Back in the former GDR

with a laptop

and no internet access.

From Magdeburg

I took the local train this morning

past rolling hills

dark furrows

windmills all around.

Walls crumbling,

whole rows of warehouses

worn shaggy and tufted.

We stopped at every little town,

names I could not find on my map

nor show the old man going to Hettstedt.

He wanted some change for a cola

and told me his brother was going to pick him up at the station.

I can can see inside all these little towns

past the church towers and house corners,

the wooden crossbeams,

old people in their little gardens

and cars waiting at the crossing.

When I last looked back,

the old man was walking off the platform alone.

In Stassfurt the shoulders of new windmills

lie among the old walls

and weeds clawing at the edges.

We moved past more fields

and deer looking over their shoulders.

Stops at Guesten, Sandersleben, Hettstedt, Kloster Mansfeld, Riesstedt, Sangerhausen, Oberroeblingen, Voigtstedt, Artern, Bretleben, Heldrungen (past a dam/waterfall), Etzleben, Griefstedt, Leubingen and Soemmererda.

Workers' Paradise

From the train station I caught the tram to south part of town, past the state parliament building, the unemployment center, the ice hall and the soccer stadium to the room I had rented.

The doorman told me to come back if I needed things for the apartment.
He locked his office door and took me down the long hallway past the old lecture halls. I asked him what this building once was.

In the front lobby there is a huge mural.

Was this place a vocational school?

No, he replied. It was school for the Party.

For the SED in all of Thueringen?, I asked.

For all of East Germany, he claimed.

(Bezirksparteischule)

It was a giant building, he went on: heavily secured with military personnel; lecture rooms in the front; several basement levels including bunkers for atomic attacks and residential spaces for the students, Party cadres in one month programs. With everything they needed: barbers, health clinic, even a bowling alley. He opened a door to a room in the back and showed me shelves full of pots and pans, dishes (with the East German logo, glasses and silverware anything I wanted just leave it in my room before I go.

I like Erfurt. It has an old, dynamic and green city core. The old town sits on some of the old crossroads between east and west and it was known for its production and trade in a blue pigment made from the woad plant (Waid) and known for other herbal properties and uses.

Erfurt has one of the oldest German universities (although there was a major break in continuity up until Reunification) and once had a prosperous Jewish community. Martin Luther studied here as a young Augustiner Monk. Napoleon inspected the Petersburg fortifications as part of his visit with Goethe in nearby Weimar.

In the mid 19th century, the city began an extensive urban canal project to shape the course of the Gera around and through the city. Erfurt also began to industrialize like many similar sized towns in the region, but it also developed successful horticulture and gardening industries, known for garden plant seeds and watercress.

Much of that industry is gone now. In between the world wars, Erfurt industry, although robust and diverse, would become most known for Topf and Sons (looking for an English version; German-speakers, see also Holocaust und Moderne). They started as a firm that made industrial furnaces and brewing equipment in the late 19th century. Around the First World War they began supplying mortuaries with industrial crematoria and the accessories like urns and plaques. The sons joined the Nazi Party in 1933 and their engineers instructed the SS on the use of their ovens and ventilations systems for the Final Solution and death camps,. The company's engineers could little plumes rising up valley on a clear day in the late years of the Second World War above town of Weimar from their drafting tables. The Soviets found the company's nameplates and knew to start looking for the Topf brothers in Erfurt. This story brings up interesting points for modern students, but more on the history in another post.

Erfurt suffered damage from aerial bombings, but not as extensively as most other cities in Germany. The Soviets and their East German communist compatriots spent forty years giving the town a Stalinist belt of public housing projects, but much of the town remained has it had been at mid century.

Since reunification in 1989/90, Erfurt has bloomed, unlike many small towns and cities in East Germany. It has that old historical center and tourists as a good starting base. There is still a robust agricultural economy and there is a new university with a beautiful library north of the city. In the old town, much has been renovated and modern architectural structures are tucked amongst the old buildings, lined with shops, cafes, bakeries and butchers.

Compared to Berlin, this place is quaint. Most of the outlying suburbs wind their ways along the trams to the center, known as the Anger. I have been taking walks up in the Steigerwald Forest near my apartment and when I am working at the municipal archives in the old town or the new library, I make my way to the Gera and its many pathways for my walks.

