History as a Means of Propaganda: British and German Historiography of the First World War
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15407/uhj2019.04.135Keywords:
World War I, Great Britain, Germany, historiography, propaganda, image of an enemy.Abstract
The purpose of the research is to compare the historiography of Great Britain and Germany during the period of the World War I in creating the image of an enemy to identify common features and characteristics in various social contexts. The research methodology is based on the means of historical comparativism (comparison by analogy and comparison by contrast), using the tools of contextual methodology and the concept of "Narrative Templates" by J.Wertsch. The scientific novelty consists in a comparative study of the role of the historical sciences of Great Britain and Germany in propaganda campaigns to form an image of an enemy in the societies of the warring countries based on historiographical sources and published documents. Conclusions. German historians have experienced a sense of superiority and uncriticality to their own interpretations and conclusions due to the transformation of Germany into a center of historical science and the adoption by other countries of the German canons of professionalization and institutionalization. British historians were weakly involved in propaganda actions at the first stage of the Great War owing to the incompleteness of the processes of institutionalization of historical science in Great Britain, the powerful influence of German canons of science and professionalization, and strong cooperation with German colleagues. At the beginning of the war professional historiography in Germany turned into a «Historia Militants», as German historians held almost the same idea on one of the most important methodological principles of "objectivity" or "impartiality" should give way to national-patriotic self-expression. This problem was not so acute for British historians, because the incomplete processes of professionalization were practically related to historical research with literary creation. At the initial stage of the war, British historians organized propaganda activities. They published numerous popular scientific pamphlets on German history, the history of Austria-Hungary, and the history of the Slavic peoples of the Balkan Peninsula. German historians waged an aggressive war on the «historical front» with the support of a strong institutional base, corporate scientific societies using numerous professional periodicals (e.g., «Historische Zeitschrift»).
References
"Badsey, S. (2015). Propaganda: Media and War Politics. International Encyclopedia of the Wirst World War.
Barvinska, P.I. (2012). Mizh naukoiu i politykoiu. Interpretatsii Skhidnoi Yevropy v akademichnomu seredovyshchi nimetskomovnoho prostoru u kintsi XIX – pochatku XXI st. Odesa. [in Ukrainian].
Bentley, M. (2011). Shape and Pattern in British Historical Writing, 1815–1945. Macintyre S., Maiguashca J. and Pók A. (Ed.). The Oxford History of Historical Writing: 1800–1945, 4. Oxford. doi: https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:osobl/9780199533091.003.0011
Berger, S. (2011). The Invention on European National Traditions in European Romanticism. Macintyre S., Maiguaschca J. (Ed.). The Oxford History of Historical Writing. 1800–1945. Oxford. P.19–40. doi: https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:osobl/9780199533091.003.0002
Bivir, M. (2010). Rol kontekstov v ponimanii i obyasnenii. Istoriya ponyatij, istoriya diskursa, istoriya metafor. Moskva. 112–152. [in Russian].
Bruch, R. vom. (2006). Gelehrtenpolitik, Sozialwissenschaften und akademische Diskurse in Deutschland im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert. Stuttgart. [in Germany].
Cornelißen, Ch. (2000). Das Studium der Geschichtswissenschaften. Geschichtswissenschaften. Eine Einführung. Frankfurt/Main. [in Germany].
Dann, O. (2003). Natsii i natsionalizm v Germanii. 1770–1990. Per. s nem. Moskva [in Russian].
Dementev, I.P. (Ed.). (1990). Istoriografiya istorii novogo vremeni stran Evropy i Ameriki. Moskva. [in Russian].
Erklärung gegen die Oxforder Hochschulen, (2014). Böhme K. (Hrsg). Aufrufe und Reden deutscher Professoren im Ersten Weltkrieg. 2. Auflage. Stuttgart. [in Germany].
Goldstein, D.S. (1983). The Professionalization of History in Britain in the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries. Storia della storiografia, 3, 3–27.
"Guide to the Bernadotte E. Schmitt Papers 1913–1961.
Harrison, R., Jones, A. and Lambert, P. (2004). The institutionalisation and organisation of history. Lambert P. and Schofield Ph. (Ed.) Making History. An introduction to the history and practices of discipline. London and New York.
Hartwig, W. (1990). Geschichtskultur und Wissenschaft. München. [in Germany].
Iggers, G.G. (1997). Deutsche Geschichtswissenschaft: eine Kritik der traditionellen Geschichtsausfassung von Herder bis zur Gegenwart. Wien; Köln; Weimar. [in Germany]. doi: https://doi.org/10.7767/boehlau.9783205124214
Iggers, G.G. (1998). Reflections on Writing a Historiography Today. Blanke, H.W. u.a. (Hrsg). Dimensionen der Historik: Geschichtstheorie, Wissenschaftsgeschichte und Geschichtskultur heute. Köln; Weimar u.a. doi: https://doi.org/10.7788/9783412309572-017
Kenyon, J. (1993). The History Man. The Historical Profession in England since the Renaissance. London.
Khejstings, M. (2014). Pervaya mirovaya vojna: Katastrofa 1914 goda. Per. s angl. Moskva. [in Russian].
