From 1871 until 1945, a period of less than a century, Germany underwent incredible developments as a nation-state. While Germany was only a bundle of separate and divided states in 1848, it...Show moreFrom 1871 until 1945, a period of less than a century, Germany underwent incredible developments as a nation-state. While Germany was only a bundle of separate and divided states in 1848, it managed to turn itself into a unified country by 1933. Furthermore, during an even shorter timeframe (1933-1942), the Nazis physically succeeded at turning an economically and politically broken country into a continental superpower. It is also important to mention that Germany in 1914-1918 lost over 2 million soldiers and 400,000 civilians during the First World War.1 In this light, it is difficult to understand how the Nazi government mentally prepared its’ population for the idea of waging another World War. Given this contradictory and volatile context, it is historically relevant to re-examine the relationship between Nazi propaganda and public opinion. Therefore, this research attempts to explain how Nazi propaganda reinterpreted realities in a way that created an inescapable context of propaganda for a majority of the German population.Show less
The present thesis aims at a better understanding of Islamophobia in Western Europe. For this purpose, it investigates how the issue is perceived from the Arabic and from the Western European...Show moreThe present thesis aims at a better understanding of Islamophobia in Western Europe. For this purpose, it investigates how the issue is perceived from the Arabic and from the Western European perspective, what both of these views have in common and where the differences between them. In the opening section, the results of a literature research are presented, which focuses on academic Arabic sources, articles on the Aljazeera website, and academic publications by West European authors. In this context, various aspects of the phenomenon such as the definition of the term, roots and causes, the role of media and of the political right, and its relation to the anti-Semitism are considered. As example of manifestation of Islamophobia the French head scarf ban is discussed. Comparing the Arabic and the Western European view on Islamophobia, one cannot detect specific differences concerning the definition of the term, albeit the latter appears contested and vague. In contrast, the identified reasons for Islamophobia and the role attributed to media and the political right are controversial and depend very much on the particular perspective involved. While the majority of the Western sources identifies the reason of Islamophobia as the perceived incompatibility of Islam with Western and European values, Arab authors mostly hold Western misunderstanding and lack of knowledge responsible for the phenomenon. They also attribute an essential role to media and the political right in its dissemination. While at least the majority of the Arab sources attribute a positive character to the headscarf, in Western Europe it is frequently understood as symbol of a radical Islam and gender discrimination, therefore justifying its ban. The comparison with anti-Semitism appears to be restricted to the Western European perspective, which is possibly due to the role this phenomenon has played in Europe's history.Show less
