Andrew Bonnell Book order

This probing history offers an in-depth examination of the robust role of the German Social Democratic party in the lives of its members.

This collection of essays considers the contribution made by German settlers in Queensland over the last century and a half of the state’s history. The volume also analyses the role of other German travellers and visitors who have had an impact on the state. Over this period, Germans have been the most important non-British European settler population in Queensland. The work includes chapters on Germans in politics, science, music and the other arts, as well as German migrants, missionaries, and attitudes to the Australian tropics.

Shylock, in Shakespeare's "The Merchant of Venice", is not an unambiguously antisemitic character; the representation of his character on stage can make the play antisemitic or not. The character of Shylock as presented in Germany from 1777 to 1944 combined a number of features prevalent in anti-Jewish stereotypes. In the 19th century there was emphasis on his avarice and lust for money, and in the Nazi period on his lust for power and blood. The Weimar period saw several productions of the play, as well as remakes, like "The Merchant of Berlin" by Walter Mehring in 1929, all having antisemitic overtones. Under the Nazi dictatorship, sympathetic Jewish characters totally disappeared from the German stage. Remarkably, "The Merchant of Venice" was a difficult play for the Nazis, because of the "interracial" marriage of Lorenzo and Jessica and because of Shylock's monologue, which could arouse empathy among the spectators. There were several attempts to "Aryanize" Jessica, but overall there was a drop in the number of productions of "The Merchant of Venice". In the late 1930s-40s, Marlowe's unambiguously antisemitic "The Jew of Malta" ousted, to some extent, "The Merchant of Venice" from the German stage. (From the Bibliography of the Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism - The Hebrew University of Jerusalem)

This book examines the history of the Freie Volksbuhne (Free People's Theatre), Berlin, from 1890-1914, in the light of the cultural theory and practice of German Social Democracy in Imperial Germany. The clash between German Social Democracy - the party, intellectuals and workers - and the German Imperial State was played out in the Freie Volksbahne (Free People's Theatre) founded by intellectuals to energize working class political awareness of drama with a political and social cutting edge. It fell foul of state censorship, lost its bite, yet prospered. The book looks in detail at the various programmes guiding the Volksbuhne's work and at the reception of the plays by the largely working-class audience, to offer a detailed study of the interactions between cultural and political history in Imperial Germany.

This collection of new studies in German history is published in honour of John A. Moses, one of Australia's foremost German historians. The essays collected here, written by some of the most distinguished scholars working in America, Europe, and Australia, reflect the contribution that Professor Moses has made to our understanding of modern German history, and, in particular, to the complex relationship among the Church, the State, and opposition movements such as Trade Unionism and Communism. This volume also includes important essays the interaction of power and ideology in Germany from the Kaiserreich to the Third Reich; the development of democratic movements in Germany; debates within contemporary historiography; and Australian-German perspectives.John A. Moses was educated at the universities of Queensland, Munich, and Erlangen, where he took his doctorate on Carl Legien and the Free Trade Unions in Germany. Dr. Moses has published widely on matters as diverse as the Fischer controversy, Germany imperialist policies in the Far East and Trade Union Theory in Germany and elsewhere. He has recently retired from his position of Associate Professor in the History Department at the University of Queensland.