Open research questions in European history and politics
55 unresolved questions extracted from the limitations and future-work sections of 6,145 European history and politics papers in our library. Each links back to the study that raised it.
What the literature leaves open
Despite his apparent prominence as one of the five ‘Young German’ writers whose work was banned by the Bundestagsbeschluß of December 1835, Heinrich Laube is an author whose Vormärz publications are underresearched and inadequately contextualized.
The JRU has remained a somewhat understudied body relative to other Jewish organizations active in DP camps and this article, based on personnel files and field reports archived at London’s Wiener Library and the London Metropolitan Archives, centres JRU aid workers as valuable objects of study in their own right, in line with increased historiographical interest in the backgrounds and world-views of postwar UNRRA operatives.
1 Rarely studied by historians of the Holocaust, the questions brought to rabbis, and the advice and answers they gave, provide a close-up and rare glimpse into how Jewish communities responded at the time to the attacks on their lives, and provide telling witness of the Nazi attempt to make European Jews the agents of their own destruction.
Rabbinic Responsa and Spiritual Resistance during the Holocaust: The Life-for-Life Problem · 2019 · DOIMore specifically, the book tries to understand what caused the different patterns of behavior adopted by the Holocaust’s Jewish victims in three important, but understudied communities—Minsk (USSR), Kraków (Poland), and Białystok (Poland 1922–1939, USSR 1939–1941).
Kelman (bio), Tony Michels (bio), and Riv-Ellen Prell (bio) Sensing that 1968 was a critical, but underexplored, turning point in the reenvisioning and reimagining of Jewish life in the United States, we organized a conference on "The Jewish 1968 and its Legacies.
By examining his Geschichte der Ungleichheit der Stände unter den vornehmsten europäischen Völkern (1792), written in response to the French Revolution and the contemporary circumstances of the Holy Roman Empire, this article sheds new light on his work, as well as on an under-researched line of thought in the 1790s.
BOURGEOIS MODERNITY VERSUS THE HISTORICAL ARISTOCRACY IN CHRISTOPH MEINERS'S POLITICAL THOUGHT · 2018 · DOIThis paper will survey much of that scholarship for the English-speaking world; it will probe the contents of the two works in which his primary concepts are presented; there will be detail on Naumann's excursions into Nazism�based to some degree on information found in a 2001 �biographical novel� by his son Andreas Naumann, which has not yet been assessed by Naumann scholars.
Hans Naumann's <em>gesunkenes Kulturgut</em> and <em>primitive Gemeinschaftskultur</em> · 2014 · DOIThe narrative describes in considerable detail the inevitable friction between citizens steeped in the ways of democracy and Nazi [End Page 122] administrators whose experience was limited to the blunt exercise of power.
Occupied: Denmark's Adaptation and Resistance to German Occupation 1940-1945 by Nathaniel Hong · 2013 · DOIThe article makes a clear distinction between the violent (and under-researched) offences of the self-styled neo-Nazi groups and the activities (which have been well documented) of the larger right-wing extremist political parties, namely Republikaner, Nationaldemokratische Partei Deutschlands (NPD) and Deutsche Volksunion (DVU).
Much More Than a Phantom Menace! Assessing the Character, Level and Threat of Neo-Nazi Violence in Germany, 1977–2003 · 2006 · DOIAbstract Based on an important source which has hardly been used to date, data drawn from the 1939 Nazi Party membership census, this article contributes to our limited knowledge of the sociography of the membership of the Nazi Party at the micro‐level and that of its most important specialist organisations during the Third Reich.
The Sociography of the Nazi Party in a Catholic County: The 1939 Census of the Membership of the NSDAP in County Aachen · 2005 · DOIIf so much previous historical writing on this period has been limited by a heavy reliance on prescriptive, halachic sources that do not necessarily describe the dynamics of everyday Jewish life, we will not solve the problem of obtaining a more balanced and nuanced picture by switching our confidence to personal autobiographies, which have their own set of methodological difficulties.
"She Sees That Her Merchandise Is Good, and Her Lamp Is Not Extinguished at Nighttime": Glikl's Memoir as Historical Source · 2004 · DOIIt focuses on the open questions that addressing the Shoah in education raises—vis‐a‐vis the sequence of generations after 1945, political issues, moral philosophy, and Christian‐Jewish relationships.
