Lecture Series Ruperto Carola Lecture Series “1945: Epochal Threshold and Experiential Space”

Press Release No. 37/2025
30 April 2025

“By focusing on 1945 as an epochal threshold and experiential space, the Ruperto Carola Lecture Series opens up two complementary perspectives: a retrospective interpretation, which situates the end of the Second World War among the fractures and continuities of 20th century history, and a reconstruction of direct human experience and suffering,” explains Prof. Dr Manfred Berg from Heidelberg University’s Department of History, who designed the series. The speakers from Germany, Austria and the United States will examine these two dimensions with examples from local, national and international contexts. “This will make clear that the end of the war in 1945 is linked to very different experiences, memories and historical ruptures,” Prof. Berg says.

In the opening lecture, Prof. Leonhard will compare the end of the First World War with that of the Second World War. Up until the summer of 1918, the Germans still believed in the possibility of victory, which would justify the sacrifices they had made since 1914. In the Second World War, in contrast, the belief in victory began to fade toward the end of 1942 at the latest, according to the speaker. While the German nation state survived after 1918, despite the burdens entailed by the Treaty of Versailles, the end of the Second World War saw Germany’s “unconditional surrender” and the loss of its status as a subject of international law. In his lecture, Prof. Leonhard will start from Germany in exploring how the different ends of the two world wars played out and have shaped their historical perception into the present. Jörn Leonhard is Professor of Modern European History at the University of Freiburg’s Department of History. In addition to European history, his research includes global perspectives on the 19th and 20th centuries.

The Ruperto Carola Lecture Series is part of an approach to focal themes. With it, Heidelberg University seeks to take socially relevant research questions to a broad public twice a year in differing formats. The total of nine lectures in the present series “1945: Epochal Threshold and Experiential Space” on the focal theme BACK & FORTH will take place – with the exception of the event on 26 May – every Monday in the Great Hall of the Old University; they begin at 6.15 pm. Recordings will subsequently be accessible on heiONLINE, the central portal of Heidelberg University with lectures, panels and events in digital formats. 

In the summer semester, Heidelberg University will examine the historical watershed of 1945 in two more core projects. How did the people in Heidelberg experience the end of the Second World War and its direct aftermath? What needs, memories and expectations, hopes and concerns shaped their daily lives? These questions are explored in the exhibition “1945: Heidelberg – All and Everything Lost?”. It is on view in the entrance hall of the New University and will open on 4 May. A second exhibition entitled “1945: Leonard McCombe – Nach dem Krieg / Aftermath of War” displays images by the British-American photojournalist Leonard McCombe. From 1944 to 1946, McCombe, in the service of the Allied forces, documented the consequences of the war and the suffering of civilians from Normandy right up to Warsaw. The photos, supplemented with quotes from McCombe’s contemporary photo documentaries and short audio clips by the photographer, can be viewed at the Heidelberg Center for American Studies, Hauptstraße 120, from 6 May.