Office Hours

Summer Semester 2026

Tuesdays, 14:00-15:00.

No office hours on May 26th, June 23rd, July 7th, or July 14th. Office hour on July 21st will take place at 15:00.


I am also available for Zoom appointments upon request.

All of my office hours are now taking place in person, via phone, or via Zoom. Please call my office number during office hours or email me for a Zoom link.

 
Research Foci
  • Public History
  • Film and History
  • Urban History
  • Germany in the 20th Century
  • Memory Studies
Further Affiliation at the University of Münster
Doctoral AbstractThesis

The Wannsee Conference and Television Docudrama: Holocaust Education and Public History, 1960-2022

Supervisor
Professor Dr. Jürgen Overhoff
Doctoral Subject
Erziehungswissenschaft
Doctoral Degree
Dr. phil.
Awarded by
Department 06 – Education and Social Studies
My dissertation explores the possibilities of depicting difficult history on film by investigating a series of movies and television programs about the Wannsee Conference, which took place in Berlin on 20 January 1942 and was intended to coordinate the Final Solution by asserting the dominance of Heydrich and the SS over other governmental departments. The surviving Wannsee Protocol stands as one of the most compelling pieces of evidence for the Third Reich’s genocidal intent and emblematic of its shift from mass shootings in the occupied East to industrial-scale murder. This dissertation will explore the differing ways in which the difficult German past has been depicted by both German and American filmmakers. Detailed analyses of the HBO/BBC co-production Conspiracy (2001) and the ORF/Bayerischer Rundfunk production Die Wannseekonferenz (1984) form the core of my dissertation. Both films reenact the Wannsee Conference in real time (ca. 90 minutes) and are examples of two approaches to historical filmmaking that reflect differences in both nationalities, television industries, and respective historiographical trends of their times (mid-1980s versus turn of the millennium). This dissertation goes beyond mere film analysis and is grounded in archival research on the production history of both films, which include script drafts, production notes, meeting minutes, and correspondence. Additional oral history interviews with the writers and production staff supplement-but by no means replace-the archival material. Additionally, this project will analyze other, more minor depictions of the Wannsee Conference on film, such as the NBC miniseries Holocaust (1978) and the recent HHhH (2017). In short, the project explores the myriad ways in which American and German filmmakers have attempted to teach the Holocaust via a singular, notorious event while also grounding each attempt in their respective national and historical contexts. In using the Wannsee films as a case study, this dissertation seeks to examine how filmmakers depict history on film and how and why this is important for historians and educators.
CV

Academic Education

M.A. Public History, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis
Austauschstudent Public History MA, Freie Universität Berlin
B.A., Germanistik und Geschichte, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, 2012

Positions

Wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter am Institut für Erziehungswissenschaft (Lehrstuhl Historische Bildungsforschung/Arbeitsstelle für Deutsch-Amerikanische Bildungsgeschichte)
Graduate Assistant, National Council on Public History (NCPH), Indianapolis, USA
Sammlungspraktikant, Museum of the American Cocktail/Southern Food and Beverage Museum, New Orleans, USA
Graduate Intern, IUPUI Institute for American Thought, Indianapolis, USA

Honors

Dissertation Prize of the Faculty of Educational and Social Science – University of Münster
IUPUI Max Kade Graduate Fellow – Max Kade Institute

External Functions

National Council on Public History
International Federation for Public History
Teaching

Publications

Scientific Talk
  • Johnson, Nicholas : “Trenches in Los Angeles, All Quiet on the Western Front, The Road Back, and how the American and German Film Industries Depicted World War I during the 1930s”. Society for German-American Studies 42nd Annual Symposium, Indianapolis, Indiana, USA, .