London Central Mosque

This afternoon's trip was to the London Central Mosque as part of the Politics and Culture in 20th Century Europe course. Our guide introduced us to the central tenets of Islam, allowed us to witness late afternoon prayers, and answered all our questions.

I could go on and on about the history of Islam or the role of Islam in Europe, but I won't. There was one thing Omar said towards the end of our visit that really rang a bell. He said he thought it was easier to be a practicing Muslim in Britain than in most other European countries. He specifically mentioned the secularism laws in France that prohibit the overt display of religious symbols (Christian crosses, Jewish Stars of David or yarmulkes, Islamic headscarves) in public schools. There is a long history to this secularism, whose roots can be found in the Enlightenment and the ideals of the French Revolution of 1789. In 1905, a law officially separated church and state and granted religious freedom in the predominantly Catholic country. Religious education and symbols were banned from public schools. In 2004, based on arguments of equality (among other things) a law was passed that outlawed the wearing of head scarves in schools.

There are about five million Muslims in France (NYT, 9/30/2008), which is the largest Muslim population in Western Europe. (We learned today that there are about 2 million Muslims in the UK.) There are only 4 private Muslim schools in France; therefore, many Muslim girls are starting to attend private Catholic schools, which allow girls to wear the scarves and demonstrate religious toleration.

There are pros and cons to the secularism...what do you think???

Tate Britain

Today was another field trip day. First stop: Tate Britain Art Museum. After an interesting guided tour of the collection focusing on British artists from the 16th-19th centuries, we had some time to wander through the rest of the museum. I went in search of the Turner paintings and walked through a room twice without noticing the subject matter or the paintings. On the third pass through the room, I noticed that the room was called "Asylum" and upon reading the information sign I discovered that all the paintings were done by refugees from Nazism who came to Britain in the 1930s and 1940s. The objective was to show the impact refugees have had on art in Britain. As someone who studies refugee and native communities during the Second World War, I was instantly drawn to the topic.

One of the first paintings to really capture my attention was called "1939" and was painted by Hans Feibusch in (try to guess what year....)...1939. Feibusch, a German painter, found that his art was outlawed in his own country in 1933 after Hitler was appointed Chancellor because he was Jewish. Later that year, he fled to Britain (we often don't realize that 10s of thousands of Jews fled Germany in 1933). In 1938, Feibusch became a British citizen. A year later, he painted "1939." The Second World War began on September 1, 1939 when Germany invaded Poland and his painting reflects both the fears of the coming war and his experiences of the First World War. Feibusch had fought in the Great War and just 20 years later - one generation - Europe was at war again. The painting, I think, shows the anguish and the horror of the wars in the figures and the colors that Feibusch chose.

Feibusch's work had been displayed in Germany after he fled the country. In 1937, his paintings had been included in the Nazi exhibition of Degenerate Art (Entartete Kunst). Art that Hitler considered to be "un-German" went on a travelling display. Modern art, art by Jewish artists, Socialists, and others was banned. Rather than stay in a country where art was a crime, many fled to other European countries, like Hans Feibusch.

I was also drawn to a painting by Jankel Adler. Adler was considered "degenerate" in at least 4 ways. He was Polish, Jewish, Socialist, and a Modernist. He also fled Germany after the Nazis came to power in 1933. According to the painting's label, Adler worked in Warsaw and Paris before coming to Britain. Like many other fleeing persecution, Adler chose other European countries when he first left Germany in 1933. These countries turned out not to be safe havens after Hitler quickly conquered most of the European continent in 1939 and 1940. Adler came to the UK as part of the Polish Army. (After the country's swift defeat in 1939, the Polish government went into exile in London - they continued to support the AK (Polish Home Army) as a resistance force throughout the war). In 1942/3, Adler painted "The Mutilated" in the midst of the heavy bombing of London. Adler said his painting reflects his admiration of London's population in the face of daily suffering and extreme stress. According the Adler, "only then could humanity been seen at its best." Yet the subject matter shows humanity at its worst...the mutilation of others through warfare.

