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Papers by Thomas Schad

The Past is now -- Politics of Denial and Dealing with the Past in the Western Balkans. Perspectives Southeastern Europe No. 10, May 2023. Belgrade/Sarajevo: Heinrich Böll Stiftung., 2023

Populism and historical revisionism were among the driving forces behind the wars of the 1990s in... more Populism and historical revisionism were among the driving forces behind the wars of the 1990s in former Yugoslavia. This context has been meticulously studied by scholars from different disciplines and countries. Nebojša Popov’s edition The Road to War in Serbia: Trauma and Catharsis (1996) is one of the most important collections on the topic. Yet, the insinuated catharsis remains the key challenge: given today’s rampant revival of revisionist populism worldwide, it is fair to ask which lessons can be drawn from the (post-)Yugoslav experience. For this purpose, a collective of post-Yugoslav and EU-historians came together in the public history project Histoire pour la liberté. Throughout 2021, this EU-funded project enabled a series of lectures and public debates in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, and Germany. In the following, I will lay out some of the most central questions discussed during the program in order to finally readdress the question of how and why we should learn from the 1990s.

Südosteuropa Mitteilungen 5-6, 2022

This contribution explores parallels in the development of autocratic rule in Russia and Turkey. ... more This contribution explores parallels in the development of autocratic rule in Russia and Turkey. Given both regimes' activities in the Western Balkans, some of the main challenges for liberal democracy are demonstrated by pursuing three main theses: First, revisionist, neo-populist regimes are incompatible with the genuine interests of liberal democracy, posing a challenge to the demand for a value-oriented foreign policy, as advocated for instance by Germany. Second, there is a tipping point in the autocratic progress of populist regimes that can be missed-rendering functional partnerships between the two regimes impossible, and a return to the path of democracy unlikely. Third, the revisionist sense of mission by neo-populist actors in both Russia and Turkey serve a rule-securing function, by manipulating public consent both at home and abroad. Finally, the paper concludes with a plea to take revisionist neo-populism for serious, advocating for a strategic rethinking of foreign policy towards neo-populist regimes.

Südosteuropa-Mitteilungen, 2020

This essay on the art genre Sevdah and its song form Sevdalinka, common across former Yugoslavia ... more This essay on the art genre Sevdah and its song form Sevdalinka, common across former Yugoslavia and centered in Bosnia and Herzegovina, evolved as a response to this year's German Record Critics' Award (Preis der deutschen Schallplatten kritik) to the Sarajevan artist Damir Imamović. Inspired by Imamović's 2013 lecture "On the ten most widespread delusions on Sevdah", the author aims to situate the genre Sevdah amongst other musical forms from former Yugoslavia.

Südosteuropa Mitteilungen 5, 2021

(Article language German, English Abstract) Facticity, Identity, and Emotionality: Cultural Strat... more (Article language German, English Abstract)
Facticity, Identity, and Emotionality: Cultural Strategies addressing Genocide Denial in the Case of Srebrenica.
Twenty-six years after the Srebrenica genocide, the topic remains a discursive minefield. On the one hand, there are the facts and a self-confident commemorative culture of the genocidal events of July 1995. On the other hand, revisionism, negation and counter-memorialization. This essay is grounded in three sources: first, the findings of the "Srebrenica Genocide Denial Report 2021" by the Memorial Center Srebrenica; secondly, the proposals for breaking the narrative of genocide denial by Jasmila Žbanić, director of the film "Quo Vadis, Aida?"; and finally, the results of the anti-revisionist, cross-national projects "Ko/Tko je prvi počeo?" (Who started first?) and "Histoire pour la liberté" (History for freedom) complete this contribution. The aim of the essay is not merely to identify reasons, backgrounds, and interests in the revisionist discourse. Rather, it suggests possible solutions to this polarized situation which could be relevant beyond the regional framework.

Interview on forced Muslim migrations from former Yugoslavia to Turkey.

