Jon Hughes

Royal Holloway, University of London, German, Faculty Member

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I studied at New College, Oxford, and the University of Wales Swansea, where my PhD was awarded in 2000. Since then I've been Research Officer at the Centre for German-Jewish Studies in Sussex (2001) and Lecturer in German at King's College London (2001-3), and I joined the German Department at Royal Holloway, now part of the School of Modern Languages, Literatures and Cultures, in 2003. From 2013 to 2015 I was Head of School. My research interests lie in the field of modern and contemporary German and Austrian culture, and in particular that of the interwar period (1918-1939), and the history of sport and cultural responses to sport in the German-speaking countries. I have a particular interest in the work of the Austrian novelist and journalist Joseph Roth, the subject of my thesis and my 2006 monograph Facing Modernity, and continue to work on this fascinating and contradictory author.I have recently completed a monograph on the cultural, social and political significance of the legendary German boxer Max Schmeling: Max Schmeling and the Making of a National Hero in Twentieth-Century Germany (Palgrave Studies in Sport and Politics, 2017). It examines responses to and representations of Schmeling, and of boxing and sport more generally, between the Weimar Republic and the present day.Other research and teaching interests include: sports writing and sports journalism
Phone: +44 (0)1784 443200
Address: School of Modern Languages, Literatures and Cultures
Royal Holloway, University of London
Egham
Surrey TW20 0EX
United Kingdom

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Papers by Jon Hughes

The Weimar Republic 2: The American Dream

This chapter focuses on Schmeling’s career in the USA. The manner in which he came to be associat... more This chapter focuses on Schmeling’s career in the USA. The manner in which he came to be associated not just with American boxing but with implicitly American qualities is assessed, and a detailed examination of the responses to Schmeling’s world title victory in 1930, when he became world champion after his opponent was disqualified for a foul blow, is presented. This chapter concludes by considering three of the key aspects of Schmeling’s public image in the final years of the Weimar Republic, all of which emerged under the influence of “Americanism”. It considers the myth of the so-called self-made man and the appeal of “success” stories, the representation of Schmeling as a professional and his representation as an embodiment of contemporary notions of Sachlichkeit (objectivity), rationalization and efficiency.

Ein neuer Weg des Films": Joseph Roth's reviews of documentary films

Joseph Roth touched on film in around 80 of his articles in the 1920s and 1930s. His attitudes to... more

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Conveyors to Consumption: Lifts and Escalators in Department Stores in German Culture of the 1920s and 1930s

Konsum und Imagination- Tales of Commerce and Imagination

'Ein neuer Weg des Films': Joseph Roth's Reviews of Documentary Films

Millennial Essays on Film and Other German Studies, 2002

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Conveyors to Consumption: Lifts and Escalators in Department Stores in German Culture of the 1920s and 1930s

Konsum und Imagination: Das Warenhaus und die Moderne in Film und Literature / Tales of Commerce and Imagination: Department Stores and Modernity in Film and Literature, 2015

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The Exhilaration of Not Falling: Climbing, Mountains and Self-Representation in Texts by Austrian Mountain Climbers

Austrian Studies, 2022

Abstract:This essay examines examples of writing by post-war Austrian and South Tyrolean mountain... more Abstract:This essay examines examples of writing by post-war Austrian and South Tyrolean mountain climbers such as Kurt Diemberger, Reinhold Messner and Hermann Buhl, whose popular autobiography is examined in a central case study. It assesses their work in the context of the national, historical, and cultural significance of mountain climbing in Austria, a country that is closely associated with its mountainous landscape and the Alps. There is a contrast between the attempts that have been made to claim climbers such as Buhl, and their success in 'conquering' summits such as Nanga Parbat in the Himalaya, as being of 'national' significance, and the self-perception of the climbers themselves, for whom climbing is a vocation, with freedom, individual identity, and the nature of risk and danger as key motifs. Their texts display an awareness of the resistance of the Alps and of climbing to national claims and offer an insight into the discourses that have shaped climbi...

AJR information in the context of exile journal publication, 1933-1945

This essay argues that the origins of AJRI are illuminated by an awareness of the exile press in ... more This essay argues that the origins of AJRI are illuminated by an awareness of the exile press in general, and of the debate regarding the ‘role’ of the emigrants in a Europe rid of fascism. This crucial discussion dominated the pages of many journals, and in particular those published in Britain and the USA. I distinguish the stance adopted by members of the AJR and by Jewish exiles in general from that favoured by other exiles. They insisted upon the special situation of the Jews, whose ‘German’ identity was not in doubt, but for whom there could be ‘no return to Germany’. It is in this uncompromising stance that the origins of the AJR’s continuing commitment to Great Britain are to be found

Austria and the Alps

Austria and the Alps || The Exhilaration of Not Falling: Climbing, Mountains and Self-Representation in Texts by Austrian Mountain Climbers

The Third Reich 2: “A German Victory”?

This chapter analyses in detail the representation and consequences, both in Germany and internat... more This chapter analyses in detail the representation and consequences, both in Germany and internationally, of the two fights between Schmeling and the American boxer Joe Louis in 1936 and 1938. It examines the politicized reporting of the fights, observing that they were multi-media “modern” events. Additionally, it analyses the idealization of Schmeling in propaganda and ideology following his unexpected victory in 1936 and considers representations of Schmeling and of boxing in visual art in the Third Reich. Finally, Schmeling’s status as a landowner and farmer is considered in the context of Nazi agrarian policy and the myth of “blood and soil” and his elevation to a heroic figure capable of combining sporting and military attributes through his service as a paratrooper in the Crete campaign of 1941.

