Associate Professor Andrew Beattie

Associate Professor Andrew Beattie

Program Head

BA Hons, PhD Sydney

Arts, Design & Architecture (ADA)
School of Humanities & Languages

I am an internationally recognised historian of Germany, with particular expertise on Germany's transitions from Nazism after 1945 and East German communism after 1989.  I am an Associate Professor in German and European Studies in the School of Humanities and Languages at the University of New South Wales, Sydney. I studied History and German Studies at the universities of Sydney and Potsdam and have a PhD in History from the University of Sydney. I have held funded fellowships at the Centre for Contemporary History in Potsdam, the European University Institute in Florence, and at the universities of Constance and Cologne. I previously taught in the International Studies program at UTS and have been at UNSW since 2008.

Phone
+61-2-9385-2328
Location
Morven Brown Room 343
  • Books | 2019
    Beattie AH, 2019, Allied Internment Camps in Occupied Germany: Extrajudicial Detention in the Name of Denazification, 1945–1950, Cambridge University Press
    Books | 2008
    Beattie A, 2008, Playing Politics with History: The Bundestag Inquiries into East Germany, Berghahn Books, New York, http://www.berghahnbooks.com/title/BeattiePlaying
  • Book Chapters | 2021
    Beattie A, 2021, 'Die Auseinandersetzung mit den sowjetischen Speziallagern in Deutschland: Eine wechselvolle Geschichte mit beharrlichen Tendenzen', in Landau J; Heitzer E (ed.), Zwischen Entnazifizierung und Besatzungspolitik Die sowjetischen Speziallager 1945-1950 im Kontext, Wallstein Verlag, Göttingen, pp. 267 - 274
    Book Chapters | 2021
    Beattie A, 2021, 'Die sowjetischen Speziallager im Kontext der alliierten Internierung und Entnazifizierung', in Landau J; Heitzer E (ed.), Zwischen Entnazifizierung und Besatzungspolitik Die sowjetischen Speziallager 1945-1950 im Kontext, Wallstein Verlag, Göttingen, pp. 43 - 60
    Book Chapters | 2018
    Beattie A, 2018, 'The Allied Internment of German Civilians in Occupied Germany: Cooperation and Conflict in the Western Zones, 1945–9', in Erlichmann C; Knowles C (ed.), Transforming Occupation in the Western Zones of Germany Politics, Everyday Life and Social Interactions, 1945-55, Bloomsbury Publishing, London, pp. 81 - 96
    Book Chapters | 2018
    Beattie AH, 2018, 'Verdiente Strafe des harten Kerns oder ungerechte Besatzungsmaßnahme? Die SS und die alliierte Internierung im besetzten Deutschland', in Schulte JE; Wildt M (ed.), Die SS nach 1945: Entschuldungsnarrative, populäre Mythen, europäischen Erinnerungsdiskurse, V&R unipress, Göttingen, pp. 57 - 74
    Book Chapters | 2017
    Beattie A, 2017, 'L’internamento dei civili tedeschi dopo la seconda guerra mondiale e la questione della violenza', in Acciai E; Panvini G; Poesia C; Rovatti T (ed.), Oltre il 1945: Violenza, conflitto sociale, ordine pubblico nel dopoguerra europeo, Viella, Rome, pp. 105 - 120
    Book Chapters | 2016
    Beattie AH, 2016, 'Gedenkstätten als Katalysatoren geschichtspolitischer Konflikte: Umstrittene Erinnerung und Konkurrenz der Opfer', in Heitzer E; Morsch G; Traba R; Woniak K (ed.), Von Mahnstätten über zeithistorische Museen zu Orten des Massentourismus? Gedenkstätten an Orten von NS-Verbrechen in Polen und Deutschland, Metropol Verlag, Berlin, pp. 84 - 94
    Book Chapters | 2015
    Beattie AH, 2015, 'Post-Communist Truth Commissions: Between Transitional Justice and the Politics of History', in Stan L; Nedelsky N (ed.), Post-Communist Transitional Justice: Lessons from Twenty-Five Years of Experience, Cambridge University Press, pp. 213 - 232, http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781107588516.015
    Book Chapters | 2013
    Beattie A, 2013, 'Ein neuer Historikerstreit? Kommunismus und Nationalsozialismus in der deutschen Erinnerungs- und Geschichtspolitik seit 1990', in Benz W (ed.), Ein Kampf um Deutungshoheit: Politik, Opferinteressen und historische Forschung. Die Auseinandersetzung um die Gedenk- und Begegnungsstätte Leistikowstraße Potsdam, edn. Original, Metropol Verlag, Berlin, pp. 16 - 36
    Book Chapters | 2012
    Beattie A, 2012, 'A 1950s Revival: Cold War Culture in Reunified Germany', in Vowinckel A; Payk MM; Lindenberger T (ed.), Cold War Cultures: Perspectives on Eastern and Western European Societies, Berghahn Books, New York, pp. 299 - 320, http://www.berghahnbooks.com/title.php?rowtag=VowinckelCold
    Book Chapters | 2012
    Beattie A, 2012, 'Die Weichen stellen für die Zukunft der DDR-Erinnerung? Rückblick auf die Enquete-Kommission des Bundestages zur Aufarbeitung von Geschichte und Folgen der SED-Diktatur in Deutschland', in Sabrow M; Bosch F (ed.), Zeiträume: Potsdamer Almanach des Zentrums für Zeithistorische Forschung, edn. Original, Wallstein, Göttingen, pp. 20 - 33