This Working Paper delienates the construction of diasporic spaces by Bosniak communities residin... more This Working Paper delienates the construction of diasporic spaces by Bosniak communities residing in İstanbul and İzmir. Based on an ongoing multilocal anthropological field research conducted by Thomas Schad, a PhD Candidate in Berlin Graduate School Muslim Cultures and Societies, Free University Berlin, this research extensivey discusses the rediscovery of the Balkans by the contemporary Turkish State and the AKP Rule. Deriving from the findings acquired in ethnographic field studies in three Bosniak neighborhoods and hometown associations in İstanbul and İzmir, this research explores the emerging "third space" between Turkey and Bosnia. It investigates the role of late and post-Ottoman Muslim migration (Muhacirlik) in Turkish cultural diplomats' rediscovery of the lost Ottoman lands, and how contemporary neo-Ottomanism, conversely, is perceived by Bosniaks in Turkey and beyond. On behalf of the European Institute, I would like to thank Thomas Schad for his invaluable contribution to the Institute.

This article focuses on the Yugoslav–Turkish agreement on the resettlement of Muslims from the Se... more This article focuses on the Yugoslav–Turkish agreement on the resettlement of Muslims from the Serb-dominated lands of southern Yugoslavia to Turkey from 1938. The agreement was part of a broader series of state-directed population resettlement projects in the interwar period that had the demographic homogenization of nation-states in Southeastern Europe and Turkey as their ultimate goal. This study examines the close cooperation of Yugoslav and Turkish state authorities, and depicts commonalities of both states’ agents on the way to their bilateral agreement. The two-sidedness of this study will show the complexity of the applied homogenizing programme, consisting in equal measure of policies of exclusion and resettlement, and inclusive and assimilative nationalizing practices. Demographic engineering will be used as a conceptual framework for grasping both sides of the nationalizing projects. Besides resettlement, other methods of demographic engineering will also be taken into consideration by examining two key documents from each country that paved the way to the bilateral convention on the resettlement of Muslims from Southern Serbia to Turkey in 1938. The results of this juxtaposition will show how securitization was intermingled with concepts of national selfhood and otherness by classifying the population into agents and enemies of the state. The inclusion of ethnic criteria in this classification has had important implications down to the present day. Through its overarching regional lens, this study seeks to contribute to a growing number of studies on (forced) migration from Yugoslavia to Turkey by avoiding the shortcomings of a unilateral approach.

Conference Presentations by Thomas Schad

Als Teilnehmer des Workshops “Discursive inclusion and exclusion of Muslims in the Balkans”, den ... more Als Teilnehmer des Workshops “Discursive inclusion and exclusion of Muslims in the Balkans”, den die Südslawistik der Humboldt-Universität Berlin zusammen mit ihren Partneruniversitäten aus Sarajevo, Belgrad, Podgorica u.a. vom 9.-11.7.2018 in Podgorica (Montenegro) organisiert hat, habe ich am zweiten Tag des Workshops eine Exkursion in die nahegelegene Küstenstadt Ulqin/Ulcinj unternommen. In Ulqin/Ulcinj haben wir mit Vertretern der lokalen Verwaltung, der Islamischen Gemeinschaft, des Mediensektors und von Nichtregierungsorganisationen gesprochen; wir haben uns außerdem in den montenegrinischen Medien umgesehen und eigene Beobachtungen bei unseren Spaziergängen durch die Stadt gemacht. Da ich mich in meiner Dissertation mit Kulturdiplomatie zwischen Bosnien und der Türkei beschäftige, habe ich für diesen Beitrag besonders darauf geachtet, wie die türkische Kulturpolitik im Stadtbild Ulqins/Ulcinjs und in der weiteren Öffentlichkeit repräsentiert ist. Der Beitrag gewährt gleichzeitig einen Einblick in meine noch nicht ganz abgeschlossene Dissertation zum Zusammenhang (muslimischer) Flucht vom Balkan und bosniakisch-türkischer Kulturdiplomatie.

