In the Wrong Place at the Wrong Time: A British-German Exploration of Civilian Internment in Lofthouse Park Camp and the Engländerlager Ruhleben
Supported by the Centre for Hidden Histories of the First World War
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In 1914, thousands of British and German tourists, business travellers, seamen, artists, exchange students and even permanent residents who happened to be in Germany or Britain, respectively, became ‘enemy aliens’ when war was declared. If male and of fighting age, they were interned for the duration of the war in special camps for civilian detainees. Within a few weeks, the normality of pre-war everyday British-German relations transformed into physical and ideological segregation.
This project brings together academic and community-based researchers from Britain and Germany to explore the little known history of civilian internment and take this aspect of the war to a wider public. At the heart of the project are two specific sites, the camp for British civilians in Ruhleben (Berlin-Spandau, Germany) and Lofthouse Park Camp for German internees in Wakefield (near Leeds, UK). Research and activities focus on the historical detail of internment and the wider social and cultural implications for the internees and their families, the local population and those involved in camp administration and security. On the level of Centenary reflection, the project also addresses European mobility, intermarriage and expatriate communities in the early 20th and, by comparison, in the 21st century. An exhibition will be developed for display alongside other WWI exhibitions planned in Wakefield and Spandau for 2016 and 2017.
The project involves historians and members of local communities in the research as co-researchers, contributors to community sourcing activities, workshop participants and visitors of the exhibition. Pupils from two German and British high schools are matched to engage in the research. Collaborators in Berlin are the Youth History Workshop Spandau, Spandau City Museum and colleagues at Humboldt University. Partners in the UK are community-based historians, academic colleagues in Leeds, Sheffield and Birmingham, families of the German Saturday Schools in the UK and the West Yorkshire Archive Service Wakefield. The project team makes use of local archives in Spandau and Wakefield as well as the WWI Liddle Collection at the University of Leeds.
If you would like more information (in English or German) or would like to contribute, please contact Claudia Sternberg at c.sternberg@leeds.ac.uk
Project website: ruhlebenlofthouse.com