"Kracht, K.G. (2004). Kriegsschuldfrage und zeithistorische Forschung in Deutschland. Historiographische Nachwirkungen des Ersten Weltkriegs. Zeitgeschichte-online. Thema: Fronterlebnis und Nachkriegsordnung. Wirkung und Wahrnehmung des Ersten Weltkriegs. Mai 2004. [in Germany].
Kruse, W. von (2018). Kriegsideologie und moderne Massenkultur. Dossier: Der Erste Weltkrieg. [in Germany].
Kornelissen, Kh. (2004). Natsionalno-konservatyvna istoriohrafiia v Nimechchyni z 1870 roku. Istoriia ta istoriohrafiia v Yevropi, 3, 2004. [in Ukrainian].
Kotova, S. (2019). Formuvannia «obrazu voroha» v roky Pershoi svitovoi viiny (1914–1918) v suchasnii zarubizhnii istoriohrafii. Istoriia ta istoriohrafiia v Yevropi. 2019, 6: Ideolohii ta praktyky natsionalizmu ta ksenofobii u Skhidnii Yevropi. [in Ukrainian].
Lehnert, E. (2014). Die «Ideen von 1914». Sezession. 58. Februar. [in Germany].
Leonhard, J. (2000). Construction and Perception of National Images: Germany and Britain, 1870–1914. The Linacre Journal, 67.
Leonkhard, J. (2015). Yashchik Pandory XX veka: Pervaya mirovaya vojna. Idei i idealy, 3(25). [in Russian].
Middell, M. (1996). Die ersten Historikertage in Deutschland. Diesener G. und Middell M. (Hrsg). Historikertage im Vergleich (Comparativ, Jg.6, H.5–6). [in Germany].
Mommsen, W.J. (1996). Einleitung: Die deutschen kulturellen Eliten im Ersten Weltkrieg. Mommsen W.J. (Hrsg). Kultur und Krieg: Die Rolle der Intellektuellen, Künstler und Schriftsteller im Ersten Weltkrieg. München. [in Germany]. doi: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110446531
Müller, S. (2017). Kultur in Deutschland. Vom Kaiserreich bis zur Wiedervereinigung. Stuttgart. [in Germany].
Ringer, F. (2008). Zakat nemeckikh mandarinov: Akademicheskoe soobshchestvo v Germanii, 1890–1933. Per. s angl. Moskva. [in Russian].
Stachtey, B. (1999). Literature, liberty and life of the nation: British historiography from Macauley to Trevelyan. Berger S., Donovan M. and Passmore K. (Ed.). Writing National Histories. Western Europa since 1800. New York.
Stelmakh, S.P. (1998). Mizhnarodni zviazky istorykiv Ukrainy u druhii polovyni XIX st. Visnyk Kyivskoho natsionalnoho universytetu imeni Tarasa Shevchenka. Istoriia, 38. [in Ukrainian].
Stelmach, S. (2003). «Von der Isolation zur Integration». Deutsche Universitäten und die Universitätsgemeinschaft in Berichten von Gelehrten der Kiever Universität in der zweiten Hälfte des 19. bis Beginn des 20. Jahrhunderts. Peter H.R., Tikhonov N. (Hrsg) Universitäten als Brücken in Europa. Frankfurt/M.; Berlin; Bern u.a. [in Germany].
Stelmakh, S.P. (2005). Integratsiini protsesy v yevropeiskii istorychnii nautsi naprykintsi XIX – na pochatku XX st. Ukrainskyi istorychnyi zhurnal, 5. [in Ukrainian].
Stelmakh, S.P. (2005). Istorychna nauka, zahalni tendentsii i osnovni etapy yii rozvytku v Yevropi ta Pivnichnii Amerytsi. Entsyklopediia istorii Ukrainy. T.3: E–J. [in Ukrainian].
Stibbe, M. (2003). German Historians’ Views of England during the First World War. Berger S., Lambert P., Schumann P. (Hg). Historikerdialoge. Geschichte, Mythos und Gedächtnis im deutsch-britischen kulturellen Austausch. 1750–2000. Göttingen.
Stuchtey, B. (2002). British historiography from Macaulay to Trevelyan. Berger S., Donovan M. and Passmore K. (Ed.). Writing National Histories. Western Europa since 1800. New York.
Tupolev, B.M. (2008). Kurt Ritcel o «Sredinnoj Evrope» v nachale Pervoj mirovoj vojny. Slavyanovedenie, 1. [in Russian].
Ungern-Sternberg J., Ungern-Sternberg W. (Hrsg). (1996) Der Aufruf ,An die Kulturwelt!’. Das Manifest der 93 und die Anfänge der Kriegspropaganda im Ersten Weltkrieg. Mit einer Dokumentation. Stuttgart. [in Germany].
"Verch, Dzh. (2018). Narrativnye instrumenty, istina i bystroe myshlenie v natsionalnoj pamyati: mnemonicheskoe protivostoyanie mezhdu Rossiej i Zapadom po povodu Ukrainy. Gefter. Elektronnyj zhurnal. [in Russian].
Verhey, J. (2004). The Spirit of 1914. Militarism, Myth, and Mobilization in Germany. Cambridge.
Wallace, S. (1988). War and the Image of Germany: British academics, 1914–1918. Edinburg.
Zabelina, G.Yu. (2011). Pervaya mirovaya vojna: nemtsy glazami britantsev. Novaya i novejshaya istoriya, 1. [in Russian].