Drafts by Thomas Schad

[Working paper] Wer in (Unter-)Franken etwas über das Landjudentum erfahren will, wird schnell in... more [Working paper] Wer in (Unter-)Franken etwas über das Landjudentum erfahren will, wird schnell in der Fachliteratur und auch vor Ort fündig. Dies ist auch kein Wunder, denn Franken blickt auf eine lange jüdische Geschichte zurück. Bis zum Holocaust stellte das Landjudentum Frankens, zusammen mit einigen anderen Gegenden Süddeutschlands, außerdem eine beachtliche Ausnahme dar: während das Judentum auf dem Gebiet des heutigen Deutschlands aus historischen und rechtlichen (sprich: diskriminatorischen) Gründen hauptsächlich auf die Städte konzentriert war, waren in Franken neben Städten (besonders Fürth) auch sehr viele Dörfer jüdisch geprägt. Mit dem Aufkommen der antifranzösischen (anti-napoleonischen) Strömungen, der Judenemanzipation und dem sich Herausbilden des deutschen Nationalismus zeichnete sich ab der ersten Hälfte des 19. Jahrhunderts allmählich das dunkelste Kapitel für das fränkische Landjudentum ab, das es -- wie hier am Beispiel des Dorfes Kleinsteinach -- nach 1942 nicht mehr geben würde. Link: https://thomasschad.wordpress.com/2020/09/23/francorum-der-judische-friedhof-kleinsteinach-der-begriff-der-aufarbeitung-von-geschichte-und-die-verdienste-der-cordula-kappner/

I have written a mixed essay/policy paper on the intriguing question if coalitions of municipal l... more I have written a mixed essay/policy paper on the intriguing question if coalitions of municipal leaders can change the political landscape in Europe, Turkey and globally. I would like to publish a revised, extended version of it in a journal or another format (e.g. blog) with wider outreach, thus I'd be grateful for any kind of feedback, advice, ideas, critique, contact. Please feel free to utter your thoughts, preferably via messenger or E-Mail (Thomas.schad@fu-berlin.de). Thank you in advance!

Books by Thomas Schad

The European Experience: A Multi-Perspective History of Modern Europe. Cambridge, UK: Open Book Publishers, 2023

In the twentieth century, the role of religion and religious institutions in Europe was far from ... more In the twentieth century, the role of religion and religious institutions in Europe was far from uniform across the continent’s diverse landscape of religions and confessions. From Portugal in the southwest to Russia in the northeast, these range between traditional forms of religion like Catholicism, Protestantism (Lutheranism, Anglicism, Calvinism, etc.), Judaism, (Greek, Serbian, Romanian, Bulgarian, Russian, etc.) Orthodoxy, Islam, and even Buddhism (in Russia’s Kalmykia). On the other hand, the increasing number and impact of atheism, agnosticism, anti-religious regimes, alternative spiritual movements, civil religions, and immigrated religions also played a significant role. As this chapter will show, religion remained a highly relevant category in Europe: whether on the side of the powerful (as in Spain), as an important differentiator of national identity (as in Northern Ireland), or as a target for oppression (as in the case of the Holocaust or in the Balkan Wars). This chapter chooses to follow a chronological order, and focuses on a series of key moments illustrating the transformations of religions in Europe: laïcité and the separation of church and state in France; the Russian Revolution as the starting point of state-led, socialist secularisation; the interwar period and Second World War and the project of eradicating religious ‘minorities’; postwar economic growth and the challenge posed by increasing individualisation; Vatican II and the major aggiornamento by the Catholic Church, and so on.

The European Experience: A Multi-Perspective History of Modern Europe, 2023

The French Revolution and its exportation had a profound effect on the religious history of Europ... more The French Revolution and its exportation had a profound effect on the religious history of Europe in the nineteenth century. From the emancipation of the Jews and Protestants to the attempt to create a civic religion, or from the abolition of Catholicism as a state religion to the schism between the constitutional clergy and the refractory (non-swearing) clergy, this revolutionary episode encapsulates the upheavals in European religious practice throughout the nineteenth century. But this century was first and foremost the century of industrialisation and the affirmation of science. The affirmation of a rationalist stance on these developments was thus decisive in the evolution of religious thought and practice. On the one hand, the progress of science favoured a scientistic reading of the world, one of the major points of which was the theory of evolution, which denied divine creationism. However, the expansion of knowledge was only one of the factors in the decline of religious practice. The progress of industrialisation, increasing urbanisation, and the widening gap between the working classes and the churches are certainly more decisive factors. In return, the fragmentation of religious practice gave birth to new religious movements and favoured the rise of new forms of piety. Thus, the nineteenth century was marked by an intense philosophical, artistic, and scientific effervescence alongside debates on dogmas and religious institutions. The affirmation of modernity and the aspiration to freedom born of the French Revolution forced governments and religious authorities to redefine their respective positions within a changing society and to compete for control over education, thus laying the foundations of contemporary Europe. Analysing religions in Europe in the nineteenth century therefore raises two series of questions. First, from an institutional point of view, how did churches adapt to modern states and how did they maintain religious control over secularised populations? The second question is situated at a more personal level: what did it mean to be religious in modern times? How are faiths challenged and reconfigured by modernity, in its scientific, industrial, political, and social forms?

