Pub Date : 2026-01-27DOI: 10.1177/16118944251409631
Sanela Schmid
The article explores the systematic expropriation of Jewish property in the Independent State of Croatia (Nezavisna Država Hrvatska, NDH), led by the Ustaša regime. Croatia's expropriations began rapidly and were legally reinforced through numerous decrees. Despite the NDH's intrinsic corruption, which meant that many Jewish assets were stolen by individuals, I focus on the actions of the most powerful actor: the state. Although hindered by many obstacles, the authorities of the NDH remained focused on the appropriation of Jewish property throughout its existence. This article examines these institutions—their evolution, and their efforts to increase efficiency in seizing and securing expropriated property for the state. The NDH's primary agencies, including the State Directorate for Renewal and the Office for Nationalised Property, orchestrated the confiscation and redistribution of assets, aiming to consolidate Jewish property into state ownership. Ante Barić, a key figure, drove efforts to streamline expropriations, overcoming obstacles and centralising assets under state control. By the end of this process, the NDH had stolen Jewish property worth at least 5.14 billion kuna and destroyed the economic foundations of Jewish life across the state.
本文探讨了在Ustaša政权的领导下，克罗地亚独立国（Nezavisna Država Hrvatska， NDH）对犹太人财产的系统性征用。克罗地亚的征用迅速开始，并通过许多法令在法律上得到加强。尽管犹太民主联盟存在内在的腐败，这意味着许多犹太人的资产被个人窃取，但我关注的是最强大的行动者——国家——的行为。尽管受到许多障碍的阻碍，民族民主联盟当局在其存在期间始终专注于侵占犹太人财产。本文考察了这些机构——它们的演变，以及它们为提高国家没收和保护被征用财产的效率所做的努力。犹太人民主联盟的主要机构，包括国家复兴局和国有财产办公室，精心策划了资产的没收和重新分配，旨在将犹太人的财产巩固为国家所有。关键人物安特·巴里奇（Ante barici）推动了简化征收、克服障碍和将资产集中在国家控制之下的努力。到这一过程结束时，NDH已经偷走了价值至少51.4亿库纳的犹太人财产，并摧毁了整个国家犹太人生活的经济基础。
{"title":"Robbing of the Jews for the Independent State of Croatia","authors":"Sanela Schmid","doi":"10.1177/16118944251409631","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/16118944251409631","url":null,"abstract":"The article explores the systematic expropriation of Jewish property in the Independent State of Croatia (Nezavisna Država Hrvatska, NDH), led by the Ustaša regime. Croatia's expropriations began rapidly and were legally reinforced through numerous decrees. Despite the NDH's intrinsic corruption, which meant that many Jewish assets were stolen by individuals, I focus on the actions of the most powerful actor: the state. Although hindered by many obstacles, the authorities of the NDH remained focused on the appropriation of Jewish property throughout its existence. This article examines these institutions—their evolution, and their efforts to increase efficiency in seizing and securing expropriated property for the state. The NDH's primary agencies, including the State Directorate for Renewal and the Office for Nationalised Property, orchestrated the confiscation and redistribution of assets, aiming to consolidate Jewish property into state ownership. Ante Barić, a key figure, drove efforts to streamline expropriations, overcoming obstacles and centralising assets under state control. By the end of this process, the NDH had stolen Jewish property worth at least 5.14 billion kuna and destroyed the economic foundations of Jewish life across the state.","PeriodicalId":44275,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Modern European History","volume":"293 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2026-01-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146056140","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-01-27DOI: 10.1177/16118944251414264
Veronika Duma, Markus Roth
{"title":"Robbery and Early Restitution in Central, Eastern and South-Eastern Europe 1939–1949: Introduction","authors":"Veronika Duma, Markus Roth","doi":"10.1177/16118944251414264","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/16118944251414264","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":44275,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Modern European History","volume":"40 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2026-01-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146056138","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-01-19DOI: 10.1177/16118944251409632
Arda Akinci
In October 1910, Arthur John Byng Wavell, a former British military-officer-turned-geographer, arrived in Hodeida to explore the Arabian Peninsula under the accreditation of the Royal Geographical Society of London. His presence exacerbated an ongoing Ottoman security crisis, which later escalated into a diplomatic setback between the British and Ottoman governments. While Wavell and British authorities claimed he was an explorer, Ottoman officials suspected him of espionage. This research situates Wavell's story within the larger context of British imperial expansion into Eastern Africa and the Arabian Peninsula, alongside intelligence operations targeting the Ottoman Empire at the turn of the century. By drawing on Wavell's memoirs and both British and Ottoman archival materials, it also examines Ottoman intelligence efforts and highlights how the 1908 Young Turk Revolution and the subsequent abolition of spying compromised security in the Empire's borderlands during the Committee of Union and Progress's governance.
