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Projects

The research and documentation activities of the centre thrive on the close involvement of students, doctoral candidates, postdocs and professors. The ICWC supports their theses and research, provides them with the necessary infrastructure and offers them a forum for discursive exchange.
On the following pages, we present current doctoral and research projects associated with the centre. You will also find an overview of already completed projects and gain an impression of the comprehensive, interdisciplinary work of the ICWC.

  • Current projects

    Transitional Justice in Film Journals (1945 - 1950)

    The project Transitional Justice in Film Journals (1945 - 1950) is a cooperation between the Institute for Media Studies (FB 09) and the International Research and Documentation Centre War Crimes Trials.

    Funded by UMR 2027

    Project description

    Master students compare German film journals (1945-1950) under supervision in order to work out media contexts and mechanisms of transitional justice (TJ) after the Second World War. The development of evaluation modes (metadata) and a relational database will help to open up new analytical avenues. In this way, media studies perspectives and expertise will be brought together with transitional justice research at the Philipps-Universität Marburg (ICWC).

    Time frame

    The project started in the summer semester 2020 with a two-semester course conducted in Media Studies and at the ICWC. The publication of the database and a specialist article with initial research results is planned as a conclusion (summer semester 2022).

  • Dissertation Projects

    Alexander Benz: "Need for Reform of the StPO with Regard to International Criminal Law Proceedings" (working title)


    In this project, special attention is paid to the demand that the German Code of Criminal Procedure (StPO) be revised with regard to international criminal proceedings in order to better take account of their particular requirements. A central element of the dissertation is an investigation of such proceedings before the State Security Senate of the Higher Regional Court of Frankfurt, which were located in the context of international criminal law. For this purpose, the daily reports produced by the Trial-Monitoring Programme of the ICWC at the Philipps University Marburg within the framework of trial observation will be evaluated by means of a qualitative secondary analysis. In order to verify the findings gained from this analysis, qualitative interviews with the parties involved in the proceedings are envisaged. After evaluation of the material, an attempt will be made to develop and discuss solutions to the problems identified.

    Entanglement, Collaboration, Belastung*. The role of Fulda’s City leadership and city administration during National Socialism (Working Title) 

    This project looks at the enforcement of National Socialist rule at the municipal level using the example of the East Hessian city of Fulda. Particular attention is paid to the role of the local mayor, deputy mayor and administration. As a strictly Catholic city, where the Center Party won an absolute majority even in the local elections of March 1933, Fulda lends itself as a subject of study, since insights into the relationship between National Socialism and Catholicism and the penetration of the Catholic milieu are also to be gained beyond the local historical horizon. Local actors in prominent positions, who could help National Socialism to become socially acceptable are of special interest, likewise, the willingness to cooperate of local officials and their ability for autonomous decisions are closely examined. Questions concerning individual Belastung* follow accordingly, however, the term as an analytical category has so far been insufficiently defined in historical scholarship, which is why this work aims to contribute to the sharpening of the term and the illumination of a definitional forefield of Belastung* (often too closely associated with juridical guilt).

    *In the author’s opinion, there is no english translation for the term Belastung that can contain all relevant facets of the academic debate about the concept in Germany, therefore a translation is omitted.

    Dirk Stolper: "Eichmann's Lawyer. Impact and Perceptions of Robert Servatius (1894-1983)" (working title)


    The project deals with the work and perception of the Cologne lawyer Robert Servatius (1894-1983). The research focuses on the analysis of the defence strategies developed and applied by Servatius in Nazi proceedings between 1945 and 1968 and their reception in the West German and international public. The study thus makes a contribution to the research on the legal confrontation with the Nazi past and crimes, and in particular the role of defence lawyers in this context. However, it also aims at developping and changing NS-related views of history in the German and international public in the decades after 1945.