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Events


Tales of Commerce and Imagination
The Berlin Department Store 1896-1938 / Das Berliner Warenhaus 1896-1938

 

Thursday, 18 and Friday, 19 March 2011


A conference organised under the auspices of the School of Modern Languages at the University of Exeter and the Institute of Germanic & Romance Studies at the University of London


Venue
: Institute of Germanic & Romance Studies, University of London

 

CALL FOR PAPERS

By the turn of the nineteenth century the ‘Warenhaus’ had become an established feature in the cityscape. Department stores were welcomed by some in terms of new socio-economic, cultural and aesthetic developments; they were denounced by others as the epitome of a suspect consumerism. The ensuing struggle was particularly obvious in Germany’s capital Berlin.

This interdisciplinary conference aims to establish the current state of research on the early years of the Berlin department stores. The period under investigation reflects the time from the establishment of the first all-under-one-roof stores in the metropolis (e.g. Wertheim, 1896; Tietz, 1900; KaDeWe, 1907) up to the expropriation of the mostly Jewish-owned Berlin department stores under the Hitler regime. 

We particularly welcome contributions in the fields of

•        History
•        Sociology
•        Economics
•        Gender Studies
•        Anti-Semitism Research
•        Architecture, Design and Art History
•        Urban Studies 

The conference languages are English and German. Contributions to this conference will form the basis of a publication to appear by 2013. The conference is part of a long-term collaborative project between the organisers (IGRS, University of London and the School of Modern Languages, University of Exeter).

 

SUBMISSION OF OFFERS OF PAPERS

200/250-word abstracts for papers of 30 minutes' length should be sent by 31 August 2010 to both:

Dr Godela Weiss-Sussex and Dr Ulrike Zitzlsperger

 

July 2010