Marc T. Voss - Regimes of Twentieth-Century Germany: From Historical Consciousness to Political Action

Regimes of Twentieth-Century Germany

From Historical Consciousness to Political Action

Marc T. Voss

Chapman University, USA

REGIMES OF TWENTIETH-CENTURY GERMANY: FROM HISTORICAL CONSCIOUSNESS TO POLITICAL ACTION
Copyright Marc T. Voss, 2016

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First published 2016 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN

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Hardback ISBN: 9781137598035
E-PUB ISBN: 9781137598042
E-PDF ISBN: 9781137598042
DOI: 10.1057/ 9781137598042

Distribution in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS.

A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress

A catalogue record for the book is available from the British Library

Typeset by MPS Limited, Chennai, India.

(All figures drawn by M. Voss. With the exception of the parenthetical sources listed below, all other data is derived from the August 2013 study by M. Voss).

(All Tables compiled by M. Voss)

I wish to take this opportunity to thank those individuals whose input and support have made the task of completing this project less overwhelming. I would like to begin by expressing my gratitude to Professor Dietmar von Reeken for his constructive commentary, responsiveness, and encouragement. I could not have asked for a more supportive and enthusiastic advisor despite his many other commitments. A special thank you is also owed to Professor Malte Thieen for his support, valuable input, and review of my work. Both of my advisors have been instrumental in guiding me through the research process.

I would also like to acknowledge the leadership team of Harris Interactive for supporting the data-gathering through their Online Panel. My sincere thank you goes to Dr Thomas Rodenhausen, Chief Executive Officer, for generously subsidizing the survey. Thanks are also due to the Harris Interactive team members who were involved in survey programming and project management. I could not have hoped for a more engaged and responsive professional project team.

This project is about the overriding thesis that history didactics can and should contribute to preserving freedom and peace by incorporating an action component into historical consciousness research, and by broadening its charter along age-related target groups, interdisciplinary, and international dimensions. This thesis is investigated both on a conceptual and an empirical basis with specific focus on the two dictatorships of 20th-century Germany.

Specifically, this book focuses on three objectives: (1) Furthering the conceptual development of historical consciousness research by incorporating an action component labeled action consciousness; (2) empirically researching knowledge, attitudes, and action consciousness of adults as well as the forms of historical cultural socialization with respect to both the NS and the SED dictatorships; (3) deriving recommendations for the further development of history didactics.

Based on these objectives, the review of research to date in is to review the results of the empirical study involving more than 1,600 respondents from Germany. This review suggests that targeted initiatives are required to strengthen knowledge and action consciousness in regard to dictatorships in general and the two regimes of twentieth-century Germany specifically.

Finally, focuses on discussing recommendations for further developing history didactics along the dimensions of contents, age-related target groups, and internationalization.