Dr Felix Schulz
Lecturer in Modern European History

  • Email: felix.schulz@ncl.ac.uk
  • Telephone: +44 (0) 191 222 6466
  • Address: School of History, Classics, and Archaeology
    Armstrong Building
    Room 3.06

    Office Hours: 3-4 on Mondays and Thursdays and 3-4 on most Fridays (email me to check if I am in, I have a few MA sessions during this slot).

Introduction

My interest spans the contemporary history of the German-speaking countries, with a particular focus on sepulchral cultures, regional and national memorialisation, as well as the link between landscape and identity.

Qualifications

PhD, University of York (2006)
MA by Research (Dissertation), University of York (2001)
BA (hons.) in History, University of Kent at Canterbury (1996-1999)

Previous Positions

In the past I have taught at Lancaster University, the University of York, and Sunderland University.

 

Research Interests

My first monograph explores East German sepulchral culture (i.e. cemeteries and their design, organisation of disposal, private and public burial ceremonies, propagation of cremation, communal areas for the internment of urns, gravestone design, etc.) in the second half of the twentieth century, with particular emphasis on the effects of modernisation, secularisation, and the policies of a socialist state, whose regulatory approaches oscillated between administrative disinterest and grand schemes that in turn were regularly resisted and contested by individuals and institutions.

However, my interest is not limited to the GDR or Germany as the field of death, dying, and disposal allows for, indeed necessitates a deeply comparative approach.

Current Work

I am continuing my research into death after 1945. I am currently working on Socialist thanatology, tragic deaths and accidents in the GDR, as well as the changes to cemeteries in Germany after 1990. In addition, I have for the last four years pursued a second research strand that focuses on the Alps. This work reflects my interest in the relationship between spaces and identities in Central Europe, and the intricate and fascinating relationship between the German-speaking peoples.

Undergraduate Teaching

HIS1029 Varieties of History

HIS2126 The difficult Fatherland: Remembering Germany's Pasts

HIS3095 Weimar Republic or HIS3117 The Rise and Fall of the Berlin Wall 

HIS3000 Reading History: The Fire - The bombing of Germany, 1940-45

HIS3020 Writing History

Postgraduate Teaching

I am module leader for HIS8052 on the MA in European History.

In postgraduate teaching I generally concentrate on the following three fields: 

- "Streetfighting in inter-war Central Europe"

- "Death, Rape and Suicide in Germany in 1945"

- "Poitical Violence in Germany, 1968-1977".