Prof Dr Christina von Hodenberg
Christina von Hodenberg took over as Director of the GHIL on 1 September 2018. Professor von Hodenberg specialises in the social and cultural history of 19th- and 20th-century Germany, Britain, and the United States. From 2006 to 2018, she taught European History at Queen Mary University of London.
Her first two monographs explored 19th-century Prussian history, specifically the role of Prussian judges during the revolution of 1848–1849 and Germany’s most famous working-class protest, the 1844 revolt of Silesian weavers. She then moved to the contemporary history of media and political protest. Her survey of post-1945 political journalism in West Germany asked how authoritarian traditions of political culture were overcome. A comparative study on the impact of German, British and American television on the 1960s cultural revolution followed. Most recently, her account of late 1960s protest in West Germany (‘Das andere Achtundsechzig’) has generated much discussion in academia and beyond.
She supervises postgraduate research students and postdoctoral scholars at both QMUL and the German Historical Institute. Enquiries by prospective applicants are welcome.
Research Project
Ageing and ‘Doing Gender‘ in the Era of Value Change
Scholars tend to write the cultural history of post-war Germany and Britain from the perspective of youth, tracing epochal shifts to the protests and subcultures of the younger generation. For the 1960s and 1970s, a period of affluence and value transformation, alleged conflicts between male educated youth and their authoritarian fathers often serve to explain political change. This project shifts the focus onto the complex roles of middle-aged and elderly people, and particularly onto ageing women. It explores the 1960s generation gap in new ways by focusing on how older people related to changing mores, the gendered subtext of contemporary clashes, the agency of women, and the intermediary position of the middle generation.
Research Project
Writing Contemporary History with Social Data: Plans for a Digital Infrastructure
Social data – the sources generated through state-sponsored data collection or social science research from the 1940s onwards – are a new challenge for contemporary historians. While they allow unique insights into the social history and experience of ordinary citizens, they come with strings attached. Social data often lack adequate documentation of the context within which they were collected. Their re-use may be restricted by data protection laws and ethical issues. They may never have been systematically archived or may come in formats that require additional skills and methodical ingenuity to access (such as old statistical software or video cassettes). Christina von Hodenberg has trialled the re-use of social data in her work on the ‘Bonn Longitudinal Study of Ageing’, a large-scale gerontological project conducted at the University of Bonn from 1964 to 1984. She co-leads the ‘Arbeitskreis Sozialdaten und Zeitgeschichte’, which tackles the challenges tied to the re-use of social data by historians.
Further projects
Christina von Hodenberg is also involved in the International Standing Working Group ‘Medialization and Empowerment’, the BOLSA (Bonn Longitudinal Study of Ageing) social data archive, and is a member of the media history module of the ICAS Meriankolleg ‘Metamorphoses of the Political’.
Research Interests
- Ageing and the elderly in Germany and Britain after 1945
- Political culture in 19th- and 20th-century Germany and Britain
- Popular protest and revolutions
- Generations in contemporary history
- Research-generated social science data as historical sources
- Digital humanities methods for historians
- The history of journalism, mass media, television
- Value change, sexuality, kinship, and gender since 1960
- Comparisons and transnational links between Germany, the UK, and the US
- Legal history and the role of lawyers
- The history of concepts (Begriffsgeschichte)
- Coming to terms with the Nazi past