    Book Chapters | 2011
    Beattie A, 2011, 'The Politics of Remembering the GDR: Official and State-Mandated Memory since 1990', in Clarke D; Wölfel U (ed.), Remembering the German Democratic Republic: Divided Memory in a United Germany, Palgrave, Basingstoke, pp. 23 - 36, http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/9780230349698
    Book Chapters | 2010
    Beattie A, 2010, 'The Fight in the Prison Car Park: Memorializing Germany's "Double Past" in Torgau since 1990', in Niven B; Paver C (ed.), Memorialization in Germany since 1945, Palgrave, Basingstoke, pp. 328 - 338, http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/9780230248502
    Book Chapters | 2007
    Beattie A, 2007, 'Orte des Terrors oder der "stalinistischen Entnazifizierung"? Zeitgenössische britische Wahrnehmungen sowjetischer Speziallager in der SBZ', in Barker P; Ohse M-D; Tate D (ed.), Views from Abroad: die DDR aus britischer Perspektive, edn. Original, W. Bertelsmann Verlag, Bielefeld, pp. 67 - 78
    Book Chapters | 2006
    Beattie A, 2006, 'The Victims of Totalitarianism and the Centrality of Nazi Genocide: Continuity and Change in German Commemorative Politics', in Niven B (ed.), Germans as Victims: Contemporary Germany and the Third Reich, edn. Original, Palgrave, Basingstoke, pp. 147 - 163
    Book Chapters | 2005
    Beattie A, 2005, 'The Past in the Politics of Divided and Unified Germany', in Friedman MP; Kenney P (ed.), Partisan Histories: The Past in Contemporary Global Politics, edn. Original, Palgrave MacMillan, New York, pp. 17 - 38
  • Journal articles | 2017
    Beattie AH, 2017, ''Lobby for the Nazi Elite'? the protestant churches and civilian internment in the British zone of occupied Germany, 1945-1948', German History, 35, pp. 43 - 70, http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/gerhis/ghw140
    Journal articles | 2011
    Beattie A, 2011, '"Sowjetische KZs auf deutschem Boden": Die sowjetischen Speziallager und der bundesdeutsche Antikommunismus', Jahrbuch für historische Kommunismusforschung, 2011, pp. 119 - 137, https://kommunismusgeschichte.de/fileadmin/user_upload/09_JHK_2011_Beattie_S._119_138.pdf
    Journal articles | 2010
    Beattie A, 2010, 'Between Histories and Memories: Torgau's Memorial Museum for Germany’s Short Twentieth Century', Museum and Society, 8, pp. 37 - 55, http://www2.le.ac.uk/departments/museumstudies/museumsociety/documents/volumes/beattie.pdf
    Journal articles | 2009
    Beattie A, 2009, 'An Evolutionary Process: Contributions of the Bundestag’s Inquiries into East Germany to an Understanding of the Role of Truth Commissions', International Journal of Transitional Justice, 3, pp. 229 - 249, http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/ijtj/ijp004
    Journal articles | 2008
    Beattie A, 2008, 'Beyond "Restoration"? Assessing and Accounting for West German Liberalization and Democratization, 1945-1965', European History Quarterly, 38, pp. 101 - 113, http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0265691407084481
    Journal articles | 2007
    Beattie A, 2007, 'Learning from the Germans? History and Memory in German and European Projects of Integration', PORTAL Journal of Multidisciplinary International Studies, 4, http://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/portal/article/view/483/451
  • Other | 2019
    Beattie A, 2019, Broken Lives: How Ordinary Germans Experienced the Twentieth Century and Lions and Lambs: Conflict in Weimar and the Creation of Post-Nazi Germany., WILEY, , http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/ajph.12611
    Other | 2019
    Beattie A, 2019, The Euro Crisis and European Identities: Political and Media Discourse in Germany, Ireland and Poland, ROUTLEDGE JOURNALS, TAYLOR & FRANCIS LTD, , http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09644008.2018.1543178
    Other | 2017
    Beattie A, 2017, The 20th Century: Time Experience and Time Research in divided Germany, OXFORD UNIV PRESS, http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/gerhis/ghx033
    Other | 2017
    Beattie A, 2017, The Good Occupation: American Soldiers and the Hazards of Peace, SAGE PUBLICATIONS LTD, , http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0022009417702779i
    Other | 2013
    Beattie AH, 2013, Walls, Borders, Boundaries: Spatial and Cultural Practices in Europe, CAMBRIDGE UNIV PRESS, , http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0008938913001246
    Other | 2005
    Heinemann I; Beattie AH, 2005, "Until the last drop of good blood" The kidnapping of "racially valuable" children and nazi racial policy in occupied Eastern Europe,
    Other | 2005
    Zimmerer J; Beattie AH, 2005, Colonialism and the holocaust: Towards an archeology of genocide