1910年10月，亚瑟·约翰·宾·韦维尔，一位前英国军官出身的地理学家，在伦敦皇家地理学会的认可下，来到荷台达探索阿拉伯半岛。他的存在加剧了正在进行的奥斯曼安全危机，后来升级为英国和奥斯曼政府之间的外交挫折。虽然韦维尔和英国当局声称他是一名探险家，但奥斯曼官员怀疑他从事间谍活动。这项研究将韦维尔的故事置于大英帝国向东非和阿拉伯半岛扩张的大背景下，以及世纪之交针对奥斯曼帝国的情报行动。通过借鉴韦维尔的回忆录以及英国和奥斯曼帝国的档案材料，本书还考察了奥斯曼帝国的情报工作，并强调了1908年的青年土耳其革命和随后废除的间谍活动是如何在联盟与进步委员会（Committee of Union and Progress）的治理期间损害了帝国边境地区的安全。
{"title":"Espionage or Exploration? Arthur Wavell and the Blurred Lines of Imperial Intent in the Ottoman Frontier","authors":"Arda Akinci","doi":"10.1177/16118944251409632","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/16118944251409632","url":null,"abstract":"In October 1910, Arthur John Byng Wavell, a former British military-officer-turned-geographer, arrived in Hodeida to explore the Arabian Peninsula under the accreditation of the Royal Geographical Society of London. His presence exacerbated an ongoing Ottoman security crisis, which later escalated into a diplomatic setback between the British and Ottoman governments. While Wavell and British authorities claimed he was an explorer, Ottoman officials suspected him of espionage. This research situates Wavell's story within the larger context of British imperial expansion into Eastern Africa and the Arabian Peninsula, alongside intelligence operations targeting the Ottoman Empire at the turn of the century. By drawing on Wavell's memoirs and both British and Ottoman archival materials, it also examines Ottoman intelligence efforts and highlights how the 1908 Young Turk Revolution and the subsequent abolition of spying compromised security in the Empire's borderlands during the Committee of Union and Progress's governance.","PeriodicalId":44275,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Modern European History","volume":"5 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2026-01-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146000518","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-01-06DOI: 10.1177/16118944251409630
Veronika Duma
The systematic robbery of European Jews was a crucial aspect of the Holocaust. While it is undisputed that Nazi Germany was the principal initiator and organiser of the Holocaust, this article examines the robbery of Jews in countries that joined the Tripartite Pact of the Axis powers, using Italy, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, Bulgaria and Croatia as examples. Was there a shared pattern in the widespread robbery of Jewish property? To what extent was the term ‘Aryanisation’ applied in the states that were allied to Nazi Germany? Through an exploratory approach that combines different methodological perspectives, this article traces the language of robbery used to frame and justify the robbery of Jews during the Holocaust. This framing, emanating from Germany and Austria, also played a key role in the institutionalisation of robbery in the states allied to Nazi Germany. By examining these states from a comparative perspective, the article highlights the similarities in the institutionalisation of robbery, its framing and the competition for booty. Focusing on these commonalities, this approach seeks to explain more fully the phenomenon of robbery on a European scale. The article adopts an integrated history approach, emphasising a European perspective. Primary sources for this study include the 16-volume edition of The Persecution and Murder of the European Jews by Nazi Germany 1933–1945 .
