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Doctoral projects

Here you can find the doctoral research projects of the PhD candidates currently employed at or affiliated with the Research and Documentation Center for War Crimes Trials: Alexander Benz, Alexander Cramer, Linn-Sophie Löber, and Lucie Kahlert.

  • Alexander Benz: „Reformbedürftigkeit der StPO im Hinblick auf völkerstrafrechtliche Verfahren“ (Arbeitstitel)

    This project places particular emphasis on the call to revise the German Code of Criminal Procedure in order to better accommodate the specific conditions of international criminal law cases. A central element of the dissertation is the examination of such cases before the State Security Senate of the Higher Regional Court (OLG) Frankfurt, which fall within the context of international criminal law. For this purpose, the daily reports produced by the ICWC’s trial-monitoring project at Philipps University Marburg during court observations are analyzed through a qualitative secondary analysis. To validate the insights derived from these sources, qualitative interviews with the parties involved in the proceedings are also planned. After analyzing the material, the project aims to develop and discuss possible solutions to the problems actually identified.

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  • Alexander Cramer: „Verstrickung, Kollaboration, Belastung? Die Rolle der Fuldaer Stadtleitung und Stadtverwaltung im Nationalsozialismus“ (Arbeitstitel)

    This project examines the enforcement of National Socialist rule at the local level using the eastern Hessian city of Fulda as a case study. Particular attention is paid to the role played by mayors, city officials, and the municipal administration. Fulda is an ideal subject for study as a strongly Catholic city, where the Zentrum party still achieved an absolute majority in the 1933 local elections. The project aims to generate insights that extend beyond the local historical context, especially regarding the relationship between National Socialism and Catholicism and the penetration of Nazi influence into the Catholic milieu. Prominent actors who were able to make National Socialism socially acceptable, as well as the willingness of the municipal administration to cooperate and the scope for administrative autonomy, play key roles. Questions regarding individual complicity are also addressed; however, the concept remains insufficiently defined in historical scholarship. This dissertation seeks to contribute to conceptual clarification and to illuminate the definitional groundwork of “complicity,” a term often associated with legal notions of guilt.

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  • Linn-Sophie Löber: „Täterinnen im völkerstrafrechtlichen Kontext: Aufarbeitung und Erinnerungsbildung nach Massengewalt“ (Arbeitstitel)

    This dissertation project focuses on the question of whether—and if so, how—the transformation process in the post-conflict phase can be leveraged to strengthen women’s rights, promote gender justice, and challenge patriarchal power structures within affected societies. It examines the interconnections between the transitional justice phase and the formation of political memory following episodes of mass violence, as well as the influence of both elements on the (re)construction of gender relations in the post-conflict period. A key question concerns the role of including or excluding female perpetrators, bystanders, and beneficiaries in international criminal law and outreach programs. Female perpetrators are a historical reality, and excluding them from historical policy and collective memory constitutes a distortion rooted in patriarchal interpretive frameworks of the past. Ultimately, breaking with these frameworks in historical policy could have long-term, wide-ranging effects and progressively influence other areas such as foreign policy and the structuring of interstate relations.

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  • Lucie Kahlert: "‚unter ihnen auch unschuldige Frauen und Kinder‘: Geschlechtsspezifische Argumentation im Völkerstrafrecht. Das Beispiel der Nürnberger Prozesse 1945-1949." (Arbeitstitel)

    This dissertation project focuses on the use of the paired expression “women and children.” This phrase repeatedly appears in contemporary media coverage, particularly in contexts of violent conflicts and their consequences, including flight and forced migration, and it also features in speeches and public debates. It thereby creates the impression of having become a fixed component of societal lexicon. My focus is on the use of “women and children” in contexts where violence does not exclusively or specifically target women and children. This renders the phrase semantically vague and can give the impression that it is employed primarily to support state agendas or to evoke emotional responses. Against this background, my research aims to examine the use of the expression “women and children” and its proxy variables during the International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg (1945/46) as well as the Trials of War Criminals before the Nuremberg Military Tribunals (1946–1949). The goal is to demonstrate, through its use in legal and judicial contexts such as the Nuremberg Trials, how (legal) language does not merely function as a neutral medium of communication but also reproduces and constructs normative ideas of vulnerability and victimhood, thereby shaping the legal perception and assessment of criminal acts.

    Contact: lucie.kahlert@uni-marburg.de