JONATHAN PETROPOULOS

October 1999

Department of History                                                                                                        tel.  909-607-2775
Claremont Mckenna College                                                                                               fax  909-621-8419
850 Columbia Avenue                                                                  e-mail: jonathan_ petropoulos@mckenna.edu
Claremont, CA 91711-6420

 

ACADEMIC POSITIONS

 

Associate Professor of History, Claremont McKenna College, 1999-present.

 

Associate Professor of History, Loyola College in Maryland, 1997-1999.

 

Assistant Professor of History, Loyola College in Maryland, 1993-1997.

 

Lecturer on History and Literature, Harvard University, 1990-1993.

 

Lecturer on History, Harvard University Extension School, 1992-93.

 

Lecturer on History, Harvard University, 1990-1992

 

Teaching Fellow in History and in the Core Program, Harvard University, 1985-1990.
 
 

EDUCATION

 

Ph.D.  Harvard University, Modern European History, 1990.

 
A.M.   Harvard University, Modern European History, 1984.
 
B.A.   U.C.L.A., History (with honors), 1983.  University of London, Visiting Student, 1981-82.

 

PUBLICATIONS

 

Monographs:

 

The Faustian Bargain: the Art World in Nazi Germany (New York/Oxford: Oxford University Press, forthcoming, January 2000).

 

Art as Politics in the Third Reich (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1996).  Paperback edition is forthcoming in February 1999.  Translation in German (Berlin: Ullstein-Propyläen, 1999).

 

Anthologies:

Co-editor with Scott Denham (Davidson) and Irene Kacandes (Dartmouth), A User's Guide to German Cultural Studies (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1997).

 

Editorial Board Member for Elizabeth Simpson, ed., The Spoils of War: The Loss, Reappearance, and Recovery of Cultural Property During and After World War II (New York: Harry Abrams, 1997).

 
 

Articles:

 

"`People Turned to Ashes, Their Property Did Not': Plundering and the Pursuit of Profit during the Holocaust," in Eberhard Jäckel and Geoffrey Giles, eds., The Genesis of Nazi Policy (forthcoming, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000).

 

"From Seduction to Denial: Arno Breker's Engagement with National Socialism," in Richard Etlin, ed., Culture and the Nazis (forthcoming, University of Chicago Press, 2000).

 

“Art Historians and Nazi Plunder,” in The New England Review 21 (Winter 1999), 5-30.

 

"Karl Haberstock: als Kunsthändler der Naziführer," in Eugen Blume and Dieter Scholz, eds., Überbrückt: Ästhetische Moderne und Nationalsozialismus: Kunsthistoriker und Künstler, 1925-1937 (Cologne: Walther König, 1999), 256-64.

 

"Exposing Deep Files," in ARTnews 98/1 (January 1999), 143-44.

 

"Holocaust Denial: A Generational Typology," in Peter Hayes, ed., Lessons and Legacies of the Holocaust:

Memory, Memorialization, and Denial (Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 1998), 239-47.
 
"Business as Usual: Switzerland, the Commerce in Artworks during and After World War II, and National Identity," in Contemporary Austrian Studies VII (1998), 229-42.
 
"Co-Opting Nazi Germany: Neutrality in Europe during World War II" in Dimensions 11, No. 1 (Spring 1997), 15-21.
 

"German Laws and Directives Bearing on the Appropriation of Cultural Property in the Third Reich," in Elizabeth Simpson, ed., The Spoils of War: The Loss, Reappearance, and Recovery of Cultural Property During and After World War II (New York: Harry Abrams, 1996), 106-111.

 

"The Primacy of Kulturpolitik: Tolerance, Hegemony, and Subsumption in Interwar Austria as a Background to the Artist in Exile," in John Czaplicka, ed., Emigrants and Exiles: A Lost Generation of Austrian Artists in America, 1920-1950 (Vienna/New York: Österreichische Galerie, 1996), 71-100.