{"title":"Robbery During the Holocaust: The Language of Robbery and the States Allied to Nazi Germany","authors":"Veronika Duma","doi":"10.1177/16118944251409630","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/16118944251409630","url":null,"abstract":"The systematic robbery of European Jews was a crucial aspect of the Holocaust. While it is undisputed that Nazi Germany was the principal initiator and organiser of the Holocaust, this article examines the robbery of Jews in countries that joined the Tripartite Pact of the Axis powers, using Italy, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, Bulgaria and Croatia as examples. Was there a shared pattern in the widespread robbery of Jewish property? To what extent was the term ‘Aryanisation’ applied in the states that were allied to Nazi Germany? Through an exploratory approach that combines different methodological perspectives, this article traces the language of robbery used to frame and justify the robbery of Jews during the Holocaust. This framing, emanating from Germany and Austria, also played a key role in the institutionalisation of robbery in the states allied to Nazi Germany. By examining these states from a comparative perspective, the article highlights the similarities in the institutionalisation of robbery, its framing and the competition for booty. Focusing on these commonalities, this approach seeks to explain more fully the phenomenon of robbery on a European scale. The article adopts an integrated history approach, emphasising a European perspective. Primary sources for this study include the 16-volume edition of <jats:italic toggle=\"yes\">The Persecution and Murder of the European Jews by Nazi Germany 1933–1945</jats:italic> .","PeriodicalId":44275,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Modern European History","volume":"44 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2026-01-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145908098","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-12-26DOI: 10.1177/16118944251409611
Borbála Klacsmann
In this article, I investigate early restitution efforts in Hungary based on two case studies: Ócsa and Újpest. Both towns are located in Pest County; however, Ócsa had a small Jewish population, while in Újpest, more than 10,000 Jews had lived before the Holocaust and at least 2000 survived. Most Hungarian survivors faced a similar situation at the end of the war: they had lost their relatives, their health was damaged, and upon their return, they realised that non-Jews had looted or claimed their property or even their apartments. In the post-war economic disaster, both Jews and non-Jews needed basic necessities such as furniture, clothes, bed linen, and so on—the former to restart their lives. Based on the two cases, I analyse whether early restitution for Holocaust survivors took a different course in a small town than in a big city, how the local leadership organised the restitution process, whether the survivors were involved in it, and what the outcomes were.
{"title":"Civil Servants, Holocaust Survivors, Non-Jews: Early Restitution in Hungary","authors":"Borbála Klacsmann","doi":"10.1177/16118944251409611","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/16118944251409611","url":null,"abstract":"In this article, I investigate early restitution efforts in Hungary based on two case studies: Ócsa and Újpest. Both towns are located in Pest County; however, Ócsa had a small Jewish population, while in Újpest, more than 10,000 Jews had lived before the Holocaust and at least 2000 survived. Most Hungarian survivors faced a similar situation at the end of the war: they had lost their relatives, their health was damaged, and upon their return, they realised that non-Jews had looted or claimed their property or even their apartments. In the post-war economic disaster, both Jews and non-Jews needed basic necessities such as furniture, clothes, bed linen, and so on—the former to restart their lives. Based on the two cases, I analyse whether early restitution for Holocaust survivors took a different course in a small town than in a big city, how the local leadership organised the restitution process, whether the survivors were involved in it, and what the outcomes were.","PeriodicalId":44275,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Modern European History","volume":"10 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2025-12-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145830202","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-12-26DOI: 10.1177/16118944251409629
Magdalena Waligórska
Looking at testimonies of victims, bystanders and perpetrators that report wartime theft and looting of Jewish belongings across East-Central Europe, this article focuses specifically on one aspect of genocidal dispossession which has so far received only tangential attention – the theft of the most intimate possessions: personal belongings, especially clothes. In doing so, it addresses the question of how this specific form of intimate dispossession facilitated genocidal policies by creating conditions for violence, incentivising collaboration, and providing a tool to inflict pain. The article lays out the ways in which genocidal dispossession accompanied, facilitated and constituted violence at different stages of Nazi-led anti-Jewish policies, including the phase of ghettoisation and hiding and the phase of mass killing. It also discusses particular measures, such as stripping down the victims and coercing Jews to sort victims’ clothes, as forms of torture. Particular attention is given in this respect to accounts of sexual violence that accompanied dispossession. The study is based on archival sources, including post-war survivors’ testimonies, post-war trials of war criminals and Nazi collaborators, yizkor books, victims’ and bystanders’ diaries, and oral history interviews, predominantly from the area of today's eastern Poland and western Belarus. It focuses on the experiences Jewish victims inside small towns ( shtetls ) that had a significant Jewish majority prior to World War II, and where the conditions for dispossession were particularly favourable.
