Eigentijdse historici in debat
Till van Rahden
| Activiteit van externe partij |
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|---|---|
| Datum: | dinsdag 4 maart 2008 |
| Locatie: | Bungehuis, zaal 004 |
| Informatie: | Toegang gratis |
| Toegang: | Toegang gratis |
Till van Rahden
Fatherhood, Democracy, and Re-Christianization in 1950s and early 1960s in West Germany
What was the nexus between the re-Christianization and the search for democracy of post-fascist West Germany? The context for this analysis is the unlikely renaissance of democracy in post-war (West) Germany after National Socialism and genocide. In light of Germany’s “Shattered Past” it is astonishing that within barely two decades West Germans not only accepted democracy as a formal system of governance, but embraced democracy as a way of life.
Conceptions of fatherhood occupy a key site within a history of how a democratic polity came about in a German society whose citizens were emerging from a murderous past and were trying to navigate the tensions between democracy and authority in order to construct a better polity.
A decade before 1968, men and women rejected authoritarian fatherhood and began to cherish what contemporaries labelled “democratic fatherhood,” a more emotional form of masculinity that would provide the basis for a democratic society. In contrast to the church hierarchy, many of lay Catholic and Protestant family experts were remarkable for the way in which they reconciled their religious identities with critiques of a patriarchal gender regime.
Bio:
Till van Rahden holds the Canada Research Chair in German and European Studies at the Centre canadien d'études allemandes et européennes at the Université de Montréal. For his book “Juden und andere Breslauer” he received in 1999 the “Fraenkel Prize in Contemporary History”.
His current research projects investigate the cultural history of the political in post-war West Germany. He co-edited the book “Demokratie im Schatten der Gewalt. Geschichte des Privaten im deutschen Nachkrieg“, which is forthcoming in June 2008, and he is now working on a monograph with the tentative title “Bringing Democracy to Daddy. Changing Conceptions of Paternal Authority in West Germany, 1945-1970”.
Conceptions of fatherhood occupy a key site within a history of how a democratic polity came about in a German society whose citizens were emerging from a murderous past and were trying to navigate the tensions between democracy and authority in order to construct a better polity.
A decade before 1968, men and women rejected authoritarian fatherhood and began to cherish what contemporaries labelled “democratic fatherhood,” a more emotional form of masculinity that would provide the basis for a democratic society. In contrast to the church hierarchy, many of lay Catholic and Protestant family experts were remarkable for the way in which they reconciled their religious identities with critiques of a patriarchal gender regime.
Bio:
Till van Rahden holds the Canada Research Chair in German and European Studies at the Centre canadien d'études allemandes et européennes at the Université de Montréal. For his book “Juden und andere Breslauer” he received in 1999 the “Fraenkel Prize in Contemporary History”.
His current research projects investigate the cultural history of the political in post-war West Germany. He co-edited the book “Demokratie im Schatten der Gewalt. Geschichte des Privaten im deutschen Nachkrieg“, which is forthcoming in June 2008, and he is now working on a monograph with the tentative title “Bringing Democracy to Daddy. Changing Conceptions of Paternal Authority in West Germany, 1945-1970”.
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