The days are gone when conferences on GDR studies were limited to a small community of cognoscenti gathered far from the bright lights of public scrutiny.
Between “Investigative History” and Solid Research: The Reorganization of Historical Studies about the Former German Democratic Republic · 1995 · DOIBy placing the 1972 Poetry Debate in the context of earlier discussions held in the GDR, it should become clear that the practice of equating any criticism of cultural policy with a malicious attack on socialism itself is now limited to a small group of inflexible critics and functionaries.
Poetry and Criticism in the German Democratic Republic: The 1972 Discussion in the Context of Cultural Policy · 1976 · DOIEven though the following overview must be limited to the most significant developments, many issues of fundamental importance for an understanding of GDR literature and society will be touched upon.
Poetry and Criticism in the German Democratic Republic: The 1972 Discussion in the Context of Cultural Policy · 1976 · DOIIn 1974 he was arrested ,on charges of Nazi activities but acquitted for lack of evidence and subsequently made a successful : career, as a socialist politician.
With some refinement of the codes (possibly with the substitution of an alphabetic code-base 2 6 - f o r a numeric code-base 10), the entropy of each system's capability of carrying semantic information could be studied. For example, only verbs or only nouns could be considered in more limited studies.
to make economists aware these more occasional polemics, M a x Weber dealt with university problems in several of his other writings. In 1917 he published a long paper on the relationship between evaluations or j u d g e m e n t s of value It was the outcome of his effort over and empirical or factual knowledge. many years for particular policies did not arise solely from their economic-scientific studies but were based on certain ethical and political postulates which he wished them to acknowledge. In the introductory part of this paper, he examined the question of whether university teachers of the social sciences should present their own ethical and political evaluations in the course of their teaching, and the conditions and forms in which it would be legitimate for them to do so. I have reproduced the pertinent section of this paper because it expresses M a x Weber's view that the university teacher must, if he wishes to express his views about authority and the policies it should follow, take the responsibility for doing so on himself and not allow it to appear that it is lies outside his own unquestionably " g i v e n " by the " f a c t s " moral responsibility. and hence I n 1919 he delivered a lecture to an association of students of the 1 Professor Johannes Winckelmann of the Max Weber Institute of Munich provided me with the otherwise unobtainable copies of the original texts. The Academic Calling in Imperial Germany 573 University of Munich o n - " Science as a Vocation ". This is one of the deepest and most moving confessions of faith in the value of science and scholarship coupled with a tragic awareness of their limits. The first part of this talk deals with the risks of the academic career and it leads into the discussion of the grounds of the pursuit of knowledge. I have reproduced these pages of Wissenscha# als Beruf in this section of Minerva because it complements the argument, put forward in his journalistic writings, that an individual sense of responsibility and corporate self-respect are the pre- the university's conditions of discovery and performance of its proper function in society. intellectual accomplishment and fruitful E. S.
ever, agree that its budget should be examined and reorganised by an expert committee, appointed by the Federal Ministry of the Interior, the Prussian KuItusministerium and the Reichssparkommissar, The committee submitted its report in February 1930. The Locarno agreements and the imminent entry of Germany into the League of Nations helped to restore a sense of Germany's dignity in the world.
There is no call to indulge in unfounded pessimism - the survival of the written press in the struggle against the other mass media is not in question. It is now recognized that each information medium has its own role and that these roles are complementary. What is being gravely imperilled is the existence of a definite t~~f~e of written press, which has come down to us from the past century. Today’s daily newspaper is a commercial enterprise as much as an information medium. Combining the dictates of economic reason with the journalists’s calling to inform the public appears to present many Swiss papers with great problems. Nevertheless, it is absolutelv ne- cessary that the press - notably the small-circulation press - should take a realistic view of its own future. The age of idealism in mass- communications is over; the daily paper run by a single editor is doomed to disappear as the written press enters a phase of industriali- sation. In the long term, the structural picture of the Swiss press will change profoundly: the great quality dailies will rise to new levels, the popular press will expand but encounter difficulties in its struggle against other mass-communication media, above all television; the evening papers will find it necessary to advance their press times, to avoid a decline in sales due to being constantly ’scooped’ by the television news broadcasts. The politically-affiliated press will be de- cimated : in each of the three language areas, a single newspaper re- presenting a given political party or viewpoint will be sufficient. The younger generation of newspaper readers is unlikely to read less, but will tend to turn away from ideological journalism. 24 Whether we like it or not, the trend is definitely away from regiona- lism and local diversity and towards greater uniformitv. On the other hand, the scope of the information given in newspapers is still broadening and the readers of major dailies will be more fully and responsibly informed, thanks to the availability of specialised editorial talent in every field, computerised documentation and the best popular economic and scientific writing. 24. In an interview granted to the magazine La Vie Protestante, M. Pierre Bé- guin declared: ’The public feels a need to be informed by journalists who are as free as possible from any involvement in partisan politics. I don’t think this is a pity — on the contrary, I believe this is progress’. (’La Suisse et ses journaux’ in La Vie Protestante, 19th Jan. 1968).
