Speaker: Annelie Ramsbrock, University of Greifswald
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What did democracy mean for society, and how did it transform the relationship between individuals and the state? Focusing on prison reforms in West Germany during the 1960s and 1970s, the lecture explores the struggles over how democratic ideals of freedom, human dignity, and participation could be realised behind bars. It examines the tensions between care and control, liberalisation and coercion, and the ways in which these conflicts reshaped the practices and spaces of confinement.
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© Wally Pruss
Annelie Ramsbrock is Professor of Contemporary History at the University of Greifswald. Her research focuses on the history of imprisonment, penal reform and rehabilitation in post-war West Germany. She examines violence, prison labour, prisoners’ writing and relations between inmates and guards, addressing both reform initiatives and everyday institutional practices. For her monograph Geschlossene Gesellschaft. Das Gefängnis als Sozialversuch – eine bundesdeutsche Geschichte (2020), she received the Richard-Schmid-Preis (Forum Justizgeschichte) in 2022.
©
© Wally Pruss