Europe and Islam

The Einstein Room in the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences is packed for a discussion of European identity and its relationship with Islam. It is Friday night, 26 October 2007 at 6PM. This event highlights the Academy's central theme of "Europe in the Near East and the Near East in Europe" (if you are interested, please check out their webpage here and and also the related special edition from the Tagesspiegel; source of the photo above on the right). The topic itself and the "class" of four prominent historians and members of the Academy account for the larger than normal attendance. Plus all four of the historians bring a different knowledge base and set of perspectives to the question of Europe and Islam. The two hour evening followed with rounds in which the historians presented their theses. They had opportunities to sharpen their points and finally hold two rounds of questions and discussion with those in attendance. They presented a huge amount of information in a relatively short amount of time. In a way, the transcript that follows below serves as a historical and historiographical sketch and one can only hope that the Academy organizers can find ways to effectively integrate such a high quality presentation into the year's calender of interesting events.

The "Class notes":
The moderator is Dr. Christoph Markschies. He is a professor for ancient church history, President of the Humboldt University in Berlin and the Secretary of the Academy. Dr. Markschies opens the forum with the note that Islam is often viewed as a medieval phenomenon, but more and more, some scholars see Islam as a development emerging from late antiquity. What, he asks, is the identity of Europe?

Round I: Europe and Islam from the Ancient Historian's perspective:
Dr. Christian Meier has the floor first, since he is a Professor for Ancient History at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Munich and well known for his work on Caesar and Athens. Dr. Meier looks for the unique (eigenartig) qualities of Europe and, therefore, starts with the Greeks and the Roman Republic. Of course, Dr. Meier notes, Greece had roots in the “Orient”, but the Greeks created their own form of community (Gemeinwesen). In the 9th century Islamic civilization, carried on the Greco-Roman tradition in translated forms, but there were limits to this appropriation of the Greco-Roman tradition. Whereas “Europe”, in his opinion, would more deeply appropriate and develop the intellectual inheritance of the classical world, for example, in the discipline of philology. Moreover, Dr. Meier believes that the Greeks are the only known case in the ancient world, where a people emerged in freedom and without a monarchical form of government.

From the Medieval European Historian's perspective:
Dr. Michael Borgolte, a professor for Medieval History at the Humboldt University in Berlin, receives the chance to respond next. He has just published a new monograph in German translated here as "Christians, Jews and Muslims. The Inheritance of Antiquity and the Rise of the Occident". Dr. Borgolte starts by noting Dr. Meier’s “master narrative” on the classical tradition and its influence on Europe and the Near East. Dr. Borgolte does not want to necessarily question what Dr. Meier has already said, but does assert that master narratives open up room for alternative histories. Moreover, Dr. Borgolte wants to come back to the idea of identity. From his point of view, historians have the job of critically examining traditions of identity; not producing identity itself. Dr. Borgolte suggests that there is no canon of universal values. He also asserts that people develop identity mythologies as a result of state-building projects, not the other way around as Dr. Meier would suggest in his opening remarks. Dr. Borgolte also draws attention to the boundaries of European identity for further discussion, in particular toward the East. Finally, Dr. Borgolte asserts a dialectical relationship of unity and multiplicity in this “Europe’s” historical development.

From the Early Modern European Historian's perspective:
Dr. Heinz Schilling, a professor for Early Modern European History at the Humboldt University and known for his work on Christian confessionalization in the 15th and 15th centuries, has the final word in the first round. Dr. Schilling starts by addressing the question of identity too. Citing his training in the “Bielefelder” school of history, Dr. Schilling looks for the structural history and cultural development of identity. Moreover, Dr. Schilling wants to sharpen Dr. Meier’s assertion of a unique type of European identity. He also raises the question of “global” history, i.e., the idea of a “small” Europe and a “large” Europe as a way to approach the topic of European identity and Islam. Dr. Schilling sees methodological and periodical problems in approaching the historical relationship of Europe and Asia. Dr. Schilling also asserts that there are specific types of civilization and uses this approach to further delineate European identity. From Schilling’s point of view, therefore, Russia does not belong to Europe because Russia emerged from another form of civilization centered on the Greek-Orthodox religion, whereas Schilling claims that Europe is in fact a Latin-Christian civilization. Schilling, however, does not see this as a form of European identity but an experiment. It remains for historians to work out the properties of European identity and he asserts the important role of religion. Schilling adds that people defined Europe through conflict with Islam.

