Department of History
Subject: The "Apolitical" German and the Question of German Statehood, 1830-1919
Supervisor: Prof. Ofer Ashkenazi
Abstract: My dissertation examines the stereotypical characterisation of the Germans as "apolitical" – that is, uniquely suited to access spiritual spheres that were above space and time and worldly controversy. I examine how this conception of Germanness, itself inevitably political, conceived of the political; what traits it attributed to the Germans; and how it corresponded to different ideologies. I specifically focus on its correspondence to the question of German statehood and self-determination throughout a period of political uncertainty and instability (1830-1919), both before and after the foundation of a German nation state in 1871.
Bio: I completed my BA in classical piano performance at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance, and my MA in European Studies at the Hebrew University. My MA thesis examined conceptions of a European identity in the context of a postwar German "identity crisis," tracing their later resonance in the context of an EU legitimacy crisis in the 1990s and onwards. My PhD focuses on different manifestations of the 19th century ethnic stereotype of the German people as "apolitical" and how they corresponded to different approaches to the question of German statehood, both before and after unification in 1871.
Scholion 2021/22
President Scholarship 2020/21