Education and Academic Background
| 2018– | Director of the GHIL |
| 2012–2018 | Professor of European History, Queen Mary University of London |
| 2007–2012 | Reader in European History, Queen Mary University of London |
| 2006–2007 | Senior Lecturer in European History, Queen Mary University of London |
| 2004 | Habilitation for Modern and Contemporary History, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg |
| 2002–2005 | DAAD Visiting Assistant / Associate Professor of History, University of California at Berkeley |
| 2000–2001 | John F. Kennedy Memorial Fellow, Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, Harvard University |
| 1995–2002 | Assistant Professor of History, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg |
| 1992–1995 | Ph.D. in Modern History, Universität Bielefeld |
| 1987–1991 | MA in Modern History, Eastern European History and German Literature, Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn and Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München |
Fellowships, Grants, and Scholarships
2017–2019 | Principal Investigator for two EU Marie Curie-Fellowships; Co-PI for DFG grant on ‘Social Data and Contemporary History’ |
2016–2019 | Volkswagen Stiftung grant for Digitization of Bonner Längsschnittstudie des Alterns, with Historisches Datenzentrum Sachsen-Anhalt, Martin Luther Universität Halle-Wittenberg https://www.geschichte.uni-halle.de/struktur/hist-data/ |
2014–2015 | Visiting Professor at Martin Luther Universität Halle-Wittenberg |
2009 | Leibniz Summer Fellowship, Zentrum für Zeitgeschichtliche Forschung Potsdam |
2000-2001 | John F. Kennedy Memorial Fellow, Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, Harvard University |
May 1998 | DAAD Visiting Professorship, The Canadian Centre for German and European Studies, Université de Montréal |
Honours and Distinctions
| 2014 | Humboldt Research Award |
| 2009 | First prize, ‘Das Historische Buch’ (H-Soz-u-Kult) for the book ‘Konsens und Krise’, in the media history category |
| 1996 | Dissertation prize, Westfälisch-Lippische Universitätsgesellschaft, for ‘Die Partei der Unparteiischen’ |
Memberships and Affiliations
- Editorial Board (Schriftleitung), Journal of Modern European History
- Editorial Board, German History
- Chair of Advisory Council, Zentrum für Zeitgeschichtliche Forschung Potsdam
- Advisory Council, Institute for Historical Research, London (2010–2014)
- Board member, German History Society (2006–2011; 2018–)
- Co-convener, Modern German History Seminar, Institute for Historical Research, London (2006–2015)
- Board member, Leo Baeck Institute
- Fellow of the Royal Historical Society
- Member of Verband Deutscher Historiker und Historikerinnen
Publications
Monographs and Edited Volumes
Das andere Achtundsechzig: Gesellschaftsgeschichte einer Revolte (Munich, 2018) [Read more]
Television's Moment: Sitcom Audiences and the Sixties Cultural Revolution (New York, 2015) [Read more]
Konsens und Krise: Eine Geschichte der westdeutschen Medienöffentlichkeit, 1945 bis 1973 (Göttingen, 2006) [Read more]
with Detlef Siegfried(eds.), Wo ’1968’ liegt: Reform und Revolte in der Geschichte der Bundesrepublik (Göttingen, 2006) [Read more]
Aufstand der Weber: Die Revolte von 1844 und ihr Aufstieg zum Mythos (Bonn, 1997) [Read more]
Die Partei der Unparteiischen: Der Liberalismus der preußischen Richterschaft, 1815–1848/49, Kritische Studien zur Geschichtswissenschaft 113 (Göttingen, 1996) [Read more]
Articles and Chapters
Selected
‘Disciplining girls in German families: Gendered childhood experiences of violent and authoritarian parenting in Germany from the 1890s to the 1940s’, in: Mary E. John, Elisabeth Schömbucher-Kusterer (Hgg.), Querying Childhood, [ICAS:MP series], (London/New Delhi, submitted, forthcoming 2022)
with Pascal Siegers, ‘Alte Frauen in der Bundesrepublik am Beispiel der BOLSA-Sozialdaten: Eine Korrespondenzanalyse nach Bourdieu’, Geschichte und Gesellschaft, 48/1 (2022), 59–88 [Read here]
