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"Ways of War: Violence and the Culture of Conflict in Modern Germany"
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WAYS OF WAR: VIOLENCE AND THE CULTURE OF CONFLICT IN MODERN GERMANY
April 17-18, 2009
University of North Carolina at Charlotte
Germans can be found at the heart of nearly every transformative conflict of Western civilization. From the Protestant Reformation to the "total wars" of the twentieth century, scholars have often located Germans and/or so-called "German ideologies" at the center of these phenomena. Indeed for some critics of Germany, the guiding principle of the Sonderweg, or "special path" continues to exercise a firm teleological hold on scholarship about Germany. Yet, recent interdisciplinary globalization studies have demonstrated that European cultures, along with their knowledge bases and technologies were surprisingly far more interconnected in the past than has been assumed. Given that today many scholars are finding more similarities between national cultures than differences, to what extent can a certain phenomenon continue to be labeled specifically "German"?
In addition to widely accepted arguments that political and social development in Germany was characterized by exceptionalism, scholars have also argued that the nation developed a specific "way of war." Although this "German way of war" remains disputed, it has been described alternately on the one hand as the focus on movement (Bewegungskrieg) which reached its culmination in the Blitzkrieg tactics of World War II and on the other as the focus on deterrence, in which an imposing military machine achieved its aim through the threat of force and not its deployment. To what extent are these conflict models mirrored in other war-time conflicts? Do we find a particularly "German" approach to industrial competition, medical research, economic development, or the cultural productions of the past centuries? Is there a German "way of war"? Can we speak of a specifically German "culture of conflict"? How do these ideas stand up to comparison across time and space?
The theme of the 2nd annual NCGSWS conference, Ways of War: Violence and the Culture of Conflict in Modern Germany examines these ideas in an international and interdisciplinary forum. The workshop is open to all students, teachers, and scholars as well as anyone in the general public interested in learning more about this controversial subject in German history, however, registration is required. The general registration costs $25 and includes catered meals for both Friday and Saturday. Reduced registration for students and teachers is $15. Please register no later than 1 April 2009. For more information, please see the NCGS website:
http://www.unc.edu/ncgs/workshops.html
Contact information:
Dr. Heather Perry, UNC Charlotte, Dept of History
Ms. Emma Castle-Grandstaff, UNC Charlotte, Dept of History
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