The Historical Webber

Switching topics

I met with my Dissertation adviser last week, and we decided that the topic I had picked really had nothing to do with my dissertation. I don’t know why, but I had always been afraid to just bite off a chunk of the dissertation and give that a go. But after talking with Prof. Deshmukh, it should be quite doable.

Albert Speer at Nuremburg Trials. Image from Wikimedia Commons.

So the dissertation is the Nazi tunnels, and this paper will be an important part of that. One of the two organizations that looked into, and actually built some of the planned tunnels was the Reichsministerium für Rüstung und Kreigsproduktion (RMfRuK, Reich Ministry for Armaments and War Production). This group was headed by Albert Speer, who incidentally was a very interesting man. Anyhow, my paper will now look at the Reich Ministry for Armaments and War Production. It will kind of be an historical overview of the organization and several key players in the building of the tunnels.

As we were discussing each others papers in class last night, the question kept coming around to what is the so what question, or why is this important for us to know. I went last, so we were all ready to just get out of class, and we didn’t really get to that part of mine. Which I’m kind of glad for, since I don’t really have one. Why is this important for us to know? Because it helps us understand the tunnel? Does that work?

At any rate, such is my new topic, it applies directly to my dissertation, and will be part of a chapter that discusses the organizations involved in building the tunnels.

US National Archives at College Park. Image from Wikimedia Commons

This, of course, means that all of my sources and bibliography need to be redone. I was a bit worried about sources, which is probably why I didn’t want to do the topic. Well, it turns out that Prof. Deshmukh has copies of the indexes to the Guides to German Records Microfilmed at Alexandria, VA, which are the captures Nazi documents housed at the U.S. National Archives. It just so happens that there are over 1000 rolls of microfilm that reference the RMfRuk (with over 190 being the records of this organization directly)! What a find. Now my extra hours will be spent going over the hundreds of pages of the indexes looking for references to Speer, Himmler, Kammler and tunnels. And then it’s off to the National Archives in College Park, Maryland to look at the actual documents. I have a lot to do before the April 12 deadline of the first draft (which should be as complete as possible).

So, if you didn’t get it yet, here are the steps to doing such a research paper:

1. Find an interesting topic. It has to hold your attention, or you will be miserable.
2. Talk to your Professors. They’ll point you on the right track for all kinds of things (sources, topic focus, secondary literature, encouragement, etc).
3. Find the sources. Best is to find an index or something that describes the sources. For my example, before I even go to the National Archives, I will have a list of specific rolls of microfilm I need, with particular documents I want to look at on the films. Hopefully my bank account can sustain the copies needed, or better yet, I’ll be able to make digital copies.
4. Find secondary literature about any aspect of your topic. In my case I need books and articles about Albert Speer, the RMfRuk, Nazi organizations, industrial and economic studies of Nazi Germany, etc.
5. Look the the secondary material for insights, information, and most importantly, more sources. I’m now see how important footnotes are, and can see what resources are most often used, what works are most often cited, and who makes what arguments. Harvesting the footnotes for sources is integral in historical research.
6. Gather information from primary and secondary sources and make an outline of the argument.
7. Write, write, write, and then do some more writing.

So, I am back to step 3, finding the sources. I’m going to the Archives on Friday. Wish me luck!

Tags: archival research, Dissertation, german history, historical research, Methodology, nazis, RMfRuK, speer

Archival Research

Library of Congress - John Adams Building

So I finally went to the Library of Congress for actual archival research. They have about ten years worth of the ‘Kosmos’ magazine from 1919-1927 that I will look at for my paper. It was really fun. The whole family went down. Jess and I both got new LoC cards, then they went to a museum and I went to read old books.

Up until this point my big worry had been in finding some primary documents. Now that I have them, I don’t know what to do with them. I proposed this dilemma to the class last night and they had some great ideas on how to use the source. I also have a great article to use as a template, in that the historian, Nick Hopwood, looks at the ‘Urania’ magazine used by the socialists in Weimar Germany. (Nick Hopwood, “Producing a Socialist Popular Science in the Weimar Republic,” History Workshop Journal, no. 41 (Spring 1996): 117-153.)

Reading this article is my goal for tonight’s short two hour study session. I’m planning on going back to the LoC on Thursday to get some more data. But here are the ideas my classmates had:

• look at a particular author that continually prints
• look at one science/tech, follow how Nazi magazines and others treat the topic
• look at old and new to see if they deal with a subject
• what happened to the authors of the socialist papers
• study what kind of articles are being printed, what topics come up continually
• what happened to the authors/editors of the socialist papers, did they go to Dachau, were the scientists who published put to work in their fields?
• narrow down the so what question. What question are you trying to answer, that will help you know what to look for in the sources.

Library of Congress - John Adams Building - 5th floor

What the issue really boils down to is that I need to narrow my topic. I can’t have my topic be ‘science and technology in Weimar Germany’. That’s way too broad. Too broad for a dissertation, even. I like the idea of focusing on one particular science or technology, and see how it is portrayed throughout the Weimar Republic, and even into post-Weimar Germany. Ideally, it aligns with my dissertation topic of Nazi tunnels.

Tags: archival research, Dissertation, german history, historical research, Methodology, nazis

Nazis in the news

Nazi history is always a good way to sell news, and get people to read.

A few Nazi related items came up in the news lately.

Never before seen photo of Hitler

From the Telegraph.co.uk we have some never before seen photographs of Hitler. From the article:

“The colour pictures come from the collection of Hugo Jaeger, Hitler’s personal photographer, who captured him on camera him from 1936 to the final days of his rule in 1945.

They include a glimpse inside Berghof, his mountaintop estate in Bavaria, and his private apartments in Berlin.”

This will shed some more light on Hitler and life of top Nazis. It goes well with a find from a fellow PhD student at GMU who found similar photos at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum (http://www.ushmm.org/museum/exhibit/online/ssalbum/). The photos are of Hitler’s apartment at Berghof, Hitler mingling with the people and at parades, and other rooms and belongings of Hitler’s.

WWII German E-boat

Also in the news is a recently uncovered German E-Boat, the S130, which interrupted an allied D-Day training and killed over 700 American servicemen. It is being reconstructed and will be used as a memorial of those who fought in World War II. From the article:

“As owner the world’s largest privately held collection of military vehicles, Wheatcroft said he envisions the restored vessel as being a “living memorial to all sailors who died during World War Two.”

“It’s the only example of its type left in the world,” he said. “I want it to become like something brought back from the past.”"

And, finally, another World War II vessel making the news is the Horten 2-29. This was a stealth jet developed by a couple of brothers. It has the uncanny resemblance to our B-2 stealth bomber. Here is a site with a number of cool pictures. National Geographic has a cool documentary about a team of engineers at Northrop Grumman who reconstructed the airplane to test it’s stealth abilities. Most amazing of all, I think, is that the plane was made from wood! That and several layers of paint, aparently, are what make it nearly invisible to radar. I’ll have to do some research into this machine and write up a history of it.

Reconstructed Horton 2-29

Tags: airplanes, boats, hitler, nazis