with Kerstin Brückweh, Pascal Siegers, Lutz Raphael, Sabine Reh, Clemens Villinger, Kathrin Zöller, ‘Sozialdaten als Quellen der Zeitgeschichte. Zur Einführung’, Geschichte und Gesellschaft, 48/1 (2022), 5–27 [Read here]
‘Television Viewers and Feminism in 1970s North America: How All in the Family Drove Value Change’, in Ravi Vasudevan (ed.), Media and the Constitution of the Political. South Asia and Beyond (New Delhi, 2022), 195-217
‘Sozialwissenschaftliche Forschungsdaten als historische Quellen: Welche Infrastrukturbedarfe hat die zeitgeschichtliche Forschung?’, together with Kathrin Zöller, Clemens Villinger, Pascal Siegers, Sabine Reh, Lutz Raphael and Kerstin Brückweh, German Data Forum (RatSWD), RatSWD Working Papers 277 (2022) [Read here]
‘Die Stimmen der Alten. Die BOLSA-Forschungsdaten als Quellen der deutschen Zeitgeschichte’, Zeithistorische Forschungen/Studies in Contemporary History, 17 (2020), 403-421 [Read here]
‘Zur Generation der 45er: Stärken und Schwächen eines Deutungsmusters’, Aus Politik und Zeitgeschichte, 4–5 (2020) [Read here]
‘Carolina Rahm und das deutsche Jahrhundert der Extreme’, in Jörg Später and Thomas Zimmer (eds.), Lebensläufe im 20. Jahrhundert (Göttingen, 2019), 167-185
‘Writing Women's Agency into the History of the Federal Republic: “1968,” Historians, and Gender’, Central European History, 52/1 (2019), 87–106 [Read here]
‘Gesellschaftsgeschichtliche Perspektiven auf das westdeutsche “Achtundsechzig”’, Aus Politik und Zeitgeschichte, 38/39 (2018), 31–36 [Read here]
‘Square-Eyed Farmers and Gloomy Ethnographers: The Advent of Television in the West German Village’, Journal of Contemporary History, 51 (2016), 839–65 [Read here]
‘Expeditionen in den Methodendschungel: Herausforderungen der Zeitgeschichtsforschung im Fernsehzeitalter’, Journal of Modern European History, 10 (2012), 24–48 [Read here]
‘Ekel Alfred und die Kulturrevolution: Unterhaltungsfernsehen als Sprachrohr der 68er-Bewegung?’, Geschichte in Wissenschaft und Unterricht, 62 (2011), 557–72
‘Mass Media and the Generation of Conflict: West Germany’s Long Sixties and the Formation of a Critical Public Sphere’, Contemporary European History, 15/3 (2006), 367–95 [Read here]
‘Of German Fräuleins, Nazi Werewolves, and Iraqi Insurgents: The American Fascination with Hitler’s Last Foray’, Central European History, 41/1 (2008), 71–92 [Read here]
with Philipp Gassert, ‘Media: Government versus Market’, in Kiran Klaus Patel and Christof Mauch (eds.), The United States and Germany during the Twentieth Century: Competition and Convergence (Cambridge, 2010), 227–44 [Read here]
‘The Protest of Silesian Weavers in 1844: Household Strategies and Moral Concepts’, in Jan Kok (ed.), Rebellious Families: Household Strategies and Collective Action in the 19th and 20th Centuries, International Studies in Social History, vol. 3 (Oxford/Providence, 2002), 39–56
‘Politische Generationen und massenmediale Öffentlichkeit: Das Beispiel der Fünfundvierziger in der Bundesrepublik’, in Ulrike Jureit and Michael Wildt (eds.), Generationen: Zur Relevanz eines sozialwissenschaftlichen Grundbegriffs (Hamburg, 2005), 266–94
‘Der Fluch des Geldsacks: Der Aufstieg des Industriellen als Herausforderung bürgerlicher Werte’, in Manfred Hettling and Stefan-Ludwig Hoffmann (eds.), Der bürgerliche Wertehimmel: Innenansichten des 19. Jahrhunderts (Göttingen, 2000), 79–104
‘Mit dem Rotstift gegen die soziale Frage: Die preußische Pressezensur und der schlesische Weberaufstand 1844’, Forschungen zur Brandenburgischen und Preußischen Geschichte, NF 9 (1999), 91–122
Reviews and Miscellaneous Publications
Electronic publications
with Kathrin Zöller, Clemens Villinger, Pascal Siegers, Sabine Reh, Lutz Raphael, Kerstin Brückweh: Sozialwissenschaftliche Forschungsdaten als historische Quellen: Welche Infrastrukturbedarfe hat die zeitgeschichtliche Forschung?, RatSWD Working Paper 277/2022. Berlin: Rat für Sozial- und Wirtschaftsdaten (RatSWD) [Read here]
Radio
Wissenschaftliche Beraterin und Befragte für die vierteilige Hörspielserie ‘Alle Menschen müssen sterben, vielleicht auch ich’, Deutschlandfunk Kultur, 30 August – 10 September 2022 [Listen here]