Maiken Umbach | University of Nottingham (original) (raw)
National Socialism and photography by Maiken Umbach
Holocaust Studies, 2022
This article explores the legibility of photos taken by Jewish victims of Nazi persecution. Many ... more This article explores the legibility of photos taken by Jewish victims of Nazi persecution. Many museums have collected private photos from survivors, and use them to illustrate Holocaust testimony. But photos and testimonies are not always neatly aligned; private photos can also confound audience expectations. We focus on four case studies, comprising photos taken in Poland, Germany, and the UK, and interviewed survivors about their significance. Testimonies and personal photos, we conclude, reveal different but complementary aspects of Jewish experiences during the Holocaust, and, if read together, can enrich the way in which modern audiences engage with this difficult history.
Photography, Migration and Identity: A German-Jewish-American Story, 2019
Between the 1933 Nazi seizure of power and their 1941 prohibition on all Jewish emigration, aroun... more Between the 1933 Nazi seizure of power and their 1941 prohibition on all Jewish emigration, around 90,000 German Jews moved to the United States. Using the texts and images from a personal archive, this Palgrave Pivot explores how these refugees made sense of that experience. For many German Jews, theirs was not just a story of flight and exile; it was also one chapter in a longer history of global movement, experienced less as an estrangement from Germanness, than a reiteration of the mobility central to it. Private photography allowed these families to position themselves in a context of fluctuating notions of Germaness, and resist the prescribed disentanglement of their Jewish and German identities. In opening a unique window onto refugees’ own sense of self as they moved across different geographical, political, and national environments, this book will appeal to readers interested in Jewish life and migration, visual culture, and the histories of National Socialism and the Holocaust.
Private Life and Privacy in Nazi Germany, 2019
Central European History, 2015
This is the introduction of a special issue I edited with my colleague Liz Harvey. We explore how... more This is the introduction of a special issue I edited with my colleague Liz Harvey. We explore how we can use photography to make sense of German history, from the Weimar period to the GDR, with several pieces looking specifically at the Third Reich (Uli Prehn on photography at the workplace, Andrea Loew on clandestine Jewish ghetto photography, and my own article on how photography shaped the way ordinary Germans related to Nazi ideology). For the full issue, please explore Volume 48 / Special Issue 03 / September 2015 of Central European History, which you can find on the CUP website.
European Review of History: Revue europeenne d'histoire, 2008
Fin de siecle and the built environment by Maiken Umbach
Grenzüberschreitungen in der Architektur um 1900. Das Bauernhaus und seine Aneignung, 2010
German Cities and Bourgeois Modernism, 1890-1924, 2009
German Cities and Bourgeois Modernism, 1890-1924, 2009
German Cities and Bourgeois Modernism, 1890-1924, 2009
German Cities and Bourgeois Modernism, 1890-1924, 2009
German Cities and Bourgeois Modernism, 1890-1924, 2009
German Cities and Bourgeois Modernism, 1890-1924, 2009
1 Great Clarendon Street, Oxford ox2 6dp Oxford University Press is a department of the Universit... more 1 Great Clarendon Street, Oxford ox2 6dp Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University's objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide in Oxford New York Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong ...
American Historical Review, 110/3, 2005
This article proposes a reconceptualisation of regionalism, nationalism and globalisation as sim... more This article proposes a reconceptualisation of regionalism, nationalism and globalisation as simultaneous and causally connected phenomena, which rst peaked in the early decades of the twentieth century. Focusing on gures such as Hermann Muthesius, Fritz Schumacher and others active in the Deutscher Werkbund, it examines how competition in the global market inspired a search for modern yet uniquely national forms that derived their ‘authenticity’ from vernacular culture. Yet paradoxically, the visual vocabulary of Heimat was frequently inspired by English and American models. This article interprets the aesthetic and political translations which the peripatetics of localism entailed, and shows how consumer goods ‘Made in Germany’ came to be invested with a sense of cultural mission.
