Tuesday, October 2, 2018 4PM

Bunche 6275

European Colloquium Speaker Series

Martina Kessel, “Performing Germanness: Laughter and Violence in Nazi Germany”

Martina Kessel looks at the meaning and role of humor as an identity practice in Germany during the time of Nation- al Socialism in Germany. One theory that she will explore in her lecture is that non-Jewish Germans disguised vio- lence as ‘art’ to justify their failure to comply with interna- tional or humanitarian beliefs.

Martina Kessel is a Historian of Modern Germany at Biele- feld University, Germany, with particular interest in inclu- sion and exclusion, the history of violence, international relations, gender and cultural history. She has written on British and French policy towards Germany after 1945;

a History of Boredom in the 19th century, and on ques- tions of theory and historiography. Her forthcoming book is titled Gewalt und Gelächter. ‚Deutschsein‘ 1914-1945  (Laughter and Violence. ‘Being German’ 1914 – 1945).

This lecture is part of the Gerda Henkel Lecture Series, organized by GHI West, the Pacific Regional Office of the Germany Historical Institute, Washington DC, in coopera- tion with the Gerda Henkel Foundation and the UCLA Department of History.