 

The History of the Second Rank: the Art Plunderer Kajetan Mühlmann," in Contemporary Austrian Studies IV (1995), 177-221.

 

"The Administration of the Visual Arts in National Socialist Germany," in Glenn Cuomo, ed., National Socialist Cultural Policy (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1995), 141-99.

 

"Confronting the 'Holocaust as Hoax' Phenomenon as Teachers," in The History Teacher 28/4 (August 1995), 523-39.

 
"Plunder and Power: Art Looting and the Essence of National Socialism," American Council on Germany
Occasional Papers 5 (March 1995).
 
"Not a Case of 'Art for Art's Sake': the Collecting Practices of the National Socialist Elite," in German Politics and Society 32 (Summer 1994), 107-24.
 
"Public and Private Debates: The Evolution of the National Socialist Aesthetic Policy," in Zeitgeschichte
11/12- 21 (November-December 1994), 388-97.
 
"Für Deutschtum und Eigennutz: Die Bedeutung der Kunstsammlungen der nationalsozialistischen Eliten" in Jan Tabor, ed., Kunst und Diktatur (Vienna: Künstlerhaus Wien, 1994), 568-79.
 
 
"Bannerträger und Tiroler Bergjäger: Die von den USA beschlagnahmte NS-Kunst," in Jan Tabor, ed., Kunst und Diktatur (Vienna: Künstlerhaus Wien, 1994), 864-71.
 

"Occasional Paper: Report on the XIII American-German Young Leaders Conference" (New York: American Council on Germany, 1992).
 

"Developments in German History and Culture from 1870 to 1945: an Illustrated Chronology," and "A Selected Bibliography of the Cultural History of the Third Reich," in Degenerate Art: the Fate of the Avant-Garde in Nazi Germany (New York: Harry Abrams, 1991), 391-401, 406-09.

 

"Saving Culture From the Nazis" in Harvard Magazine 92, No. 4 (cover story, March 1990), 34-42.

 

"Should the Kaiser Ride Again?" in German Politics and Society 16 (Spring 1989), 87-90.

 

Edited Anthology on Weimar and Nazi Culture (Harvard University Sourcebook Publications: editions produced in 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989 and 1990).
 

Book Reviews and Review Essays:

 

Joachim Fest, Albert Speer: Eine Biographie, in The Berlin Journal, January 2000).

 

Barbara McCloskey, George Grosz and the Communist Party in The American Historical Review 103/4 (October 1998), 1268-69.
 

Hector Feliciano, The Lost Museum, for internet H-German list, March 1998.

 

Klaus Fischer, Nazi Germany: A New History, in The American Historical Review 103, No. 1 (February 1998), 220-21.

 

Kurt Waldheim, Die Antwort, in Contemporary Austrian Studies 6 (June 1997), 295-99 (review essay).

 

Ronald Smelser, Enrico Syring, and Rainer Zitelmann, eds., Die Braune Elite II.  21 weitere biographischen Skizzen, in German Studies Review XIX, No. 2 (May 1996), 351-52.

 

Volker Dahm, "Nationale Einheit und Partikulare Vielfalt.  Zur Frage der kulturpolitischen Gleichschaltung im Dritten Reich," in Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte 43 (1995) (review for internet H-German list).
 

"Austrian Menschenjäger," in Contemporary Austrian Studies III (Fall, 1994), 80-94 (review essay).
 

"Berlin's Cultural History: Making the Weltstadt Accessible," in German Politics and Society 23 (Summer 1991), 62-70 (review essay).
 

Desmond Seward, Napoleon and Hitler: a Comparative Biography in Harvard International Review XII, No. 2 (Winter 1990), 56.
 

Anton Kaes, From Heimat to Hitler: The Return of History as Film, in German Politics and Society 20 (Summer 1990), 99-100.
 

Timothy Ryback, Rock Around the Bloc: A History of Rock Music in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, in Harvard International Review XII, No. 4 (Summer 1990), 63.
 
