Entstehung und Entwicklung transnationaler Kommunikationsräume in Europa zu Kriegszeiten, 1914-1945

Das Themenheft ist dem Einfluss von Kriegen auf die Entwicklung transnationaler Erfahrungs- und Kommunikationsräume während der ersten Hälfte des 20. Jahrhunderts in Europa gewidmet. Während die europäischen Kriege und Bürgerkriege in diesem Zeitraum prinzipiell für den Rückzug auf nationale bzw. nationalistische Positionen standen, ergab sich aus der zunehmenden Verdichtung europäischer Erfahrungs- und Kommunikationsräume in Zeiten existentieller Unsicherheit und Bedrohung auch die Stärkung transnationaler Bezüge und Netzwerke.

Die in diesem Themenheft präsentierten mikrohistorischen Fallstudien zeigen die Bedeutung der Peripherie, von Lagern, von Widerstand und Exil, von gemeinsamer Teilhabe an kultureller Produktion sowie von Infrastrukturen für die Untersuchung derartiger Bezüge und Netzwerke. Sie belegen exemplarisch die Entstehung und Entwicklung europäischer Strukturen, Konvergenzen und Öffentlichkeiten während der ersten Hälfte des 20. Jahrhunderts, die für die weitere europäische Entwicklung nicht folgenlos geblieben sind. Das Themenheft bietet damit Ansätze für ein gebrochenes Europäisierungsnarrativ, in dem Divergenz als konstitutives und nicht als lediglich retardierendes Element verstanden wird, und plädiert für eine stärkere Berücksichtigung von transnationalen Einflussfaktoren in der Historiographie zu den europäischen Kriegen im 20. Jahrhundert.

The thematic issue is devoted to the influence of war on the emergence of new transnational communication spheres and experiences during the first half of the 20th century in Europe. While the interstate and civil wars during this period stand generally for a withdrawal to national or nationalistic positions, we can simultaneously observe increasing intertwining and convergence of European experiences that strengthened transnational references and networks during times of existential insecurity and threat.
The case studies presented here reveal the importance, for the study of such references and networks, of peripheral regions, detention camps, resistance and exile, the participation in collective cultural production and the construction of common infrastructure. In an exemplary manner, they o er evidence for the emergence of trans-European structures, convergences and public spheres during the rst half of the 20th century that remained not without conse- quences for later developments. Thus, the thematic issue’s intention is to propose approaches for a broken Europeanisation narrative, in which divergence appears as constitutive – and not only restraining – element. In this way, it calls for a stronger consideration of transnational influences in the historiography of European wars during the 20th century.

German Detention camps throughout the First World War were places where prisoners of the Allied powers met and got closer together, including soldiers from Europe and outside Europe. The camps were characterized by tensions between the different groups (national, European, colonial, indigene-colonial), living under repressive conditions, though at the same time protected by the Hague Convention. The analysis of the newspapers edited by French war prisoners shows different intercultural initiatives and representations of international relationships that were bound to the experience of the camp and (forced) labor. Furthermore, they show how the newspapers became a medium favoring a certain opening to mutual appreciation. The ideas of fraternity or civilization, based on the antagonism between Europe and America, gave way to the sentiment of community in captivity. However, persisting national-discursive traditions and the high esteem of the own culture did not necessarily promote the idea of a cultural equality.

Hundreds of women from all over the world supported the Spanish Republic in the Spanish Civil War. For decades their commitment had been almost forgotten, they were not more than a passing reference in the abundant literature about the Spanish Civil War – referred to as humanitarian helpers who came to Spain following their husbands. This contribution discusses the targets and experiences of these foreign female volunteers in a war in an alien country and analyses their role in the development of transnational relations – refuting the traditional gender role model. It will be illustrated how women – in the medical service, at the militias, in logistics and administration, as translators and reporters – fought for their political convictions risking health and life. Many of the networks formed in Spain survived the following years and due to them some Spanienkämpferinnen could be saved from death in the extermination camps of the national socialists.

The Börgermoorlied, Moorsoldatenlied or Lied der Moorsoldaten, better known in English as The Peat Bog Soldiers or The Soldiers of the Moor, was born under the Third Reich in the camp of Börgermoor during the summer of 1933. Created by communist inmates in one of the first Nazi camps, this song represents a unique example of a European and even international musical circulation before, during, and after the Second World War. From the first Nazi camps in Germany to the death camps of Auschwitz-Birkenau, London, the International Brigades during the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939), and French internment camps, this Song of deportation spread throughout Europe. This article traces the history and evolution of the song from its origin to nowadays. It also shows how this song was used by many artists, from the early camps to the exile, to help to build a “space of communication” and spiritual resistance against totalitarianism.

The Second World War stopped most of the activities of the international infrastructure organisations like the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) or the Universal Postal Union (UPU), which had managed the transnational flows of communication since the mid-19th century. Nevertheless, this did not stop international postal and telecommunication cooperation completely. In 1942 the German PTT administration convened a European postal and telecommunication congress in Vienna that pursued the work done by the ITU and UPU. They founded a ‘European Postal and Telecommunication Union’ (EPTU) in accordance with the ITU and UPU conventions. This article argues that the EPTU was an important step toward the Europeanization of intra-European connections. Within EPTU ideas as well as norms, values and practices of postal and telecommunication governance in view of uniting Europe continued (nearly unbroken) from the interwar to the post Second World War era.

In spite of a severe domestic conflict on the country’s entry in World War One, the small kingdom of Greece declared its political neutrality. Keeping this political status – at least officially – until summer 1917, when it entered the war on the side of the Allies, this status of political neutrality however, not only permitted the establishment of international services in Athens, but also served as an alternative battlefield of political control and influence within the Greek public sphere and in public discourse. Thus this article claims that Greece provided a sufficient basis for the development of a transnational zone of communication and European encounter of all belligerent countries, manifested also visually within the urban space, in times of heavy military and political conflict.