Starvation as a strategy: how famines are used as a political tool
Even decades later, the German famines of the twentieth century were still used to stir certain sentiments among the population, according to research by PhD candidate Anne van Mourik. “By continuously presenting those stories to the population, the Second World War could be legitimised and framed as a war of liberation.”
In the twentieth century, the German people suffered severe hunger in two different periods – between 1914 and 1924, and again between 1945 and 1949. In her doctoral thesis, historian Anne van Mourik shows that these famines were not only devastating while they were taking place, but also continued to have a major influence long afterwards on the development of German politics and identity.
“Stories that emerge around periods of famine remain relevant for decades. This is particularly evident in school textbooks, because specific narratives are instrumentally deployed there to create a particular identity. Through those textbooks, pupils learn to understand through which lens they are supposed to view events from the past.”
What kinds of narratives did you encounter in those school textbooks?
“That is constantly changing. Take the famine during and after the First World War (1914 to 1924, ed.). Hundreds of thousands of Germans died as a result, but for as long as the war continued, school textbooks denied that there was hunger in Germany. It was acknowledged that the British were attempting to starve the population – in order to portray the inhumanity of the British – but it was important for the home front to remain strong, so the hunger was denied.”
“But when the war came to an end, the narrative in Germany shifted completely. Suddenly, the ongoing hunger was acknowledged in school textbooks. Women and children were brought into the story as innocent figures who were being starved by the British. They strongly adopted a victim role at that point, and this narrative continued to resurface frequently in the period that followed. German school textbooks stated that Germany was being colonised by the British, just like the Irish or the Indians. The memory of the famine symbolised that oppressed position. By continuously presenting those stories to the population, the Second World War could be legitimised and framed as a war of liberation.”
After that war, Germany experienced another famine. How did that influence the period that followed?
“The famine after the Second World War was used to help drive Cold War politics. In GDR school textbooks, for example, the idea was propagated that hunger was the result of capitalism. The solution, of course, had to be the GDR itself. Socialism would ensure that workers had enough to eat.”
“At the same time, a narrative emerged in West Germany in which hunger was portrayed as a kind of starting point on the road to prosperity. The idea of the neoliberal society, in which hunger has a clear function because it fuels progress. I consume, therefore I exist.”
So hunger has continuously been used as a political tool, deployed to sell one’s own ideology?
“Absolutely. A good example of this is the Berlin AirliftThe Berlin Airlift was an Allied operation in which West Berlin was supplied by airplane.. It is often claimed that Stalin attempted to starve West Germany, but that is not true. Nevertheless, this version of history began to appear in German school textbooks from the 1960s onwards. The Berlin Wall was being built at that time, and there was a need for a story that underscored Stalin’s inhumanity. The liberal democracy of the West could be legitimised by setting it against such a totalitarian narrative of starvation.”
Those famines had a very direct impact on political policy, but I can imagine that such a period of shared suffering also plays a role in the emergence of a collective identity.
“Yes, you see that most clearly during the Nazi period. The idea was created that Germans, as a race, were being oppressed by the British. In that sense, you can see how shared suffering genuinely led to a common identity.”
So that identity went hand in hand with a certain form of enemy thinking?
“Absolutely. This is reflected in the phenomenon of ‘useless eaters’. In order to ensure that the Second World War would not be lost as well, not only Jews but also Roma, Sinti, Slavic peoples, people with disabilities and psychiatric patients were deliberately starved, so that food could be diverted to the German armed forces. That is where genocidal policy and hunger policy intersected. By placing Germans higher in the food hierarchy than those ‘useless eaters’, the German race was also supposed to be kept ‘pure’.”
What lessons do you think we can draw from this today?
“Famines have very long after-effects; they are not neutral, but political. That means that the stories we are creating now about famines that are taking place today may still have an impact fifty years from now. Take the hunger we are seeing in Gaza: narratives that are being constructed now can remain extremely powerful years later. We need to take the politicisation of those stories very seriously and work to prevent myths and misinformation.”
Anne van Mourik will defend her PhD on 20 February at 11.00 a.m. with her dissertation “Mobilising Hunger: War and School Textbooks in Germany, 1914–2020.” The defence will take place in the Aula of the Lutheran Church.