Round II:
Dr. Meier opens the second round of discussion. He believes that identity can be a useful term for analysis, but draws a distinction between the citizens of antiquity and modernity. Dr. Meier also questions the usefulness of “types” as Dr. Schilling would suggest and pleads for comparative analysis in large strokes (a point that needed further clarity). From the very beginning of the idea of “Europe”, Dr. Meier sees a high degree of pluralism through the building of monarchies, cloisters and universities. Europe had no center or monarchical center as in the case of the Orient in places like Baghdad. This plurality gave Europe a dynamic that moved it beyond antiquity.

Dr. Borgolte further questions the unified history of “freedom” that Dr. Meier suggests in the historical development of Europe. Dr. Borgolte sees breaks rather than continuities in the history of the idea of freedom. From his perspective “Europe” in the Middle Ages was in fact in a pluralistic form of identity that included both Christians, Jews and Muslims. The monotheistic cosmology of Judaism from the 5th century B.C.E. and the related idea of the “transcendence” (between this world and what lies beyond) influenced the Roman form of Christianity that emerged in the middle ages and Islam in the 8th century C.E. This triad constellation of religious world views played a key role in the emergence of European identity even as Roman Christianity would come to dominate that identity.

Dr. Schilling defends the use of “types” as instruments for comparative analysis. Dr. Schilling also sees a nonlinear development in Europe’s plurality. From his view, it is pluralistic development with major discontinuities. Europe’s current development of plurality stems from the 15th and 16th century European concentration on Christianity, especially Luther’s call for reformation of the Roman Catholic Church. Social and theological changes were already underway in the late middle ages that would lead to divisions, competition and conflict. In this context, the arrival of Islam through the Turks and the Spanish re-conquest of the Iberian Peninsula was more a matter of power politics. Dr. Schilling adds that Europe was at this time plural in terms of particularistic states and forms of belief. There was both closure and opening to the rest of the world. As a note for further discussion, Dr. Schilling suggests that Spain makes an interesting case for the further study of European and Islamic identities.

Round III:
Dr. Borgolte suggests that the modern idea of tolerance in Europe has its roots in the interaction of the three major monotheistic religions, Christianity, Judaism and Islam, at the time when Europe was becoming more culturally unified in the late middle ages around Roman Christianity. When Dr. Markschies asks Dr. Borgolte about the homogeneity of Europe, Borgolte responds that it was neither nor. On the one hand, the middle ages marked the convergence of a European culture in relationship to the conflict with Islam and on the other hand, the interactions between Europe and Islam generated the emergence of cosmopolitanism and the possibility for further understanding.

Dr. Schilling wants to more precisely define pluralism as the equal recognition of different views of the world. From Schilling’s view this is a modern European development. In the 15th and 16th centuries Europe was concentrating itself at the same time that it was defining itself in opposition to Islam in terms of absolute truth and eschatology. The Treaty of Westphalia in 1648 marks the European leaders’ decision to develop a secularized structure for international law that would seek to remove the issue of religion from international politics. Islam, Dr. Schilling notes however, did not appropriate this idea of pluralism.

Dr. Borgolte, in reply, stresses that Islam was not solely about holy warfare and draws attention to the Islamic conquest of Sicily to raise the question of Europe’s multicultural historical development and the role of difference. From Dr. Borgolte’s view, Islamic control of Sicily marks a long period of peaceful intellectual cooperation and cultural development including universities and the translation of Aristotele, which also involved Jewish translators.

Dr. Meier adds that he still sees Europe as a unique Greco-Roman inheritance, highlighting structural developments including markets, language and philosophical concepts in Latin.

Finally, Dr. Schilling wants to draw attention to the eastern boundaries of Europe again and the relationship of the Hapsburg and Ottoman Empires. The emergence of religious fundamentalism in this conflict strikes Dr. Schilling as an interesting chance to ask how Europeans overcame the pitfalls of religious fundamentalism. Dr. Schilling also offers an observation (since he had prepared for a lecture not a discussion) that there is a difference in the historical relationship of Islam and Judaism to Europe. After the Spanish Christian re-conquest of the Iberian Peninsula in 1492, Islam withdrew to North Africa and had very little presence in Europe except for diplomatic relations (Shilling notes the presence of a tombstone for a Moroccan ambassador in the Hague for support). On the other hand, in this period Jews, although forced out of Spain, became an important presence in central Europe. Places like Amsterdam became centers of Jewish-Christian exchange.