Jan Hansen, Jochen Hung, Jaroslav Ira, Judit Klement, Sylvain Lesage, Juan Luis Simal and Andrew Tompkins (Eds)(2023), The European Experience: A Multi-Perspective History of Modern Europe. Cambridge, UK: Open Book Publishers, 2023

The demographic development of Europe in the twentieth century can be grasped by two indicators: ... more The demographic development of Europe in the twentieth century can be grasped by two indicators: firstly, the rate of natural demographic increase and decrease (birth and death rates), which was also shaped by external factors such as wars, plagues, and forced migrations; secondly, in order to explain the more intrinsic dynamics of demographic change in Europe, all the other factors of the changing Human Development Index (HDI) must be taken into account—such as health, knowledge, education, and economic wealth. The demographic history of Europe in the twentieth century can be broken down into four periods, according to three historical breaks. The first phase (pre-1914) was characterised by a gradual decline in birth rates that had started to rise, in the vast majority of European countries, during the last three decades of the nineteenth century. In less industrialised countries, natality had recently peaked during the 1880s and 1890s (Serbia, Romania), or at the beginning of the twentieth century (Bulgaria). The decline in the birth rate then culminated during the First World War. The interwar period induced the second phase: after a short wave of postwar compensatory births (births postponed due to war), the decades of the 1920s and especially the 1930s were considered by many contemporaries to be an age of population depression. The third phase began with the post-1945 baby boom, which was particularly pronounced in most Western European countries (although delayed in West Germany), while behind the emerging ‘Iron Curtain’, it was more moderate. The considerably long period of economic growth after the Second World War and the benefits of the post-war welfare state provided better living conditions for families with children. This also meant that people married earlier.The fourth period, the so-called ‘second demographic transition’, started in the mid-1960s in the West. Individualist attitudes, career demands, and changes in social attitudes (including the relaxation of traditional gender roles), combined with the availability of effective contraceptives, led to very low fertility. The lands behind the ‘Iron Curtain’ were affected by this process later, but the transformation of the 1990s had significant impacts on Central and Eastern European societies in terms of fertility, and this process continues to be very dynamic.

Teaching Documents by Thomas Schad

The European Experience: A Multi-Perspective History of Modern Europe. Cambridge, UK: Open Book Publishers, 2023

Interethnic relations and the complex relationships among states, nations, and minority populatio... more Interethnic relations and the complex relationships among states, nations, and minority populations underwent several changes in twentieth-century Europe. The First World War brought about the dissolution of empires on the continent, the rearrangement of European borders and the emergence of entirely new states, especially in the continent’s eastern half. These geopolitical changes often thoroughly redefined the populations of European states as well as the possibilities for minorities within them. Dictatorships and authoritarian regimes in the interwar period fostered racialised thinking and the persecution of ethnic and other minorities, culminating in genocide and ethnic cleansing during and after the Second World War on a scale that would have been unimaginable a century earlier. Even in the second half of the twentieth century, discriminatory practices towards minorities continued and nationalist or separatist movements re-emerged, leading to periodic outbursts of violent interethnic conflicts. The remainder of this chapter will examine the ambiguity of the term ‘ethnicity’ and the changing relationships between majority and minority populations in Europe, with a particular focus on the more complex situation in multi-ethnic regions of Central, Eastern, and south-eastern Europe.

The Past is now -- Politics of Denial and Dealing with the Past in the Western Balkans. Perspectives Southeastern Europe No. 10, May 2023. Belgrade/Sarajevo: Heinrich Böll Stiftung., 2023

Südosteuropa Mitteilungen 5-6, 2022

Südosteuropa-Mitteilungen, 2020

Südosteuropa Mitteilungen 5, 2021

Interview on forced Muslim migrations from former Yugoslavia to Turkey.

The European Experience: A Multi-Perspective History of Modern Europe. Cambridge, UK: Open Book Publishers, 2023

The European Experience: A Multi-Perspective History of Modern Europe, 2023

The European Experience: A Multi-Perspective History of Modern Europe. Cambridge, UK: Open Book Publishers, 2023