Speaker: Lutz Raphael (Universität Trier, Germany)

Date: June 11, 2015 - Thursday

Time: 10:00-11:30

Venue: West Hall, University Library, Songjiang Campus

Language: English, German

Summary: The lecture discusses the particularities of Europe’s history of the first half of the 20th century as the concurrence of two political trends: the clash of imperial ambitions and the mobilization of nationalism. Both lead to the wave of military and civil violence typical for the period 1910 to 1950 but also gave birth to a new round of political participation in both democratic and dictatorial forms. Under these circumstances Europe was transformed from a laboratory of modernity into a battlefield of modern ideologies.

Speaker Biography: Born in Essen in 1955, Professor Dr. Lutz Raphael started his studies in history, sociology and Romance studies at the University of Münster in 1974, where he was awarded his first degrees in History and French in 1981. From 1981 to 1984, he worked on his Ph.D. project on Trade Unionism and the Communist Parties in Contemporary France and Italy and received his doctorate degree from the University of Münste in 1984.

He has been professor of Contemporary History at the University of Trier since 1996, after having spent the previous nine years teaching at the University of Darmstadt as lecturer and assistant professor from 1987 to 1996. In the meantime he also taught at Tübingen during the academic year of 1994/95.

In 1999 he was elected as a member of the Arbeitskreis für Moderne Sozialgeschichte and was chairman from 2001 to 2006. In 2011 he was elected as a member of the Historical Commission at the Bavarian Academy of Science. From 2007 to 2013 he was nominated as a member of the Scientific Commission of the German Council of Science and Humanities, the Central National Advisory Committee for Higher Education and Research in Germany. In 2014 he was elected as a member of the Academy of Literature and Sciences in Mainz.

In 2013 he received the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz-Prize of the German Research Foundation.

He sits on the advisory board of the German Historical Institute at Paris and is also a member of the editorial board of two journals, Neue politische Literatur and Journal of Modern European History.

Leibniz Price and Leibniz Lectures

The Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize is the most important research award in Germany. It has been awarded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (German Research Foundation, DFG) every year since 1986 for outstanding achievements in research. This most prestigious scientific award aims to improve the working conditions of outstanding scientists and academics, expand their research opportunities, relieve them of administrative tasks, and help them employ particularly qualified young researchers. A maximum of €2.5 million is provided per award.