Cultures of Power in Europe during the Long Eighteenth Century, 2007
Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, 2006
Holocaust Studies, 2022
This article explores the legibility of photos taken by Jewish victims of Nazi persecution. Many ... more This article explores the legibility of photos taken by Jewish victims of Nazi persecution. Many museums have collected private photos from survivors, and use them to illustrate Holocaust testimony. But photos and testimonies are not always neatly aligned; private photos can also confound audience expectations. We focus on four case studies, comprising photos taken in Poland, Germany, and the UK, and interviewed survivors about their significance. Testimonies and personal photos, we conclude, reveal different but complementary aspects of Jewish experiences during the Holocaust, and, if read together, can enrich the way in which modern audiences engage with this difficult history.
Photography, Migration and Identity: A German-Jewish-American Story, 2019
Between the 1933 Nazi seizure of power and their 1941 prohibition on all Jewish emigration, aroun... more Between the 1933 Nazi seizure of power and their 1941 prohibition on all Jewish emigration, around 90,000 German Jews moved to the United States. Using the texts and images from a personal archive, this Palgrave Pivot explores how these refugees made sense of that experience. For many German Jews, theirs was not just a story of flight and exile; it was also one chapter in a longer history of global movement, experienced less as an estrangement from Germanness, than a reiteration of the mobility central to it. Private photography allowed these families to position themselves in a context of fluctuating notions of Germaness, and resist the prescribed disentanglement of their Jewish and German identities. In opening a unique window onto refugees’ own sense of self as they moved across different geographical, political, and national environments, this book will appeal to readers interested in Jewish life and migration, visual culture, and the histories of National Socialism and the Holocaust.
Private Life and Privacy in Nazi Germany, 2019
Central European History, 2015
This is the introduction of a special issue I edited with my colleague Liz Harvey. We explore how... more This is the introduction of a special issue I edited with my colleague Liz Harvey. We explore how we can use photography to make sense of German history, from the Weimar period to the GDR, with several pieces looking specifically at the Third Reich (Uli Prehn on photography at the workplace, Andrea Loew on clandestine Jewish ghetto photography, and my own article on how photography shaped the way ordinary Germans related to Nazi ideology). For the full issue, please explore Volume 48 / Special Issue 03 / September 2015 of Central European History, which you can find on the CUP website.
European Review of History: Revue europeenne d'histoire, 2008
Grenzüberschreitungen in der Architektur um 1900. Das Bauernhaus und seine Aneignung, 2010
German Cities and Bourgeois Modernism, 1890-1924, 2009
German Cities and Bourgeois Modernism, 1890-1924, 2009
German Cities and Bourgeois Modernism, 1890-1924, 2009
German Cities and Bourgeois Modernism, 1890-1924, 2009
German Cities and Bourgeois Modernism, 1890-1924, 2009
German Cities and Bourgeois Modernism, 1890-1924, 2009
1 Great Clarendon Street, Oxford ox2 6dp Oxford University Press is a department of the Universit... more 1 Great Clarendon Street, Oxford ox2 6dp Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University's objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide in Oxford New York Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong ...
American Historical Review, 110/3, 2005
This article proposes a reconceptualisation of regionalism, nationalism and globalisation as sim... more This article proposes a reconceptualisation of regionalism, nationalism and globalisation as simultaneous and causally connected phenomena, which rst peaked in the early decades of the twentieth century. Focusing on gures such as Hermann Muthesius, Fritz Schumacher and others active in the Deutscher Werkbund, it examines how competition in the global market inspired a search for modern yet uniquely national forms that derived their ‘authenticity’ from vernacular culture. Yet paradoxically, the visual vocabulary of Heimat was frequently inspired by English and American models. This article interprets the aesthetic and political translations which the peripatetics of localism entailed, and shows how consumer goods ‘Made in Germany’ came to be invested with a sense of cultural mission.
Cultures of Power in Europe during the Long Eighteenth Century, 2007
Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, 2006
Representations, 2004
T denote different modes of appro-priating the past. Today, memory (th... more T denote different modes of appro-priating the past. Today, memory (that is, subjective recollection of the past), and its concomitant, commemoration (namely collective reenactment or representation of the past) have sidelined the influence ...
