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Object

Title: The imperial German Board of Archives in Warsaw: a paradigmatic example of the ‘moral conquest’ policy in the Polish territory during the First World War

Creator:

Stempin, Arkadiusz

Date issued/created:

2016

Resource type:

Text

Subtitle:

Acta Poloniae Historica. T. 113 (2016) ; Occupation Experiences, 1914–18

Contributor:

Korecki, Tristan : Transl. ; Institute of History of the Polish Academy of Sciences

Publisher:

Institute of History of the Polish Academy of Sciences

Place of publishing:

Warszawa

Description:

p. 139-170

Type of object:

Journal/Article

Abstract:

The essay analyses the activities of the imperial German Board of Archives as a form through which the ‘moral conquest’ (‘moralische Eroberung’) policy was pursued in Congress Poland by the German Empire in the First World War years. Central to the argument is not only the aspect of a model incarnation of a soft-power strategy in exportation of German science to a conquered country, this being a key instrument of the peaceful conquest of Poland, but also an organic incoherence of the strategy, as reflected in the way the Polish archives were managed. Such identification suggests that the German Empire pursued in Congress Poland activities typical of semicolonial policies. For one thing, the German administrators safeguarded against destruction the official (public, state-related) documents and archival collections abandoned by the Russians, catalogued them and made them available to historians, in a professional way and on civilised terms. Otherwise, in pursuance of their particular interests, the German authorities of the General Government of Warsaw endeavoured, from a position of strength, to take over the valuable documents from the Polish archives. This venture negated, in the perception of the Polish partners, the esteem for Germany and its civilizational achievements, administering a final blow to the ‘moral conquest’ concept.

References:

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Weiser Johanna, Geschichte der preußischen Archivverwaltung und ihrer Leiter. Von den Anfängen unter Staatskanzler von Hardenberg bis zur Auflösung im Jahre 1945 (Köln, 2000).

Relation:

Acta Poloniae Historica

Volume:

113

Start page:

139

End page:

170

Detailed Resource Type:

Article : original article

Format:

application/pdf

Resource Identifier:

oai:rcin.org.pl:61388 ; 2450-8462

Source:

IH PAN, sygn. A.295/113 Podr. ; IH PAN, sygn. A.296/113 ; click here to follow the link

Language:

eng

Rights:

Creative Commons Attribution BY-ND 4.0 license

Terms of use:

Copyright-protected material. [CC BY-ND 4.0] May be used within the scope specified in Creative Commons Attribution BY-ND 4.0 license, full text available at: ; -

Digitizing institution:

Institute of History of the Polish Academy of Sciences

Original in:

Library of the Institute of History PAS

Projects co-financed by:

-

Access:

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