{"title":"Intimate Dispossession as a Form of Violence: Holocaust Plunder of Jewish Personal Belongings in East-Central Europe","authors":"Magdalena Waligórska","doi":"10.1177/16118944251409629","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/16118944251409629","url":null,"abstract":"Looking at testimonies of victims, bystanders and perpetrators that report wartime theft and looting of Jewish belongings across East-Central Europe, this article focuses specifically on one aspect of genocidal dispossession which has so far received only tangential attention – the theft of the most intimate possessions: personal belongings, especially clothes. In doing so, it addresses the question of how this specific form of intimate dispossession facilitated genocidal policies by creating conditions for violence, incentivising collaboration, and providing a tool to inflict pain. The article lays out the ways in which genocidal dispossession accompanied, facilitated and constituted violence at different stages of Nazi-led anti-Jewish policies, including the phase of ghettoisation and hiding and the phase of mass killing. It also discusses particular measures, such as stripping down the victims and coercing Jews to sort victims’ clothes, as forms of torture. Particular attention is given in this respect to accounts of sexual violence that accompanied dispossession. The study is based on archival sources, including post-war survivors’ testimonies, post-war trials of war criminals and Nazi collaborators, <jats:italic toggle=\"yes\">yizkor</jats:italic> books, victims’ and bystanders’ diaries, and oral history interviews, predominantly from the area of today's eastern Poland and western Belarus. It focuses on the experiences Jewish victims inside small towns ( <jats:italic toggle=\"yes\">shtetls</jats:italic> ) that had a significant Jewish majority prior to World War II, and where the conditions for dispossession were particularly favourable.","PeriodicalId":44275,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Modern European History","volume":"41 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2025-12-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145830200","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-12-26DOI: 10.1177/16118944251409607
Markus Roth
The issue of property restitution in Poland became an important topic immediately after the end of the German occupation. Following the war, the Polish government implemented various decrees to manage abandoned and ownerless properties, which were often seized from Jewish individuals. Based on these central-level regulations, the article examines local practices within the institutions involved, as well as the associated negotiation processes. These were conducted through petitions and letters to the authorities, but also through numerous court proceedings. The negotiations over the distribution of the property of the murdered Jews were characterised by a high degree of continuity. In addition to practices already established during the occupation, many of the same people were involved. Former employees of the trust administration under German occupation and administrators of houses, shops or businesses belonging to the Jewish population who had already been appointed at that time sought to obtain or confirm their positions in post-war Poland. Furthermore, rationalisation and legitimisation strategies regarding the appropriation of Jewish property were similar. A central thesis of the article is that the occupation period and the post-war years up to 1948 should be examined more closely with regard to the treatment of Jewish property.
{"title":"‘Going to Szaber’ – What Happened to the Jewish Property in Poland, 1944–1948","authors":"Markus Roth","doi":"10.1177/16118944251409607","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/16118944251409607","url":null,"abstract":"The issue of property restitution in Poland became an important topic immediately after the end of the German occupation. Following the war, the Polish government implemented various decrees to manage abandoned and ownerless properties, which were often seized from Jewish individuals. Based on these central-level regulations, the article examines local practices within the institutions involved, as well as the associated negotiation processes. These were conducted through petitions and letters to the authorities, but also through numerous court proceedings. The negotiations over the distribution of the property of the murdered Jews were characterised by a high degree of continuity. In addition to practices already established during the occupation, many of the same people were involved. Former employees of the trust administration under German occupation and administrators of houses, shops or businesses belonging to the Jewish population who had already been appointed at that time sought to obtain or confirm their positions in post-war Poland. Furthermore, rationalisation and legitimisation strategies regarding the appropriation of Jewish property were similar. A central thesis of the article is that the occupation period and the post-war years up to 1948 should be examined more closely with regard to the treatment of Jewish property.","PeriodicalId":44275,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Modern European History","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2025-12-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145830204","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-11-03DOI: 10.1177/16118944251382170
Martin Conway, Henk te Velde, Alexander Zevin, Jens Hacke, Jussi Kurunmäki, Laurent Warlouzet, Philipp Ther, Marta Bucholc, Hugo Bonin
{"title":"The Crisis of Liberal Democracy Edited by Martin Conway and Henk te Velde","authors":"Martin Conway, Henk te Velde, Alexander Zevin, Jens Hacke, Jussi Kurunmäki, Laurent Warlouzet, Philipp Ther, Marta Bucholc, Hugo Bonin","doi":"10.1177/16118944251382170","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/16118944251382170","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":44275,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Modern European History","volume":"4 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2025-11-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145434951","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-10-03DOI: 10.1177/16118944251377916
Jerzy Łazor
Poland, like other new states of Central and Eastern Europe in the interwar period, faced challenges to its economic sovereignty. These were both due to imperial legacies, and to the postwar spread of Western capital. As capital importers, how could the Poles convince foreigners to provide the capital needed for reconstruction and development without undermining Warsaw's ability to pursue independent policies? The article analyzes the changing Polish attitudes to foreign capital through the lens of the 20-year-long conflict between the country's central and city authorities and the French owners of the Warsaw power plant. It is based on the study of diplomatic sources, press commentary, and company financial results. It shows that the conflict had a crucial role in Poland's move towards economic nationalism in relation to foreign direct investment. Moreover, it argues that the country's intransigent attitude toward the power plant owners and international arbitration in the 1930s was a reassertion of economic sovereignty. The latter had been eroded by French political and financial expansion in the previous decade.