Secular Magic in a Rational Age, 2009
English Historical Review, 2004
... Liberalism in Germany. Autores: Maiken Umbach; Localización: English historical review, ISSN ... more ... Liberalism in Germany. Autores: Maiken Umbach; Localización: English historical review, ISSN 0013-8266, Vol. 119, Nº 484, 2004 , págs. 1358-1359. Fundación Dialnet. Acceso de usuarios registrados. Acceso de usuarios registrados Usuario. Contraseña. Entrar. Mi Dialnet. ...
The Historical Journal, 1998
. This article examines the history of the German Fu$ rstenbund prior to the Prussian tak... more . This article examines the history of the German Fu$ rstenbund prior to the Prussian take-over of the scheme in . In charting the union's initial conception as a small-state alliance designed to resist both Prussian and Austrian expansionism, the article reveals the cultural dimension of imperial diplomacy. Exclusive concentration on the straightforward diplomatic sources produced by Prussian-style bureaucracies has led historians to underrate the contribution of smaller German principalities, which typically employed more indirect, metaphorical means of political communication. A prominent example of such ' cultural politics ' is the process by which Prince Franz of Anhalt-Dessau drew on English precedents in shaping the Fu$ rstenbund. Its participants were to be united not just by formal agreements, but by a shared spirit. Under the leadership of a ' Patriot king ', they were to act as champions of ancient regional liberties, thus resembling the English aristocrats of the anti-Walpole opposition whom Franz admired. At the same time, an English-inspired rhetoric of sentimentalism was employed to suggest that this political union would function in analogy with sentimental friendships, creating a firmer bond whilst preserving that small-state ' individualism ' which was the source of so many reform initiatives in the late eighteenth-century German Empire.
This article uses the landscape gardens at Woerlitz, Germany, to explore the 18th-century use of ... more This article uses the landscape gardens at Woerlitz, Germany, to explore the 18th-century use of geological imagery and the scientific debates around volcanism as vehicles for mapping a cultural and political vision of Enlightenment politics.
Deutschlandkonzepte von der Reformation bis zum Ersten Weltkrieg, 2000
Invoking authenticity is a ubiquitous practice, but one that we feel is poorly understood. In thi... more Invoking authenticity is a ubiquitous practice, but one that we feel is poorly understood. In this article we seek to change the parameters in which the idea of authenticity is debated. This file is a short summary of a longer academic article currently under review with the "American Historical Review".
Journal of Political Ideologies, 2019
The analysis of ideology at the vernacular level requires access to peer-to-peer political discus... more The analysis of ideology at the vernacular level requires access to peer-to-peer political discussions amongst non-specialists. It is in these discursive exchanges that political views are articulated, refined, and revised. Such exchanges are, however, difficult for the researcher to capture. Here we take c.25,000 learner comments (along with several hundred image uploads) from a Massive Open Online Course, run in conjunction between the University of Nottingham and the British Library, as a source of such peer-to-peer political discussions. Learners discussed five topics, of which we have selected 'Freedom', 'Justice', and 'Community' for close analysis. We find that the idea of 'freedom' generated by far the most learner discourse, and in both the comments and image uploads this concept was both positively appraised and highly personalised. 'Justice' was generally seen as something to be delivered by political institutions, although accounts of injustice were frequently appraised through either personal experience or the experiences of others. Accounts of 'community' often focused on the trappings of nationhood, but some comments, and many images in particular, highlighted moments of ephemeral and more personal, self-chosen communities such as music concerts or hobbyist conventions. Overall, both comments and images show that, in their interpretation of the conceptual vocabulary of politics, people frequently frame their understanding through personal experience in a very direct manner. It is not only true that the 'personal is political', but also, for many, that the 'political is personal'.
Central European History, 2008
German Studies Review, 2004
Editorial matter, selection and Chapters 1 and 3 © Maiken Umbach 2002 Foreword, Chapters 2 and 4-... more Editorial matter, selection and Chapters 1 and 3 © Maiken Umbach 2002 Foreword, Chapters 2 and 4-10 © Palgrave 2002 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication ...