Ludwig Decke

Biography

I am interested in the intersection of Jewish, (post-)colonial, and modern European history. My research investigates the paradoxes of liberalism as a force of both emancipation and domination. I am currently working on a dissertation project which intertwines two stories that are usually considered in separate terms: Jewish responses to antisemitism and the antiracist struggle of other racialized populations, namely Black Europeans, guest workers, immigrants from former colonies, and Sinti and Roma.

Education

M.A., 2020, Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena
B.A., 2016, University of Leipzig

Field

• European History
• Jewish History

MA Title

• “Fighting for the American Jewish Dream: Morris R. Cohen and Liberal Jewish Postwar Planning during World War II “

Selected Publications

• “A Letter of Refusal: Morris R. Cohen and Oscar I. Janowsky on the Problems of Jewish Peace Studies during World War II” in Mimeo: Blog of the Dubnow Institute, 2022.
• “Ungleiche Weggefährten: Hannah Arendt, Melvin Lasky und der Antitotalitarismus im kulturellen Kalten Krieg,” Dubnow Institute Yearbook 17 (2018), pp. 117-144, .
• “Illiberale Demokratie avant la lettre: Zu Carl Schmitts demokratietheoretischen Überlegungen in der Weimar Republik,” in Konflikt und Konsens: Demokratische Transformation in der Weimarer und Bonner Republik, ed. Sebastian Elsbach and Ronny Noak (Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 2019), pp. 279-294.
• “Carl Schmitt,” in Handbuch der völkischen Wissenschaften: Akteure, Netzwerke, Forschungsprogramme, ed. Michael Fahlbusch, Ingo Haar and Alexander Pinwinkler (Berlin/Boston, Mass.: De Gruyter Oldenbourg, 2017), pp. 732-736 (together with Raphael Gross).

Selected Awards

• Fellow, Summer Institute on the Holocaust and Jewish Civilization, Holocaust Educational Foundation of Northwestern University (2022)
• Early Excellence in Teaching Award, Department of History, University of Wisconsin-Madison (2022)
• Student Research Grants Competition, Conference Presentation Award, Graduate School, University of Wisconsin-Madison (2021)
• George L. Mosse Distinguished Graduate Fellowship in European Cultural History, University of Wisconsin-Madison (2020)
• Fulbright Fellowship (2018)
• Matthias Erzberger Prize for the best B.A. thesis on the history of the Weimar Republic (2017)

Professional Affiliations

• German Studies Association
• Association for Jewish Studies
• Central European History Society

Courses Taught as TA

• History 350: The First World War and the Shaping of Twentieth Century Europe
• History 357: The Second World War