Tanja Hetzer
Tanja Hetzer
Since October 2002, Tanja Hetzer has been a PhD Candidate at the University of Sussex (HUMS) and a Research Associate of the Leo Baeck Institute and the Wiener Library, London.. She is currently working on her dissertation on the subject of “Antisemitism and Political Theology in Germany, 1930–1950”. By bringing together a number of sub-disciplines, such as research on antisemitism, the history of National Socialism, and church history, as well as the history of theology, the project examines two main questions: firstly, how antisemitic policies were commented upon, or even legitimised, by the protestant political theology; and secondly, how influential figures of the protestant church debated the question of guilt (Schulddebatte) after 1945.
Tanja holds an ORS-Award (UK University) and has a Fellowship from the Axel-Springer-Foundation (Germany) and the “Gretel und Walter Picard-Weil Foundation” (Switzerland). At the present time she is on field research for her dissertation in Berlin.
Responses to National Socialist antisemitism covered a wide spectrum, ranging from open resistance to voluntary support. Tanja´s project seeks to examine how protestant political theology is situated within this spectrum, and to sketch the various positions articulated in response to the increasing radicalisation of National Socialist «Judenpolitik». Towards the end of the Weimar Republic, protestant consensus had established political theology on an interlocking foundation of Christianity, nation and race. The aim of the dissertation will be to determine whether such a consensus constituted a decisive vehicle for the positioning of antisemitism within the National Socialist apparatus; how antisemitic policies were commented upon, or even legitimised, by the protestant church and its theologians, and how influential figures of the protestant church argued in the debate on the question of guilt (Schulddebatte) after 1945.
Tanja worked on a report for the “Independent Historical Commission for the Investigation of the Activities of the Bertelsmann House During the "Third Reich" . while research assistant to Saul Friedländer in Munich from 1999-2002.She focusses on the antisemitism in the publications of Bertelsmann and on the relationship of the company towards antisemitic politics of the Nazi-Regime. She co-authored the book and was in charge of extensive research in private and public archives. .
From 1997-1999 Tanja was research assistant of the “Independent Experts' Commission: Switzerland--Second World War” (ICE) in Bern and contributed to the Commission’s report on Swiss refugee policy. She established a witness-testimony project for the Commission and interviewed many refugees and Holocaust survivors in Switzerland. The international commission of experts received a mandate from the Federal Council to examine the period of the Second World War. At the centre of the mandate was the investigation of money and assets, which found their way to Switzerland in connection with Nazi politics, the gold transactions and the refugee policy.
Since 2004 she also studies process oriented psychology (developed by Arny and Amy Mindell). She is working on ideas and projects to bring her historical knowledge - especially the History of the Holocaust and Nazism and its impact on todays society - together with the viewpoint of process work.
Tanja studied modern social history, modern economic history, and German literature and was trained at the University of Zurich and Bielefeld University. 1997 she received her M.A. in Modern History and Literature. Her thesis on “Childhood memory on the Shoah” formed the basis of her first book, published in 1999.
Tanja was an academic assistant to Sigrid Weigel, Department of German Literature, University of Zurich (1993-1994) and to Monika Richarz, Department of History, University of Zurich during summer 1992. Tanja was an assistant in the Jewish community library in Zurich (1994-1996) and was an editor of the feminist quarterly FRAZ – Frauenzeitung in Zurich (1992-1996). Prior to this, she worked as a social worker in a refugee center..
Books
Bertelsmann im Dritten Reich, ed. by the Historical Commission for Investigating the History of the Bertelsmann House during the "Third Reich", Gutersloh, Bertelsmann Verlag, 2002 (co-author).
Die Schweiz und die Flüchtlinge zur Zeit des Nationalsozialismus, ed. by the Independent Experts' Commission: Switzerland--Second World War, Zurich, Chronos-Verlag, 2001 (co-author).
Kinderblick auf die Shoah. Rekonstruktion der Erinnerung bei Ilse Aichinger, Hubert Fichte und Danilo Kiš, Würzburg, Königshausen & Neumann, 1999.
Articles
"Der Balkon: Ort des ¸Halbjuden‘. Zu Hubert Fichtes Roman Das Waisenhaus." in Hubert Fichte – Im Feld von Ethnologie und Literatur, ed. by Peter Braun and Manfred Weinberg, Tübingen, Gunter Narr-Verlag, forthcoming.
"Die Schweiz und der Nationalsozialismus. Anmerkungen zu einer Debatte um Forschungsperspektiven und Fragestellungen," in Traverse – Zeitschrift für Geschichte, 1/2001, pp. 116–126 (with Daniel Wildmann).
