Event Type: Branch

Takes Place: 1st December 2026

Time: 7.00 p.m.

Venue: Lecture Theatre, Roland Levinsky Building, University of Plymouth, Drake Circus, Plymouth PL4 8AA

Description: This is a study of post-war reconstruction and the politics of local identities, particularly relating to three harbour cities—the Hanseatic cities of Hamburg, Lübeck and Bremen. The talk looks at shattered home towns after the bombing (something relatable to Plymouth), and also at how denizens used their sea-faring history to argue for internationalist projects and reconciliation as being in tune with local identities/histories. This contrasted with the Nazi definition of their harbour towns as part of a tradition of "projecting" German national power onto the world stage.

How to book: Eventbrite (details later)

Price: Free for national and local members of the HA and for Plymouth University students, Visitors £6.00, concessions £4.00

Tel: 01752 843750

Email: a.cousins345@btinternet.com

Website: www.ha-plymouth.org.uk/

Organiser: Alan Cousins

Lecturer: Dr Jeremy DeWaal, University of Exeter

Comments: A historian of modern Germany and Europe with an interest in cultural and political history, the history of place and space, concepts of tradition, and the history of emotions. Dr DeWaal has written a book entitled Geographies of Renewal: Heimat and Democ

Region: South-West England

Branch: Plymouth