 

RELATED ACADEMIC WORK

 

Research Director for Presidential Advisory Commission on Holocaust Assets in the United States (chaired by Edgar Bronfman).  Oversee research and draft report concerning art looted from Holocaust victims by American forces, as well as victims' art which subsequently entered American collections, 3/99 - present.

 

Administrative Director and Board Member of the The Project for the Documentation of Wartime Cultural Losses, a not for profit organization created in 1998 for the purpose of gathering, centralizing and making available information relating to works of art, archives, and other types of cultural property displaced as a consequence of war, 6/98 - present.

 

Consultant on looted artwork for U.S. Department of State, CBS 60 Minutes, ABC Primetime Live, Arts and Entertainment Biography, The Boston Globe, The Christian Science Monitor, and ARTnews magazine, 7/97 - present.

 

Scholarly Associate (Wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiter) at Künstlerhaus Wien.  Worked with curator Jan Tabor in preparation of exhibition Kunst und Diktatur (March-August 1994): helped arrange loans from collections in the United States, located illustrations for catalog, consulted on provenance of exhibits.  Part time position December 1993-April 1994.
 

Assistant to Curator at Los Angeles County Museum of Art.  Worked with curator Stephanie Barron in preparation of exhibition, Degenerate Art: The Fate of the Avant Garde in Nazi Germany (February-November 1991): prepared section of exhibition on artists and intellectuals during the Third Reich and assisted with production of catalog.  Full time position, Summer 1989 and Summer 1990.  Part time September 1989-May 1991.
 

Affiliate of the Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, Harvard University, 1990-1993.  Participated in scholarly exchanges at a research center which promotes interdisciplinary study of modern Europe.
 

Consultant at the Derek C. Bok Center for Teaching and Learning, Harvard University, 1991-1992.  Advised Teaching Assistants and administrators with the aim of improving the quality of instruction at the university.
 

Tutor in History at Lowell House, Harvard University.  A Non-Resident Tutor from 1985 to 1989 and 1992 to 1993 and a Resident Tutor from 1989 to 1992.  As a member of the Senior Common Room, advised students, voted on fellowship recommendations; also participated in extra-curricular activities.
 
 

GRANTS AND AWARDS

 

Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, award for academic year 1999-2000.

 

Fulbright Senior Scholar Fellowship, grant for academic year 1999-2000.

 

American Academy in Berlin, grant for one semester, academic year 1999-2000.

 

Holocaust Educational Foundation, Research Grant, summer 1998.

 

German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) Research Grant, May-July 1997.

 

Summer Research Grant, Loyola College, August 1997.

 

German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), subvention for book, A User's Guide to German Cultural Studies, December 1996.

 

Summer Research Grant, Loyola College, June-August 1996.

 

Junior Faculty Sabbatical, Loyola College, July 1995-January 1996.

 

Enhancing Classroom Teaching (for trip to Holocaust sites in Eastern Europe), Loyola College, June 1995.

 

Holocaust Educational Foundation, for research into pedagogy of Holocaust, June 1995.

 

German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) Research Grant for Recent PhDs, August 1993-January 1994.

 

Selected as "Young Leader" by the American Council on Germany, August 1993.

 

Grant from Austrian Foreign Office, Vienna, for research in Austria, summer 1992.

 

Milton Fund, Harvard University, for research in Austria, summer 1992.

 

German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), for study and research in the Federal Republic of Germany, 1987-1988.

 

Harvard University Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies Summer Research Grant, 1986.

 

Harvard University Committee on Undergraduate Education Distinguished Teaching Award, 1988-89 and 1989-90.

 

Graduated from the Honors College at U.C.L.A.: a selective and rigorous program which the university calls its "highest academic achievement," 1983.

 

Phi Beta Kappa at U.C.L.A., 1983.

 

PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATIONS

 

Treasurer of the Friends of the German Historical Institute.  Nominating Committee for Conference Group for Central European History (within American Historian Association).  Member of the following organizations: American Council on Germany; German Studies Association; American Historical Association; College Art Association.
 

