Theo Jung

More 1848/9 in Dresden and Jena

December 15, 2023 by Theo Jung

As the 1848 revolutions’ anniversary slowly draws to a close, a few more academic conferences on the topic are planned for 2024. I’m participating in two of them.

In April, I will be speaking in Dresden, at the conference “Das Königreich Sachsen 1848/49 – Dynamiken und Ambivalenzen der Revolution” (April 24-26, 2024), organized by Prof. Dr. Susanne Schötz, Prof. Dr. Andreas Rutz and Werner Rellecke. The preliminary program can be downloaded here. All are welcome and attendance is free.

Then in September, I’m participating in the workshop “Freiheit und Gewalt: Politikkonzeptionen und Aktionsformen demokratischer Bewegungen in Europa in der Revolution von 1848/49” (September 26-28, 2024), organized by the Forschungsstelle für Neuere Regionalgeschichte Thüringens (PD Dr. Marko Kreutzmann), the Chair of Western European History at the Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena (Prof. Dr. Thomas Kroll), and the Gesellschaft zur Erforschung der Demokratie-Geschichte in Weimar (Dr. Christian Faludi).

More information to follow.

Posted in Conference | Tagged 1848, History, Nineteenth Century | Leave a Comment »

Lecture on the Revolutions of 1848/49 as a ‘Democratic Departure’

November 4, 2023 by Theo Jung

Next Tuesday, November 7th, I am invited to the Villa Lessing in Saarbrücken to hold the Kommission für Saarländische Landesgeschichte‘s annual lecture.

In my presentation titled 1848/49 nach 175 Jahren: Kritische Perspektiven auf eine demokratiegeschichtliche Vereinnahmung, I will address the increasingly ubiquitous framing of the revolution as a “democratic departure”, reflecting on its implications and pitfalls.

All are welcome and attendance is free. The lecture will also be broadcast on Youtube and Zoom (more information on access is available here and here).

Edit: the lecture has now been made available on Youtube here.

Posted in Presentation | Tagged 1848, Democracy, History, Nineteenth Century | Leave a Comment »

Article on Antiliberalism in the Boulangist Crisis in France (1885-1889)

October 22, 2023 by Theo Jung

For the Jahrbuch zur Liberalismus-Forschung, I wrote an article on the Boulangist Crisis during the French Third Republic.

Building on the work of Bertrand Joly and others, I use the case to develop a fresh perspective on a particular variety of antiliberalism that became prevalent across Europe during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Framing the political issues of the time against the backdrop of a fundamental opposition between ‘words’ and ‘deeds’, a whole spectrum of political groups began to define their own position in contrast to the image of a ‘politics of mere verbiage’, encompassing a whole range of phenomena, from liberalism and parliamentarism to public discussion and the political press. The Boulangist Crisis, during which a former army general briefly came to political prominence and was generally believed to be preparing a coup against the Third Republic, exemplifies the ways in which contemporaries came to perceive the political issues and conflicts of the time through the lens of the opposition between words and deeds.

The article is available in open access and can be downloaded here.

Posted in Publications | Tagged Antiliberalism, French History, French Third Republic, Georges Boulanger, History, Liberalism, Nineteenth Century, Politics, Words | Leave a Comment »

Book Review of Frank Engehausen’s “Werkstatt der Demokratie”

September 26, 2023 by Theo Jung

For the German historical platform H-Soz-u-Kult, I wrote a book review of “Werkstatt der Demokratie: Die Frankfurter Nationalversammlung 1848/49”. Written by Heidelberg historian Frank Engehausen, the book presents a monograph-length analysis of the first German national parliament. Besides going into the book’s many strengths, I also try to link it to wider tendencies in the historical engagement with the revolutions of 1848/49 as we are ‘celebrating’ their 175-year anniversary.

The review can be found here.

Posted in Publications | Tagged 1848, Book Review, Germany, History, Nineteenth Century, Parliament | Leave a Comment »

Job Opportunity in a Project on 19/20C Diaries

July 8, 2023 by Theo Jung

In October 2023, a new research project titled “Between Voice and Silence: Communicative Norms in Diaries, 1840–1990”, funded by the Leverhulme Trust, will be established as a cooperation between the Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg and the University of Reading.

In this context, we are looking for a Researcher (m-w-d) in part time (80%) for a period of 3 years (EG 13-TVL).

More information on the project can be found here.

The call for applications (in German) can be found here.

Deadline: August 11, 2023.

Posted in Jobs | Tagged Communication, Diaries, History, Job offer, Nineteenth Century, Twentieth Century | Leave a Comment »

Public Panel Discussion on the Legacies of the 1848/49 Revolution

March 28, 2023 by Theo Jung

[Edit 28 June 2023: The MLU’s department of history has published a short blog on the discussion here. The event was recorded and broadcast by MDR Kultur radio. The recording is available in full here.]