Open Discussion:
From the audience comes a call for clearer definition of European normative values and sentiments in the first round of questions. Someone also asks about the role of the Crusades in the historical relationship of Europe and Islam and someone else asks for more comment on the particular case of Spain after the Reconquista. In the second round of questions, someone wants to know more about the role of Byzantium in the relationship of Europe and Islam. Another person draws attention to Cordoba, Spain and asks to know more about this case as a model of tolerance. Finally, someone asks about the Greeks; almost provocatively, do they belong to Europe?

Dr. Borgolte replies first. He does not see a historically stable form of European identity with related ideology and values. He reiterates the dialectical relationship of difference and unity in the development of Europe’s identity in relationship with Islam. In response to the question about the Crusades, Dr. Borgolte agrees with the audience member that the Crusades marked a distinct break in the identity of Islam that has affected Muslims to this day. In regards to Spain, Dr. Borgolte notes that under Islamic control, there was a relatively low degree of Islamicization due to the fact that most Islamic leaders were more interested in exacting forms of tribute and controlling the population. By the 10^th century, the majority of those people under their control converted to Islam but by the 17^th century, roughly 70% of Spain’s population was Christian; 15% Jewish and 15% Muslim.

Dr. Schilling responds next with a note on identity politics. In the 15^th and 16^th centuries, the idea of European identity originated from above, which leaders of the various forms of Christian confession propagated from the top down in their domains. Noting the work of another scholar, Hartmut Kaeble, Dr. Schilling reasserts that there was no European consciousness before 1700. From this perspective, European identity is a modern phenomenon and closely tied with European state-building and expansion.

The historians do not have much to say in response to the questions on Cordoba and the Byzantine Empire. Dr. Schilling adds a note on tolerance in 16th century Budapest under the control of the Pasha and another note on the emergence of a Palestinian identity in the late 19th century.

In a final note, Dr. Meier draws attention to the current issue of “radical” or Islamist politics as a point that people in Europe need to discuss further.

Where the Greeks stand in all of this and what this says about European identity remains open. The questions are all interesting, but seem to present points for further exploration and clearer connection with other voices in this project. After two hours, the group discussion appears to be over and people are heading for the exits or the reception room for drinks and snacks.

After all is said and done, it appears that there really are two distinct questions: European identity (itself a complicated question involving many regions, religions (confessions) and state-building) and the question of Islam, both in historical relationship to Europe and in current affairs. I am not convinced to what extent old Latin Christian religious structures can shape current European development. From this evening's discussion, it appears that the historical interrelationship of Christianity, Judaism and Islam have at different times contributed to the unification of European identity and its idea of plurality. At least from the historical perspective, it is not simply a question of whether Islam or Islamic countries could belong to Europe. And what about those pesky Greeks and their historical roots? There seems to be more questions here for discussion exactly along all the lines of Europe's borders, especially at key places like Spain or Greece. What can these border studies tell us?

A European identity seems quite possible, but Europe within its contemporary boundaries has the potential to develop in very diverse ways, which may be an even greater strength stemming from its historical development. The question of Turkey's candidacy for the European Union has brought some of this historical knowledge into the discussion. I have heard several voices in my travels looking for a way to draw boundaries along the old lines of a unified religion and normative values of the Occident, but I am not sure if this is the best way to frame the issue and the argument itself may be on shaky grounds to begin with. The strength of Turkish civil society seems like the more pertinent question. After all, democracy had its birth on the coast of Asia Minor and Turkish society has its own long struggle with the values of secular civil society. For this kind of question, we need other voices. The Islamicist acceptance of violence, restrictions on freedom and rejection of equality, however, seems a clearer case for drawing a line in terms of normative values that go beyond Europe.

