"Kriegshelden": Deutungsmuster heroischer Männlichkeit in Deutschland 1813-1945

Arguing that the Nazi years are merely the end point of a longer developmental trajectory, Rene Schilling ... sets out to explore heroic masculinity's patterns of meaning through four major themes. His investigation is undertaken in books, speeches, festivals, and newspaper articles that discuss four men who were held up to the German public as heroes. Schilling's analysis is more nuanced than those that have conceived of masculinity as a hegemonic "ideology" perpetrated by elites and blindly accepted by the masses. Rather, he gives a detailed description of the negotiation between the middle and upper classes and how their various positions were developed and deployed over time. Schilling's investigation covers the period stretching from 1815 through the end of the Second World War. [H-Net]