Biography between structure and agency: Central European lives in international historiography PDF
Preview Biography between structure and agency: Central European lives in international historiography
Biography between Structure and Agency Studies in German History Published in Association with the German Historical Institute, Washington, DC General Editors: Hartmut Berghoff , German Historical Institute, Washington, DC, and Christof Mauch, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich Volume 1 Nature in German History Edited by Christof Mauch Volume 2 Coping with the Nazi Past: West German Debates on Nazism and Generational Confl ict, 1955–1975 Edited by Philipp Gassert and Alan E. Steinweis Volume 3 Adolf Cluss, Architect: From Germany to America Edited by Alan Lessoff and Christof Mauch Volume 4 Two Lives in Uncertain Times: Facing the Challenges of the 20th Century as Scholars and Citizens Wilma Iggers and Georg Iggers Volume 5 Driving Germany: Th e Landscape of the German Autobahn, 1930–1970 Th omas Zeller Volume 6 Th e Pleasure of a Surplus Income: Part-Time Work, Gender Politics, and Social Change in West Germany, 1955–1969 Christine von Oertzen Volume 7 Between Mass Death and Individual Loss: Th e Place of the Dead in Twentieth-Century Germany Edited by Paul Betts, Alon Confi no, and Dirk Schumann Volume 8 Nature of the Miracle Years: Conservation in West Germany, 1945–1975 Sandra Chaney Volume 9 Biography between Structure and Agency: Central European Lives in International Historiography Edited by Volker R. Berghahn and Simone Lässig B IOGRAPHY BETWEEN S A TRUCTURE AND GENCY Central European Lives in International Historiography S Edited by Volker R. Berghahn and Simone Lässig Berghahn Books NEW YORK • OXFORD First published in 2008 by Berghahn Books www.berghahnbooks.com © 2008 Volker R. Berghahn and Simone Lässig All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purposes of criticism and review, no part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented, without written permission of the publisher. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Biography between structure and agency : Central European lives in international histo- riography / edited by Volker R. Berghahn and Simone Lässig. -- 1st ed. p. cm. -- (Studies in German history ; v. 9) ISBN 978-1-84545-518-7 (hardback : alk. paper) 1. Europe, Central--Historiography. 2. Europeans--Europe, Central--Biography--His- tory and criticism. 3. Social sciences--Biographical methods. I. Berghahn, Volker Rolf. II. Lässig, Simone, 1964- D13.5.E85B56 2008 943.00072--dc22 2008017890 British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Printed in the United States on acid-free paper ISBN 978-1-84545-518-7 hardback C ONTENTS Preface vii 1. Introduction: Biography in Modern History— Modern Historiography in Biography 1 Simone Lässig 2. Biography and the Historian: Opportunities and Constraints 27 Ian Kershaw 3. Dreams and Nightmares: Writing the Biography of Kaiser Wilhelm II 40 John C.G. Röhl 4. Gustav Stresemann: A German Bürger? 51 Karl Heinrich Pohl 5. Women’s Biographies—Men’s History? 72 Angelika Schaser 6. Historiography, Biography, and Experience: Th e Case of Hans Rothfels 85 Jan Eckel 7. A Historian’s Life in Biographical Perspective: Johan Huizinga 103 Christoph Strupp 8. Th e Heroic Ecstasy of Drunken Elephants: Th e Substrate of Nature in Max Weber—A Missing Link between his Life and Work 119 Joachim Radkau – v – vi | Contents 9. Generational Experience and Genocide: A Biographical Approach to Nazi Perpetrators 143 Michael Wildt 10. Criminal Biographies and Biographies of Criminals: Understanding the History of War Crimes Trials and Perpetrator “Routes to Crime” Using Biographical Method 162 Hilary Earl 11. From Himmler’s Circle of Friends to the Lions Club: Th e Career of a Provincial Nazi Leader 182 Hartmut Berghoff and Cornelia Rauh-Kühne 12. Contexts and Contradictions: Writing the Biography of a Holocaust Survivor 201 Mark Roseman 13. Th e Improbable Biography: Uncommon Sources, a Moving Identity, a Plural Story? 