CONFERENCES AND LECTURES

 

Paper: “The History of Art Looting in World War II: The Implications for Locating Works Still Missing,” at conference, Holocaust Research and Holocaust Studies in the 21st Century at The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, DC, 15 December 1999.

 

Respondent: “Panel on Teaching Innovation,” Presidential Inauguration Symposium, Claremont Mckenna College, 13 October 1999.

 

Lecture: “The History of Nazi Art Looting: Tracking Works Still Missing” at The Marion Cook Athenaeum, Claremont Mckenna College, 29 September 1999.
 

Paper: "Arno Breker and the Third Reich--From Seduction to Denial," at symposium, "Kultur und Staatsgewalt: Formen und Folgen der Kulturpolitik im Dritten Reich und in der DDR," Technische Universität, Dresden, 4 June 1999.
 

Lecture, “The Art World in Nazi Germany,” at The Art Seminar Group,  Baltimore, MD, 4 May 1999.

 

Keynote speaker: “Looted Art and World War II” at the U.S. Foundation for the World Federation of Friends of Museum, Baltimore, MD, 23 April 1999.
 

Paper: "Crossing Disciplinary Boundaries: History and Art History," at German Studies Forum, Duke University, Durham, NC, 16 April 1999.
 

Keynote Speaker: "Looted Art of World War II," at the Memorial Art Gallery, Rochester, NY, 14 April 1999.

 

Paper: "Researching and Writing About Holocaust-Era Art Looting, Recovery, and Restitution," at a symposium of the National Archives and Records Administration, "Records and Research Related to Holocaust-Era Assets," College Park, 4 December 1999.
 

Paper: "An Overview of Nazi Art Looting during World War II" at the U.S. Department of State organized, "Washington Conference on Holocaust-Era Assets," Washington, DC, 1 December 1999.
 

Paper: "`People Turned to Ashes, Their Property Did Not': Plundering and the Pursuit of Profit during the Holocaust," at the German Historical Institute symposium, "The Genesis of Nazi Policy," University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, 11 April 1998.
 

Scholar in Residence, Beth El Synagogue, Fairfield, CT, 27 February - 1 March 1998.

 

Paper: "Karl Haberstock: Kunsthändler der Nazi-Führer," at conference "Überbrückt: Ästhetische Moderne und Nationalsozialismus: Kunsthistoriker und Künstler, 1925-1937," at Hamburger Bahnhof--Museum für Gegenwart, Berlin, 29 November 1997.
 

Lecture and Panel Discussion: "The Nazi Conspiracy and the Market for Stolen Art," at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY, 22 October 1997.
 

Paper: "Business as Usual: Switzerland, the Commerce in Artworks during and after World War II, and National Identity," at the German Studies Association Conference, Washington, DC, 26 September 1997.
 

Paper: "Museum Director Ernst Buchner--Compromise, Corruption, and Rehabilitation," at Washington Area Germanists' Seminar, Washington, DC, 28 April 1997.
 

Paper: "From Seduction to Denial: Arno Breker's Engagement with National Socialism," at German Studies Association Conference, Seattle, 12 October 1996 and at College Art Association, New York, 14 February 1997.
 

Chase-Crowe Lecture: "The Faustian Bargain: The Cooptation of the Artistic Professions in Nazi Germany," at Northwestern University, 3 February 1997.
 

Comment: on panel "Redefining the Past? Vergangenheitspolitik and Historians in Germany," at German Studies Association Conference, Seattle, 14 October 1996.
 

Chair and Commentator, for session "Artistic Interactions in Exile," at symposium "Emigrants and Exiles: A Lost Generation of Austrian Artists in America," at Northwestern University, 20 April 1996.
 

Co-organizer, Chair and Commentator: for symposium, "German Studies as Cultural Studies," at Davidson College, Davidson, N.C., 17-18 March 1995.
 

