Dr Marcus Colla

Departmental Lecturer in Modern European History
Christ Church
marcus.colla@history.ox.ac.uk

I am a historian of twentieth-century Germany and its relationship to the rest of Central and Eastern Europe. My doctoral dissertation, which I completed at the University of Cambridge, was concerned with the ‘politics of history’ in the German Democratic Republic, and concentrated specifically on the political and cultural legacy of the Prussian state. I have also published academic articles on themes concerning architecture, heritage, time and memory in communist Eastern Europe.

Research
  • Post-1945 Germany, Central and Eastern Europe
  • Memory and time
  • Architecture and urban history

Broadly conceived, my research is concerned with time and space in communist Eastern Europe. I am interested in the ways that societies under communism situated themselves in relation to past and future, and how their ideas of historical time manifested themselves in urban spaces and architectural practices.

My doctoral dissertation – entitled ‘The Politics of History and the “Prussia-Renaissance” in the German Democratic Republic’ – had two focusses. Firstly, it was concerned with the legacy of the Prussian state after its dissolution at the hands of the Allied Control Council in 1947. To this end, it explored the way that Prussia continued to retain a spectral presence in the politics and culture of East Germany, West Germany and Central Europe up until the 1980s. Secondly, my dissertation was concerned with the way that historical narratives were constructed and contested in the German Democratic Republic. It analysed the role of professional historians within the broader cultural-political apparatus of the East German state, as well as the way that historical understandings there were shaped by ‘popular history’ and local heritage initiatives.

I have also published on the fate of historic architecture in communist East Germany. My first article ‘Prussian Palimpsests: Architecture and Urban Spaces in East Germany’ explored the debates that raged within the ruling party and among the citizens of East Berlin and Potsdam about the fate of ‘burdened’ historic buildings. For this article I was awarded the Royal Historical Society’s ‘Alexander Prize’ in 2018. I also have an article forthcoming in ‘German History’ which examines the demolition of the Garnisonkirche in Potsdam in 1968.

Teaching

I currently teach:

Prelims: FHS:

European and World History IV: Society, Nation, and Empire, 1815-1914

Revolutions of 1989
Historiography: Tacitus to Weber

Europe Divided, 1914-1989
 

The Global Twentieth Century, 1930-2003
 

Disciplines of History

 

In the Media

Contributions to Lowy Institute ‘Interpreter’ blog: https://www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpreter/contributors/articles/marcus-colla

Publications

  • Memory, Heritage and the Demolition of the Potsdam Garnisonkirche, 1968*

    2020
    |
    Journal article
    |
    German History
    <jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p>In 1968, the ruling Socialist Unity Party demolished Potsdam’s Garnisonkirche (Garrison Church). This article analyses the way in which the demolition of the Garnisonkirche opened up a spectrum of reflections on the meaning of the Prussian and Nazi pasts in the GDR and the ways it ought to be mediated through the urban landscape. Using petitions sent by everyday citizens to the local political authorities as well as debates within the SED itself, this article demonstrates how the public discussion about the demolition of the church navigated the many problems posed by Potsdam’s ‘burdened’ past in its urban spaces. While a number of individuals believed that this history could be transcended through the construction of a ‘new’ Potsdam, others believed that effectively handling the recent past required a direct confrontation with its architectural symbols.</jats:p>

  • THE POLITICS OF TIME AND STATE IDENTITY IN THE GERMAN DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC

    2019
    |
    Journal article
    |
    Transactions of the Royal Historical Society
    <jats:title>ABSTRACT</jats:title><jats:p>The communist regimes of Eastern Europe carried a particular set of assumptions about the way past, present and future related to one another. In the case of the German Democratic Republic (the GDR), these assumptions manifested themselves in official language and propaganda as a defence of the regime's dynamic and forward-looking historicity against the ‘ahistorical’ and ‘nostalgic’ modes of understanding that supposedly typified the historical consciousness of its West German adversary. By this view, the German Federal Republic – and the capitalist West more generally – lacked both a meaningful past and a meaningful future. This article investigates how the East German regime articulated its historicity as a direct expression of its state identity. In particular, it examines how it sought to rationalise newly emerging historical and cultural practices in the GDR within the framework of a modern and progressive socialist historicity, and how it deployed these as an argument against the ‘nostalgic’ practices of the Federal Republic.</jats:p>

  • Constructing the Prussia-Myth in East Germany, 1945–61

    2019
    |
    Journal article
    |
    Journal of Contemporary History
    <jats:p> In postwar East Germany, dealing with the history of Prussia was problematic. While ‘Prussianism’ or the ‘Spirit of Prussia’ was widely perceived as a central cause of Nazism, it also could not be ignored when developing ‘progressive’ narratives of German history. This article investigates the political, intellectual and symbolic construction of a ‘Prussia-myth’ in the early postwar years. In particular, it investigates how the ‘Prussia-myth’ was adapted to changing political conditions, the theoretical contradictions this engendered, and the manner in which historians and cultural figures dealt with these problems when educating the East German population at large. </jats:p>

  • Prussian Palimpsests: Historic Architecture and Urban Spaces in East Germany, 1945–1961

    2017
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    Journal article
    |
    Central European History
    <jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:p>This article considers the fate of Prussian buildings and memorials in East Germany between 1945 and 1961. Analyzing a number of case studies from Berlin and Potsdam, it places the treatment of these structures within the broader contours of history management practices. Although this era was characterized by a strong anti-Prussian sentiment in the GDR's historical discourse, it also witnessed a complex interaction between the SED and its historical inheritance. This interaction often influenced decisions about the fate of Prussian structures in the GDR as much as any animosity toward Prussia as a historical entity did.</jats:p>
    • More