Bøger i WCGS German Studies serien

In the spring and summer of 1938, a third-generation German Canadian took an unforgettable road trip in Europe. Franklin Wellington Wegenast drove through Austria, Italy, France, Luxembourg, and Germany. He stopped to talk to people along the way and offered rides to those requesting them. He listened to what his passengers had to say about their lives, the conditions they lived under, and their views on what was happening in Europe. Wegenast heard Hitler speak in Innsbruck, and so witnessed first-hand Nazi power as Austrias independence crumbled. In his journal he noted the sheer animal force in the cries of the crowd, and foresaw the collision course that was shaping up between the Germans who supported Hitlers ideology and the rest of the world. Wegenast was unable to publish the journal he kept on his journey, and at the time of his death in 1942 it was in an unorganized state. It is published here for the first time alongside commentary that puts the entries in the contexts of Wegenasts life experiences, the prevailing attitudes of the day, both in North America and Europe, and modern scholarship on Germany in the 1930s. The book includes correspondence Wegenast had with a young German for a few months after his return to Canada, correspondence that reveals even more clearly the intensity of his feelings and his fear for the future. Newly released government documents and diaries kept by Germans during the interwar period have meant a considerable outpouring in recent years of material on German sentiment in the 1930s. Wegenasts diaries and letters corroborate modern assessments of German thinking and add insightful commentary, providing an outsider/insider view on the brewing conflict.

Presents a collection of essays by Canadian and international scholars on the topic of why and how the curriculum for post-secondary German studies should evolve. Contributors, international experts in the field of German as a foreign or second language, explore new perspectives on and orientations in the curriculum.

Co-published with the Waterloo Centre for German Studies For centuries, large numbers of German-speaking people have emigrated from settlements in Europe to other countries and continents. In German Diasporic Experiences: Identity, Migration, and Loss, more than forty international contributors describe and discuss aspects of the history, language, and culture of these migrant groups, individuals, and their descendants. Part I focuses on identity, with essays exploring the connections among language, politics, and the construction of histories-national, familial, and personal-in German-speaking diasporic communities around the world. Part II deals with migration, examining such issues as German migrants in postwar Britain, German refugees and forced migration, and the immigrant as a fictional character, among others. Part III examines the idea of loss in diasporic experience with essays on nationalization, language change or loss, and the reshaping of cultural identity. Essays are revised versions of papers presented at an international conference held at the University of Waterloo in August 2006, organized by the Waterloo Centre for German Studies, and reflect the multidisciplinarity and the global perspective of this field of study.