215 Willem Frijhoff 14. Structuralism and Biography: Some Concluding Th oughts on the Uncertainties of a Historiographical Genre 234 Volker R. Berghahn Bibliography 251 Notes on Contributors 262 P REFACE Th e project from which this volume has emerged was originally conceived in even broader international terms than this anthology in its fi nal version. We started from the observation that, while biographies of the great and famous have never ceased to fi ll the shelves of major bookstores, especially in the English-speaking world, academic historians had long since moved away from what one scholar on one occasion, and somewhat disdainfully, called “personalizing historiography.” Certainly, in the 1960s and 1970s, historians in colleges and universities were fi rmly wedded to the production of structuralist analyses of institutions, orga- nizations, and movements. By the late 1970s, this focus had been expanded to include smaller, often marginalized communities and minorities. Th e periphery of a particular society became more important than its capital. Grassroots level and daily life history was in; structuralism was out. However, by the 1990s, a further shift was to be observed after a number of academic historians had rediscovered biography. Our project was originally designed to raise, in comparative perspective, the question as to how signifi cant and durable the apparent “return of biography” really was. Furthermore, there was the problem of to what extent the larger Zeitgeist might have contributed to the renewed interest in biography. Our exchanges of ideas on the subject with colleagues in Europe and the United States ultimately led us to believe that the questions we had been asking were rather more applicable to Continental European and especially Central European writing than to Britain and North America. It also became clear that, in constantly having to confront the country’s Nazi past, historians of Germany have developed a particularly interesting and challenging subgenre, i.e., the biog- raphy of perpetrators and victims. Th ese insights into the debate on biography explain the sharper focus that we decided to give our volume. Still, it is our hope that the arguments presented here will be of interest to scholars in all parts of the world who have decided to try their hand at biography and wrestle with its methodological and conceptual problems. Th e editors of an anthology of this kind cannot do without the support and commitment of many other people. Our thanks go fi rst of all to Professor Christof – vii – viii | Preface Mauch, the former director of the German Historical Institute in Washington, and his staff in bringing the contributors and other scholars together for lively discussions of the subject matter. Wendy Kopisch’s assistance with the editing was invaluable. We are also grateful to David Lazar, chief editor at the German Historical Institute in Washington, to Th omas Dunlap, who translated several manuscripts, to the two anonymous reviewers who gave individual authors excel- lent advice on their manuscripts, and to our student assistants Lars Müller and Johannes Kaufmann. Finally, we thank the editors and production managers at Berghahn Books for guiding this volume through the fi nal stages. Chapter 1 I NTRODUCTION Biography in Modern History— Modern Historiography in Biography Simone Lässig S Biography is one of the more demanding and popular genres of historical scholar- ship, yet at the same time it is contested and controversial. What has seemed to some to be the royal road to historical writing has been to others a source of irrita- tion and controversy.1 It seemed to be a small step from the growing disenchant- ment with Historicism after 1945 to the fundamental criticism of biography in the 1970s: biography seemed especially resistant to the conceptual claims of those historians who were seeking a theory-driven historical science, who were deeply skeptical about purely hermeneutical approaches, and who tended to focus their interests more on structures and long-term developments than on singular events and individuals. Works of biography were increasingly seen—not always without reason—as evidence of an antiquated and unrefl ective approach to history. Th ey constituted an ideal contrast to social history and an important negative foil that could (help) advance the creation of the new discipline.2 Although social histo- rians also occasionally warned against an overly mechanical and distorted image of biographical writing, and although even such prominent pioneers of modern social history as E.P. Th ompson published biographical studies themselves or at least pointed to distinctions within the genre itself,3 two generations of historians were profoundly shaped by these deeply rooted biases. At fi rst glance, this development appears to have been a largely German phe- nomenon; in countries like the United States or Great Britain, at least, such ups and downs of biography are not discernible in the same way. In fact, quite the contrary is true. In the Anglo-Saxon world, biography has been and continues to be among the most highly regarded products of historical scholarship and is Notes from this chapter begin on page 21.
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