{"title":"French Capital, the Warsaw Power Plant, and the Birth of Economic Nationalism in Interwar Poland","authors":"Jerzy Łazor","doi":"10.1177/16118944251377916","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/16118944251377916","url":null,"abstract":"Poland, like other new states of Central and Eastern Europe in the interwar period, faced challenges to its economic sovereignty. These were both due to imperial legacies, and to the postwar spread of Western capital. As capital importers, how could the Poles convince foreigners to provide the capital needed for reconstruction and development without undermining Warsaw's ability to pursue independent policies? The article analyzes the changing Polish attitudes to foreign capital through the lens of the 20-year-long conflict between the country's central and city authorities and the French owners of the Warsaw power plant. It is based on the study of diplomatic sources, press commentary, and company financial results. It shows that the conflict had a crucial role in Poland's move towards economic nationalism in relation to foreign direct investment. Moreover, it argues that the country's intransigent attitude toward the power plant owners and international arbitration in the 1930s was a reassertion of economic sovereignty. The latter had been eroded by French political and financial expansion in the previous decade.","PeriodicalId":44275,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Modern European History","volume":"9 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2025-10-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145246411","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-09-17DOI: 10.1177/16118944251377917
Cristiano La Lumia
This article explores the confiscation of private property owned by German nationals in the Allied countries after the end of World War I, focusing on the relationship between expropriation, economic nationalism and national security in the postwar decades. Along with the desire for revenge, economic nationalism became the major driver behind the Allied policies, leading to transfers of property on an unprecedented scale. Through confiscation, policymakers of the ‘victorious powers’ not only intended to punish German civilians but also seized the opportunity to intervene in the economic and financial spheres in order to achieve economic security. Drawing on a broad body of expropriation laws, which concerned assets belonging to about one and a half million civilians, this article retraces how the Allies implemented the right to confiscation afforded by the Treaty of Versailles, providing an overview of policies, diplomatic controversies and figures related to confiscated property worldwide. Furthermore, the social and economic consequences of protracted economic warfare in peacetime are explored with an emphasis on the decline of the German presence in the Allied countries and the ensuing economic transformations. This article also highlights the limits of economic nationalism in reshaping the international economy. While some countries gradually lifted persecutory measures, especially after the mid-1920s, German companies and private citizens responded to economic warfare by devising a wide range of strategies to avoid the loss of property.
{"title":"The Confiscation of German Property Between Economic Nationalism and National Security (1918–1930) ","authors":"Cristiano La Lumia","doi":"10.1177/16118944251377917","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/16118944251377917","url":null,"abstract":"This article explores the confiscation of private property owned by German nationals in the Allied countries after the end of World War I, focusing on the relationship between expropriation, economic nationalism and national security in the postwar decades. Along with the desire for revenge, economic nationalism became the major driver behind the Allied policies, leading to transfers of property on an unprecedented scale. Through confiscation, policymakers of the ‘victorious powers’ not only intended to punish German civilians but also seized the opportunity to intervene in the economic and financial spheres in order to achieve economic security. Drawing on a broad body of expropriation laws, which concerned assets belonging to about one and a half million civilians, this article retraces how the Allies implemented the right to confiscation afforded by the Treaty of Versailles, providing an overview of policies, diplomatic controversies and figures related to confiscated property worldwide. Furthermore, the social and economic consequences of protracted economic warfare in peacetime are explored with an emphasis on the decline of the German presence in the Allied countries and the ensuing economic transformations. This article also highlights the limits of economic nationalism in reshaping the international economy. While some countries gradually lifted persecutory measures, especially after the mid-1920s, German companies and private citizens responded to economic warfare by devising a wide range of strategies to avoid the loss of property.","PeriodicalId":44275,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Modern European History","volume":"49 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2025-09-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145077992","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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