Today's trip reminded me of the clear connections between politics (in this case the rise of Nazism and its exclusionary and then genocidal "laws") and culture. The paintings were a direct reflection of individual, daily experiences in Europe between 1939 and 1945.

Professional Development

So part of the great thing about teaching in London is that I also get to take advantage of all the other things the city has to offer in terms of my professional development. Being a professor means also being a professional student. There is always more to learn and more things to research. I started looking on the internet for information on how to use the Wiener Library for research yesterday. The Wiener Library was formed in 1933 and it is a library and archive dedicated to preserving information on the Holocaust and Nazi era in order to make it available to researchers. As I was looking around the webpage, I discovered that they were hosting a book launch and talk that night! Dr. Neil Gregor would be talking about his new book, Haunted City: Nuremberg and the Nazi Past.

The talk turned out to be a very interesting discussion of how the people of Nuremberg (the site of the Nazi Party rallies and home to the post-war trials of Nazis) have commemorated and remembered their participation in the war and the Holocaust. He argues that the people of Nuremberg preferred to remember themselves as victims of the war (especially as victims of Allied air raids on the city) than remembering their participation in exclusion, discrimination, and genocide. History isn't just about the events...it's about the way that those events are remembered and interpreted.

The talk was interesting and so was the location. We were seated on chairs in the aisles between bookshelves in a typical London building. Now I know where to go for my research and hopefully for more talks in the future.

The first week

I've been here for not quite a week and I'm already amazed at the amount of European history, culture, and politics you run across in your daily life. Within the first few days I had a very interesting conversation with a man whose family fled Poland during the Second World War. Fearing both the Nazis and the Soviets, the family headed to Hungary. I study and research the history of World War II in Europe all the time as part of my job, but I rarely have the opportunity to talk to someone who experienced it when I'm living in Rolla.

Walking back to the flat through my neighborhood also gives me the opportunity to see history. Sometimes it's marked right there on the building! Not only do the streets and the buildings themselves have histories, people who lived in them also have their own histories. Not far from my flat is the house where T.S. Eliot died. Eliot seems especially appropriate to discuss in a blog related to our Missouri London course on 20th century European politics and culture. Time Magazine even calls him one of the 100 most important people of the twentieth century. Eliot was born in St. Louis but became a British citizen in 1927 (according to his Nobel Prize biography.) Eliot has been called "one of the most daring innovators of twentieth-century poetry." His works often reflected the disillusionment of people after the Great War and are linked with ideas of modernity, especially his poem "The Waste Land." I've heard that Eliot's friend and fellow poet, Ezra Pound, lived in the street behind our flat. I'll have to go take a look. Who knows? Maybe they even walked by this house on their way to the pub or on a shopping trip.

On a more pop culture note, I've been noticing the similarities between British and American tv. Why is it that we both seem to have the same bad shows?? I saw a less-flashier version of "Deal or No Deal" the other day; then there's "Big Brother" and "Wife Swap." I think I saw something similar to "American Idol" (I didn't watch long enough to confirm it) and I had to watch "Dancing on Ice" last night! It's like "Dancing with the Stars" only on ice and with more chances for injury. I saw a football player smash head-first into the ice and another contestant who had to sit out last season because he broke his ankle skating in practice. Even though I have no idea who the celebrities are that I was watching, I just couldn't turn it off. I had to wonder if the show would be migrating to the US next. One part of me says no because Americans aren't huge skating fans, but then again Americans aren't big ballroom dancing fans and "Dancing with the Stars" is still a big hit. And there's the chance for injury and we Americans seem to like watching things with an element of danger. So who knows?? [NOTE: I remembered that the US *did* have this, but all I remember about it was the celebrity gossip. It obviously didn't make a lasting impression...]

I wonder what this tells us about European culture? In some ways I guess we are more similar to the Europeans than we often think. Or maybe we're just more similar to the British (although I saw "Deal or No Deal" in France before I saw it in the US). Reality tv seems to be just as popular here as at home. Is this a reflection of culture in general? What is the different between "high" and "popular" culture? Is "high" culture disappearing? These are definitely things to think about and explore. It certainly shows the global nature of our world.