The Experience of War in a Border Region: Belgium, Luxemburg, the Netherlands and Germany 1914-1945

The Experience of War in a Border Region: Belgium, Luxemburg, the Netherlands and Germany 1914-1945

Organizer
Department of Economic and Social History, RWTH Aachen University, PD Dr. Christoph Rass; Gesellschaft für Interdisziplinäre Praxis e.V., Frank Möller; Konejung Stiftung: Kultur, Achim Konejung; NS-Dokumentationszentrum der Stadt Köln, Dr. Karola Fings
Venue
RWTH Aachen Super C, Raum 229
Location
Aachen
Country
Germany
From - Until
12.03.2009 - 13.03.2009
Deadline
10.03.2009
By
Christoph Rass

How did war impact on Western European borderlands? What was the regional experience? What were the cultural, economic and social consequences, and how did they reach into the subsequent period of
peace and/or future wars? How did war shape landscapes and local communities? How does local and national memory reflect the regional experience and how do Western European border regions deal with
their peculiar heritage?

Such questions will be discussed at the converence "The Experience of War in a Border Region: Belgium, Luxemburg, the Netherlands and Germany 1914-1945" at the RWTH Aachen University on March 12
and 13, 2009 by an international group of historians.

The aim is to initiate exchange and debate on how war was waged, perceived, experienced and overcome in the region where Luxemburg, Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany touch during, and since, the Age of Total War 1914 to 1945.

As seats for external participants are limited, interested parties are asked to informally register before march 10th 2009 at tagung@wiso.rwth-aachen.de or 0241 80 96194.

Programm

12/03/09

09:00
Welcome address by Paul Thomes (Department of Economic and Social History)
09:30
Opening remarks: The experience of war in a border region (Christoph Rass)

Session 1 - The First World War and the interwar years (chair Christoph Rass)
10:00
"A special drama was presented to us." The civil Experience of War in
the German-Belgian border region at the beginning of the First World War (Bernhard Liemann)
11:00
In the Shadow of Total War: Border defence concepts in the
military debate of the interwar period in Belgium (Daniel Marc Segesser)

12:00
Lunch Break

Session 2 - The Second World War and its (regional) battlefields (chair Jost Dülffer)
13:00
The experience of war and occupation in Maastricht and Liége (Paul Bonzwaer)
14:00
Running Fights at the Western Front: Evacuation, Fortfication, and Partisan Warfare September 1944 - März 1945 (Armin Nolzen)
15:00
Akkers van Margraten (Fields of Margraten) – Netherlands (Frans Roebroeks, Albert Elings)
16:00
Rest in Peace - German war cemeteries in the Hürtgenforest (Jens Lohmeier)

13/03/09

Session 3 - War and memory post 1945 (chair Karola Fings)
09:00
National community, border region and transnational mobility in family
recollections of Second World War (Renée Wagener)
10:00
War-Related Tourism in Germany and its Western Neighbours. Comparative Studies in Locations, Concepts, Visitors and Chances (Florian Wöltering)
11:00
Dealing with contested legacies – border fortifications of the Second World War as subjects of a transnational art-educational project (Christiane Keim)

12:00
Lunch break

Conclusions and Perspectives (chair Frank Möller)
13:00
War and occupation as a subject for border studies (Ad Knotter)
14:00
Concluding remarks and discussion (Frank Möller / Achim Konejung)

15:00 End of workshop

Contact (announcement)

Christoph Rass

LuF Wirtschafts- und Sozialgeschichte,
RWTH Aachen
Templergraben 83
52062 Aachen

0241 80 96658
0241 80 92330

christoph.rass@wiso.rwth-aachen.de

http://www.wiso.rwth-aachen.de
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