" It was the same year in which he dedicated his collected works to Harvard University-a little known fact and in the accompanying letter he called the United States" a marvellous country which attracts the attention of the world through its solemnly lawful state that promotes a growth which knows no limits.
" 17 Such trends, such criticisms, should not merely be taken as ironical tidbits but should be studied along with their re flection in Nazi statistics.
Since the Germans hate moPt in themselves, as a collective unit, cultural diversity and intel- lectual virtuosity (qualities which they simultaneously admire), it is scarcely surprising to discover that they have turned upon the Jew as the most typical exponent of their own limitations.
Yet as we observe the improve- ment in the economic status of the Jew in this country we must come to the con- clusion that finances in Jewish education are lacking not because the Jews have not the money, but rather because the Jews have not the interest in maintain- ing or developing Jewish life and its spiritual values.
This argument is supported by data from around 2,600 researchers, gathered through closed and open questions.
Patterns of attacks against scholars in Germany: controversial topics as contexts and accelerators of science hostility · 2026 · DOI
Most-cited papers in European history and politics
- The Separation and Reunification of Germany: Rethinking a Natural Experiment Interpretation of the Enduring Effects of Communism · The Journal of Economic Perspectives · 2020 · 116 citations
- The Nazi Concept of 'Volksdeutsche' and the Exacerbation of Anti-Semitism in Eastern Europe, 1939-45 · Journal of Contemporary History · 1994 · 45 citations
- Rethinking German Colonialism in a Global Age · The Journal of Imperial & Commonwealth History · 2013 · 43 citations
- Consumption, Social Capital, and the “Industrious Revolution” in Early Modern Germany · The Journal of Economic History · 2010 · 38 citations
- Weber Revisited: The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Nationalism · The Journal of Economic History · 2020 · 34 citations
- #regrettingmotherhood in Germany: Feminism, Motherhood, and Culture · Signs · 2020 · 30 citations
- "Coming to Terms with the Past": Illusions of Remembering, Ways of Forgetting Nazism in West Germany · The Journal of Modern History · 1993 · 26 citations
- Gender and family rhetoric on the German far right · Patterns of Prejudice · 2021 · 26 citations
- Trans Liminality and the Nazi State · Past & Present · 2022 · 25 citations
- Mobilizing the Western tradition for present politics: Carl Schmitt’s polemical uses of Roman law, 1923–1945 · History of European Ideas · 2020 · 23 citations
Most recent work
- Fabricating the ‘dual system’. Conservative resistance against progressive TVET reforms in West Germany 1969–1982 · Journal of Vocational Education and Training · 2026
- Solutions and Solidarity in the Advice Centres of the Democratic Women’s League of Germany, 1971–1990 · German History · 2026
- Disseminating Ideology in the SS: The Nazi SS-Junkerschulen · Open MIND · 2026
- ‘Humanity is Austria Writ Large’: Erwin Hanslik’s Concept of East Central Europe’s Reconstruction · The International History Review · 2026
- German immigrants in Edinburgh and Leith, 1862–1914 · Immigrants & Minorities · 2026
- Review of “The Kibbutz Movement, A History. Volume 1: Origins and Growth, 1909-1939.” · Communal Societies · 2026
- Beyond Berlin Heights: The Free Lovers in History and Memory · Communal Societies · 2026
- Communes in the Twentieth Century · Communal Societies · 2026
- Relocation of the German Bruderhof to England, South America, and North America · Communal Societies · 2026
- Review of Jewish Agricultural Colonies in New Jersey, 1882-1920 · Communal Societies · 2026
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