The "micro-histories" of fear

Among its file on „Social Democracy“ in the Archive for the Church Province of Saxony is a 1907 article from the Social Democratic newspaper, the Volksblatt, in Halle entitled, “Who terrorizes?” According to their report, Dr. Vogl, had suddenly been removed from his position as pastor in the town of Leislau by Kamburg with one third of his earnings withheld. Directly after the parliamentary elections in February of 1907, Dr. Vogl had held a “family night” at the church on the topic of “The political parties of the Reichstag”. Dr. Vogl claimed that he only wanted to introduce people to the topic in a matter of fact sort of way and not step on anyone’s toes. He also wanted his presentation to help the political parties learn to understand each other so that they could fight with “only the honorable weapons of truth and justice”. At some point in the evening, a local aristocrat (“Rittergutsbesitzer”) named Schlueter stood up and announced that the pastor had to fight Social Democracy above all else. The pastor, according to Schlueter, should also explain how social democracy wanted to do away with Christianity and destroy marriage and the family. Dr. Vogl countered with the remark that there was nothing in the Social Democratic platform about destroying marriage or family. Furthermore, people misunderstood the party platform plank: “religion is a private issue”. Thereafter, Schlueter told Dr. Vogl that he should be ashamed of himself and then left the “family night” with his wife. The reporter noted that Dr. Vogl was widely loved and respected in his community and there was a strong feeling of bitterness among his congregation and beyond. Such an occurrence reminded the reporter of one of the darkest times in the middle ages where people burned those of different faiths. Dr Vogl, accordingly, would realize that contemporary society was the greatest enemy of truth and justice. What, the reporter asked, would the bands of liars have to say about this?

Notes: Source: AKPS, Rep.A, Generalia, Nr. 1529, "Die Sozialdemokratie"; image above is entitled, "The Red Terror" from an 1881 edition of the Viennese satirical paper, the Gluehlichter.

I plan to introduce more of my archival findings in later postings and I want to explore their interpretation and significance for my work. I think this finding from today's archival research is interesting for several reasons. It is an article appearing in a pro-Social Democratic newspaper in Halle. So one has to take its reportage with a grain of salt, but it does articulate a notion of "terror" even as it raises "terror" as a question. From its emergence as a political force in the late 1870s, the working class political movement had articulated a capitalist form of "terror" as part of its way of organizing workers in the face of work-related fears. Opponents often resorted to labeling nascent Social Democracy as a "red" form of terror. In this case, the aristocrat's remarks reflect that trend among conservative circles to paint the emergence of Social Democracy as a form of "terror" that threatened Christianity, the family and marriage. The reporter uses collective memories of persecution to frame the description of the aristocrat's words and actions as an example of the capitalist system's terror. By the turn of the century, parliamentary politics had developed a high level of rhetorical exaggeration in Germany around supposed threats and terrors from both the left and right. I wonder how much objective positions in those platforms played a role in comparison to those calls of "terror" and how the invocation of collective fears affected those communities. In that context, it is interesting to see a pastor try to develop a presentation within the confines of a "family evening" to better inform people as voters. The aristocrat's attempt to publicly shame the pastor, appears to have backfired, but it also reveals one way in which people publicly threatened each other for political purposes at the turn of the century, namely through use of hierarchical forms of status and shaming as a way of then removing that pastor from his congregation. The local Social Democratic paper used this occasion of an apparently non-biased pastor to more effectively make the case. Most Protestant pastors, I would have assumed, would not have veered from their support of the monarchy and attacks on related opposition. Social Democracy was supposed to be the most immediate internal enemy to the Reich. It then strikes me how someone like this aristocrat can "archetype" space (see Teresa Hubbard's presentation of her work on the "home and fear" from the Akademie Schloss Solitude Conference post for this idea) or at least attempt to shape the "family night" to articulate the "terror" of Social Democracy and threaten the pastor and anyone else open to opposing ideas. I think the description of the pastor's actions and the actions of the Social Democratic newspaper also reflect William Reddy's concept of individuals "navigating" social and cultural space that others are attempting to shape for the purpose of control. In the bigger picture, I think these kinds of sources reveal how national politics was already working through the local level before the First World War. More importantly, these local political practices and notions of "terror" would continue to influence German politics in the wake of the First World War, beyond the Kaiser's call for national cooperation (the "Burgfrieden") during the war and the revolution that followed in the wake of Germany's defeat and the end of the monarchy.

Magdeburg

After working in the Archives for the Church Province of Saxony today , I took a walk from the eastern part of the city to the Elbe and back. If you are interested, please click here.