Maria Godau
DPhil Student
Research Topic: A Past That Did Not Pass: The Cumulative Reshaping of Femininity in Germany, 1940-1965
Supervisor: Paul Betts
Often, the ideas and ideology of major historical systems are analysed in isolation of each other. I believe though that lived experience tells another story. In this research I aim to trace the lasting impact of the turbulent time spanning NS-period, Allied victory and post-war era on perceptions of femininity in Germany. I argued that the past did not simply pass, but lingered and intertwined, forming a complex web of conflicting ideas that shaped women’s experiences and still leave traces today.
Methodologically I focus on social history and lived experience, especially through the role of fashion, dress and appearance. Drawing on the phenomenologist Eugen Fink, I treat fashion as that which “embodies the ambiguous character of human life”, linking the “biological body to social being and thus the private with the public” (Fink, 2023, 16-20). Fashion thus reveals both ideological pressure and individual agency. I enhance this through Oral History, looking at both, adult, teenage and childhood memory. My research centres women’s post-war lived experience, where the new intermingled with the past, taking seriously that women had lived through National Socialism, Allied Victory, replacement and rebuilding or were raised by mothers who had. My research suggests that political rupture did not produce equally abrupt mindset shifts. National Socialist ideology was still able to influence mindsets in the Socialist GDR and the Federal Republic of Germany, especially embedded in ideas understood as objective moral codes and ideals. Thus, I aim to understand how these events lastingly transformed how femininity and gender was understood and how this still impacts mindsets today.
Publications
Vogue Germany - https://www.vogue.de/artikel/maria-godau-dirndl-ns-zeit
Prizes and Funding
I am a recipient of the Peregrine Scholarship