In the context of the 175-year anniversary of the revolutions of 1848/49, on June 15, the Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg and the State Centre for Political Education Saxony-Anhalt host a public panel discussion on the current significance of these historical events. How can we engage with the revolutions’ legacies without reducing the complexities and ambivalences of this so called ‘milestone’ of German democratic history to a mere opportunity for self-gratulatory contentedness?

Discussants:

Prof. Dr. Rüdiger Hachtmann, Centre for Contemporary History, Potsdam
Prof. Dr. dr. h.c. Dieter Langewiesche, Eberhard Karls University Tübingen,
Prof. Dr. Hedwig Richter, University of the Bundeswehr, Munich
Prof. Dr. Manfred Hettling, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg
Prof. Dr. Theo Jung, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg

All are welcome.

Date: June 15, 5 to 7 pm

Venue: Franckesche Stiftungen, Franckeplatz 1, Haus 1, Freylinghausen-Saal, 06110 Halle a.d. Saale

Funding: State Centre for Political Education Saxony-Anhalt.

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »

Stiftung Orte der deutschen Demokratiegeschichte

March 17, 2023 by Theo Jung

I received notice that I’ve been appointed to the Advisory Board of the newly established Foundation Sites of German Democratic History (Stiftung Orte der deutschen Demokratiegeschichte).

The Foundation aims to promote consciousness of and public engagement with the eventful and complex history of German democracy in a Eurpean and global context. It was established by the German Bundestag in 2021. It is currently in development and will start its activities later this year.

Posted in Honors | Tagged Democracy, History, Politics | Leave a Comment »

Exhibition on the Constitution of 1849 in the German Bundestag

March 15, 2023 by Theo Jung

On March 27, I’m invited to speak at the opening of a new exhibition in the Reichstag-building in Berlin. The exhibition addresses one of the major achievements of the 1848/49 revolution: the Imperial Constitution adopted by the National Assembly on 27 March 1849. It’s center piece is the original constitution document itself (one of three originals, actually, but the only parchment version), signed by 405 Members of Germany’s first national parliament.

More information on the exhibition, planned by Klaus Seidl and Hilmar Sack of the parliament’s scientific service, an be found here.

A catalogue is in the making and will be available soon through this link.

[Edit, March 29, 2023]: A short video capturing the ceremony, including a snippet from an interview I gave on the historical significance of the 1848 revolution, is to be found here.

[Edit, May 12, 2023]: A video of my talk is now available online through this link.

Posted in Presentation | Tagged 1848, Constitution, History | Leave a Comment »

Survey of 175 Years of History of the Revolutions of 1848/49

February 22, 2023 by Theo Jung

For Aus Politik und Zeitgeschichte, a journal published by the German Federal Agency for Civic Education (Bundeszentrale für politische bildung) and aimed at a wider audience, I wrote a short survey on the history of the Revolutions of 1848/49.

Fragen an 1848/49. Ein Forschungsüberblick, in: Aus Politik und Zeitgeschichte 73, Nr. 7-9 (2023), 17–23.

In it, I address the various historiographical approaches to the revolutions since its failure in 1849 and try to answer the question why debates on this theme have gone relatively quiet in recent years.

The whole issue can be read and dowloaded for free here.

Posted in Publications | Tagged 1848, Historiography, History, Nineteenth Century, Revolution | Leave a Comment »

Chapter on Empress Eugénie’s Political Role in the French Second Empire

December 17, 2022 by Theo Jung

For a volume edited by Wolfram Pyta and Rüdiger Voigt, I wrote a contribution addressing the intersections of gender and power during the French Second Empire.

Die Öffentlichkeit weiblicher Arkanpolitik. Kaiserin Eugénie im Zweiten Kaiserreich

[The Publicity of Female Arcane Politics: Empress Eugénie in the Second Empire]

Focusing on Empress Eugénie de Montijo, the essay considers the question of female power in the Second Empire (1851-70) from a twofold perspective. On the one hand, I gauge the actual scope of her political agency – as Napoléon III’s wife, potential future regent, and mother of the crown prince, as a public figure, and as a well-connected and willful political actor in her own right. On the other, Eugénie’s real impact is contrasted with its contemporary imagination during the Second Empire and the Third Republic, which regularly framed the Empress as a paradigmatic figure of uncontrolled and irrational female influence behind the scenes and as a prime reason for the Empire’s eventual demise.

Posted in Publications | Tagged Eugénie de Montijo, French History, Gender, History, Napoléon III, Nineteenth Century, Politics, Second Empire | Leave a Comment »

« Newer Posts - Older Posts »