Memoir and Memory: The papers of a pre-war German - Alfred Huhnhäuser, 1885 to 1950

Abstract

The personal archive of Dr Alfred Huhnhäuser (1885-1950), a German civil servant, is examined with regard to this thesis. The archive consists of an unfinished personal memoir, Aus einem reichen Leben, five chapters of a political memoir concerning Huhnhäuser's time in Norway during the German occupation, publications edited by Huhnhäuser and other personal documents. A full catalogue of the contents of the archive has been included in this thesis. An attempt has been made to identify the significance of the Huhnhäuser archive within a literary framework and, therefore, a brief analysis of the study of autobiographical writings has been undertaken. The importance of the archive within the context of social history has also been stressed, for Huhnhäuser was an "ordinary" German and not one of the Great and the Good. The personal memoirs operate on three levels - personal, worldstage and cultural- and extracts from the archive have been used to illustrate this. A brief historical summary of events in Norway prior to and immediately after the German occupation is given in order to place the events described by Huhnhäuser in context. The contents of the personal and political memoirs are summarized and analyzed in this thesis. Recurring themes are identified and examined. Perhaps the most significant is Huhnhäuser's repeated claim that he is an inherently ''unpolitisches We sen". Evidence has been obtained from the Bundesarchiv in Berlin which proves that Huhnhäuser joined the NSDAP on 1 May 1933. Huhnhäuser does not refer in the memoirs to his membership of this party, claiming instead that he has never voluntarily been involved in party politics. A second volume of materials has been included in this thesis in order to provide more detailed information as regards to the composition and contents of the archive. Extracts from the memoirs and letters have also been selected.