Lecture: "Anti-Modernism, Anti-Semitism, and the Essence of National Socialism," Davidson College, Davidson, N.C., 16 March 1995.
 

Paper: "German Laws and Directives Bearing on the Appropriation of Cultural Property in the Third Reich," at The Spoils of War, New York, 20 January 1995.
 

Paper: "Holocaust Denial: a Generational Typology," at Lessons and Legacies III: Memorialization, Representation and Teaching the Holocaust, Dartmouth College, 23 October 1994.
 

Paper: "The Radical Right in Germany and Austria," at the United States Institute of Peace, Washington, DC, 18 July 1994.
 

Panel participant: "Should One Exhibit National Socialist Art in Museums Today?," at Künstlerhaus Wien, Vienna, 15 April 1994.
 

Lecture: "Kunst als Politik in Nationalsozialismus," at the Institut für Neuere Geschichte, Ludwig-Maximilian Universität, Munich, 24 November 1994.
 

Participant: "Differenzen in der Bearbeitung des Nationalsozialismus, des Antisemitismus und des Holocaust in Österreich, in der Bundesrepublik und in der DDR.  Zeitgeschichtlich Forschung im Vergleich," at Schloss Leopoldskron, Salzburg, 7-10 November 1993.
 

Paper: "Teaching the Holocaust in an Interdisciplinary Manner: Confronting the Holocaust as Hoax Phenomenon," at the German Studies Association Conference, Washington, DC, 10 October 1993.
 

Paper: "The Politics of Art Collecting in the Third Reich," Minda de Gunzburg Center For European Studies, Harvard University, 18 December 1991.
 

Conference participant: XIII American-German Young Leaders' Conference (sponsored by the American Council on Germany and the Atlantik Brücke, Richmond Virginia), 19-26 August 1991.
 

Lecture: "Germania and Genocide: The World View of National Socialist Leaders as Expressed Through Their Art Collections": public lecture at Davidson College (Davidson, North Carolina, 14 March 1991).
 
 

TEACHING EXPERIENCE
 

Claremont Mckenna College
 

Freshman Honors Seminar on World War II (Hist 100), Fall 1999.
 

Culture and Society in Weimar and Nazi Germany (Hist 139), Fall 1999.
 

Loyola College in Maryland:
 

Modern Civilization (HS 101), Spring 1994 through Fall 1998.

 

Honors Program: The Modern World (HN 280), Spring 1997 and Spring 1998.
 

The Creation of Modern Germany, 1770 to the Present (HS 318), Spring 1994, Fall 1996, and Fall 1998.
 

The Holocaust and the USA (HS 716--graduate course), Fall 1996.
 

Culture and Politics in Fin-de-Siècle Europe (HS 310), Fall 1994 and Spring 1998.
 

Nazi Germany and the Holocaust (HS 478), Spring 1995, Fall 1997.
 

Hitler and the Third Reich (HS 410), Spring 1996.
 

Historical Methods (HS 400), Spring 1996.
 
 

Harvard University:

 

History of Germany, 1890-1900 (History E-1575), Spring 1993.
 

The Culture of Fascism in 20th Century Europe (History 1506), Spring 1992.
 

Culture and Politics in Weimar and National Socialist Germany (History 90S), Fall 1992.
 
 

SERVICE
 

Claremont Mckenna College

 

Chair, Committee for Rhodes and Marshall Scholarships, 1999-present.

 
European Union Center, Claremont Mckenna College delegate, 1999-present.
 
 
Loyola College
 

Freshman Year Task Force, 1996-99.

 

Core Adviser, 1994-99.

 

Phi Beta Kappa Committee, 1994-99.

 

Study Abroad Committee, 1994-99.

 

Recreation Advisory Board, 1997-99.

 

Honors Program Committee, 1996-99.

 

Faculty Council, 1997-99.

 

Film Studies Committee--1998-99.

 

College Board on Discipline, 1994-1997.

 

Chair, Search Committee for endowed chair in Asian history, 1997-98.