Discourses on Europe in German, British and US American Media 1914-1945

Both in the public sphere and in historiography the fact that various ideas, images and perceptions of Europe also and especially circulated during the age of nationalism and dictatorships was often overlooked. Thus, the research project engages the question as to what extent the pan-European crisis, which was already perceived increasingly in the decades prior to 1914 and finally appeared as a massive menace to the established political, economic, and cultural supremacy of the continent, and respectively all of its nation-states in the course of World War I, moved Europe as a whole back into contemporary view.

Therefore one of the central questions of the project will be with what attributions and valuations the self-perception of Europe and its perception by others were loaded in the sample period: edging toward pessimistic, as the historiography of the European idea frequently suggests, or including positive connotations also, such as may be assumed within the context of everyday encounters. This matter is examined on the basis of selected quality papers regarding the time period between 1914 and 1945. Consequently, the medial construction and translation of the European consciousness during the inter-war period, which has undoubtedly remained ambivalent, diffuse, and has often been only vaguely reflected, will be analysed. This will be done within a broad societal and topical spectrum beyond the unification ideas and economic attempts at integration (Paneurope, Mitteleuropa, Briand-Memorandum, “International Committee for a European Union”) that have been thoroughly investigated by political historians.