Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Jenabzadeh, Sheragim

Titel

City of Aspirations: Iranian Student Activism in Interwar Berlin

Ort / Verlag

ProQuest Dissertations Publishing

Erscheinungsjahr

2023

Link zum Volltext

Quelle

ProQuest Dissertations & Theses A&I

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• This dissertation examines the political literatures and activities of Iranian students in interwar Berlin. Iranian students went abroad with both government sponsorships, and independently with family funds, to train in European universities, obtain degrees in scientific and technical fields, and upon their return to contribute to the construction of a modern Iranian state. As well, they played a key role in Germany’s interwar program of Kulturpolitik (cultural policy) aimed at forming enduring relations with foreign states, in this case with Iran, by educating future generations of state officials and industry leaders in German academic institutions. City of Aspirations asks what impact did residence in Berlin have on the political and social outlooks of Iranian students and their visions for what a modern Iranian state should be? What role did students play in the dissemination of knowledge, politics, and understandings of modernity to Iran and diasporic communities, while studying in Berlin? Importantly, in what ways did students contribute to the politicized atmosphere of interwar Germany? Based on research in the archives and libraries of Germany and the memoirs, journals, and political pamphlets written by Iranian students, this dissertation argues that Berlin served as a key site in the formation of the ideological and political outlooks of a group of future Pahlavi officials and oppositional leaders. Iranian students in interwar Berlin fashioned themselves as active participants in projects of Iranian nation-building through the publication of political and revolutionary literature and the formation of political associations. Importantly, this dissertation seeks to show the contributions of Iranian students to the radicalizing atmosphere of politics in Germany at the end of the Weimar Republic. Their revolutionary literature and collaboration with anti-imperial groups contributed to the transnational movements present in 1920s and early 1930s Germany. This dissertation contributes to studies on the histories of Iranian modernity, political movements, and projects of reform. At the same time, it contributes to histories on the transformation of European metropoles as sites of protest and political collaboration by non-European actors.