"Der Flüchtlingsbericht der Bergier-Kommission und die Debatte um Antisemitismus in der Schweiz," in Kirche und Israel, vol. 2 (2000), pp. 121-130.
Articles on Irene Dische and Edgar Hilsenrath in Kindlers Neues Literatur Lexikon, ed. by Rudolf Radler, Munich, Kindler Verlag, 1998.
"Grenzüberschreitungen: Frauen in Männerkleidung als Widerlegung der Alltagstheorie der Zweigeschlechtlichkeit," in Frauen und Öffentlichkeit. 6th Conference on Women History, Zurich, Chronos Verlag, 1991, pp. 125–148.
"Multi-Media-CD"
"Engadine Enchantment in Sound - 500th Anniversary of San Andrea
Church in La Punt Chamues-ch (Switzerland). Multimedia Portrait of Organ
and Church" edited by Achim Goeres and Tanja Hetzer, Zurich: WIEDISCON
RECORDS 2005. [original title: "Klangzauber im Engadin"],
in English, German, French, Italian, Romantsch.
Teaching
Technical University of Berlin
"Interdisciplinary Communication, based on Processmoderation by
Arny and Amy Mindell" (since 2003 as assistant of Achim Goeres)
Courses in the History and German Departments, University of Zurich
(advanced level):
"Swiss Memory of Nazism" (Summer 1994)
"The Holocaust and the Historians’ Debate" (Winter 1993-94)
"Jewish Women's History in Germany--Approaches and the State of
Research" (Summer 1992)
"Resistance to Nazism" (Winter 1991-92)
"Feminist Historiography: Theory and Praxis" (Winter 1991-92)
"Nazi Mass Murder" (Summer 1991)
"Theoretical Debates Regarding Sexism, Racism, and Feminism”
(Summer 1991)
Talks
(Selection from 1999 on)
"Werner Elerts nationalreligiöse Geschichtstheologie und Antisemitismus", given at the Annual Conference of the „Arbeitskreis Protestantismusforschung“ in Neudientdorf (April 2004)
"’Vollzug Gottes Gerechtigkeit am Volke Israel’: Theological Perspectives on the ‘Judenpolitik’" Hamburger Institut für Sozialforschung & Leo Baeck Institute (London) (July 2002)
"The Politics of Conversion – Missionary Protestantism 1918-1933," talk given at a conference on "Figuren des ‘Sakralen’ in der Dialektik der Säkularisierung" hosted by the Centre for Comparative Literature, Berlin (Feb. 2002)
"The Concept of Volksgemeinschaft and Protestant Ideology," given at the Theologische Hochschule Luzern (Jan. 2002)
"The Case of Wilkomirski – A Fictional Holocaust Biography," given at the Department of Jewish Studies, University of Munich (Dec. 2001)
"The ‘Bekennende Kirche’ and Anti-Semitismus," given at the Department of Jewish Studies, University of Munich (July 2001)
"Historicization Debate and Memory," given at the Department of History, University of Munich (July 2000)
"The Balcony: Locus of the ‘Half’-Jew’," Talk given at a conference on "Hubert Fichte – Between Ethnology and Literatur " hosted by the Univeristy of Konstanz (June 2000)
Podium-memberat a conference on "Refugee Policies and Anti-Semitism in Switzerland 1931–1946" hosted by the Universitäre Hochschule, Lucerne (Feb. 2000)
"Remembering Childhood During the Holocaust,” given at the German Studies Association annual conference, Atlanta (Oct. 1999)
Workshop participant: "Where is Auschwitz? On the Debate over Switzerland's Historical Role," at a conference on "Historical Images and Anti-Semitism. The Debate Continues," Zurich (May 1999)
"Writing after the Holocaust from a Children's Perpective," talk given at a conference on "Writing History after Auschwitz. Empirical and Theoretical Problems in Relation to Traces and Perspectives of the Persecuted," Gütersloh, Germany (Jan. 1999)
"Frontier of Hope. Jews from Italy seek refuge in Switzerland 1943-1945" round table discussion with Peter Pulzer, Renata Broggini, Tanja Hetzerat at the Swiss Embassy London. Invited by Union Ticinese London and Leo Baeck Institute (10th May 2005)
"Political Theology and Antisemitism in Germany from 1920 to 1950." Sussex University, Hannah Arendt Research Colloquium (28th February 2005)
Contact:
Tanja Hetzer
Bugenhagenstrasse 10
10551 Berlin
phone: +49-30-3983 4949