2019 Research Fellowship for experienced researchers from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. 

2011 ARC Discovery Project grant (DP110100300)

 

My research spans the fields of history, 'transitional justice' (the search for accountability after political transitions and regime changes), and 'memory studies' (processes of remembering, forgetting and representing the past). Empirically, my research explores the handling of the Nazi and communist legacies in Germany and beyond. Building on my previous work, including my first book on unified Germany's handling of the East German communist past, my research has had three related areas of emphasis.

First, I have become a recognised authority on the politics of memory in contemporary Germany, especially the connections and competitions between the Nazi and the communist pasts.

Second, I have contributed to the interdisciplinary field of transitional justice, looking beyond Germany to consider post-communist Eastern Europe more broadly.

Third, I have pursued an ambitious project on a neglected and misunderstood aspect of post-Nazi transitional justice: the victorious Allies' internment of over 400,000 German civilians in postwar Germany.

My 2020 book, Allied Internment Camps in Occupied Germany, published by Cambridge University Press, has received overwhelmingly positive reviews in the leading journals in the field:

- 'impressive', 'systematic', 'nuanced', 'persuasive', 'Beattie's book will interest all historians of the postwar occupation of Germany' (Central European History)

- 'powerfully argued', 'the depth and insight of this book, written by an expert in post-war German history, make it highly valuable reading for those interested in the Allied occupations, transitional justice and the legacies and aftermath of Nazism' (German History)

- 'clear and decisive', 'this book's contribution to understanding the similarities and differences between the occupying powers is unrivalled', 'the depth and range of the sources is striking' (European History Quarterly)

- 'an essential contribution' (H-War).

 

I have been invited to give public lectures and media interviews on German history and politics in Australia and Germany, including a ceremonial address before Brandenburg’s political elite in 2018.

I regularly engage with the German and German Studies communities in Australia. I am a Research Ambassador for the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) and participate in the German Consul-Generals German Language Network. I cooperate with the Goethe Institute Sydney and with the Palace Festival of German Films in organising and speaking at public events.

I am a member of the following disciplinary and professional associations: Australian Historical Association; Australasian Association for Communist and Post-communist Studies; Australasian Association for European History; Australasian Association of von Humboldt Fellows; Contemporary European Studies Association of Australia; Languages and Cultures Network for Australian Universities; German Studies Association (USA); German Studies Association of Australia.

My Teaching

In 2018 I was awarded a Dean's Teaching Award for excellent teaching. 100% of students are regularly satisfied with my teaching.

In recent years I have taught the following courses: 

  • Concepts of Europe (ARTS1780)
  • Contemporary Europe in Crisis (ARTS1782)
  • Contemporary Germany (ARTS3780)
  • Confronting the Past in Contemporary Europe (ARTS3786)
  • Understanding Nazi Germany (ARTS3295)

I also contribute to History of the Present (ARTS1271) and to History Honours and German language courses.