Interwar Vienna: Facts and Fiction: Rudolf Brunngraber, Otto Neurath, and Viennese Neue Sachlichkeit

“Der Fluß des Geschehens”: Time and Experience in Hermann Hesse’s Demian and Siddhartha

Literatur für Leser

The idea of “experience”, and the implications thereof for our development as human beings, was o... more The idea of “experience”, and the implications thereof for our development as human beings, was of central importance to the literary imagination of Hermann Hesse. This essay will explore the reasons for this, and provide a reading of two of Hesse’s most remarkable texts, Demian. Die Geschichte von Emil Sinclairs Jugend (1919) and Siddhartha. Eine indische Dichtung (1923), in the context both of contemporary discourses and intellectual trends and of the philosophical framework that underpins the texts. It will argue that a paradoxical but fruitful understanding of experience lies at the heart of the works, and of Siddhartha in particular. They present a case for the essential value of experience, which provides the structure to a chronological narrative and is the means through which we perceive the world, and at the same time make a philosophical case for its ultimate irrelevance.

'Time and space in the depiction of workers' leisure in Mother Krause's Journey to Happiness, People on Sunday and Kuhle Wampe'

Studies in European Cinema, 2022

This article comparatively assesses the representation of workers' leisure in Berlin in three sig... more This article comparatively assesses the representation of workers' leisure in Berlin in three significant examples of experimental German cinema from the late Weimar Republic: Mutter Krausens Fahrt ins Glück (Mother Krause's Journey to Happiness, dir. Piel Jutzi, 1929), Menschen am Sonntag (People on Sunday, dir. Robert Siodmak, Edgar G. Ulmer, 1930), and Kuhle Wampe oder Wem gehört die Welt? (Kuhle Wampe or Who Owns the World?, dir. Slatan Dudow, 1932). There are distinct thematic and formal parallels between this set of nearly contemporaneous, generically hybrid films, and the article assesses the interrelated functions of time and space in the films' depiction of leisure experiences in Berlin. Focal points include the depiction of urban space, especially the tenement block and the 'semi-public' space of the courtyard; the Freibad or lakeside bathing resort; the worker sports movement; and the comparative relevance of the work of the Berlin artist Heinrich Zille. The article approaches the films in the historical context of the workers' movement and working-class culture, and is further informed by insights into urban space developed within the sociological discipline of leisure studies.

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Roads to Nowhere? Cycling, Happiness and Emotional Authenticity in Contemporary German Fiction

Studies in 20th & 21st Century Literature, 2020

This article compares a selection of recent German literary representations of cycling in the con... more This article compares a selection of recent German literary representations of cycling in the context of contemporary discourses of slow travel, with a particular focus on themes of happiness and emotional authenticity. It seeks to expand the framework of discussions of slow travel with a comparative focus on four novels: Der Mann auf dem Hochrad ('The Man on the Penny Farthing', 1984) by Uwe Timm, Im Sommer wieder Fahrrad ('I'll Cycle Again in the Summer', 2016) by Lea Streisand, Im Feld ('In the Field', 2018) by Joachim Zelter and Neujahr ('New Year', 2018) by Juli Zeh. The article surveys the cultural history of cycling, and pays attention to the status of cycling in German society and culture. Drawing on the work of John Day, Valeria Luiselli, Erling Kagge and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, it presents a reading of the texts' treatment of cycling as performance within a broader reflection upon slow travel as a nonfunctional, affective and authentic practice is experienced as a contrast to everyday life.

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»Wir sind die Söhne«. Generationsdiskurse und Geschichte(n) im Werk Joseph Roths

Europäisch-jüdischer Schriftsteller und österreichischer Universalist, 2011

$Research paper thumbnail of Austrian Satire and Other Essays || Modernity and Ambivalence in Alfred Kubin's \Die andere Seite\$

Austrian Satire and Other Essays || Modernity and Ambivalence in Alfred Kubin's \Die andere Seite\

$Research paper thumbnail of Austria and France || Joseph Roth in France: Re-assessing \Die weißen Städte\$

Austria and France || Joseph Roth in France: Re-assessing \Die weißen Städte\

Weltfabrik Berlin: Eine Metropole als Sujet der Literatur

The Modern Language Review, 2008

Joseph Roth and Benno Reifenberg: Aspects of the Author-Editor Relationship

The Modern Language Review, 2006

This article focuses on the significance of Joseph Roth's relationship, during the 1920s, with hi... more This article focuses on the significance of Joseph Roth's relationship, during the 1920s, with his editor at the "Frankfurter Zeitung", Benno Reifenberg, in shaping his approach to his work. Using evidence from Roth's letters, journalism, and fiction, it argues that the manner in which Roth engaged with his editor and the editorial expectations of the newspaper should inform our understanding of his practice as a writer, his theoretical conception of good writing as a balance between subjectivity and objectivity, and the narrative organization of his novels of the 1920s, in which the narrator adopts a role akin to that of the editor.

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Austrian Studies, 18: Austria and the Alps

by Jon Hughes and Judith Beniston

The Weimar Republic 2: The American Dream

Ein neuer Weg des Films": Joseph Roth's reviews of documentary films

Joseph Roth touched on film in around 80 of his articles in the 1920s and 1930s. His attitudes to... more

Download

Conveyors to Consumption: Lifts and Escalators in Department Stores in German Culture of the 1920s and 1930s

Konsum und Imagination- Tales of Commerce and Imagination

'Ein neuer Weg des Films': Joseph Roth's Reviews of Documentary Films

Millennial Essays on Film and Other German Studies, 2002

Download

Conveyors to Consumption: Lifts and Escalators in Department Stores in German Culture of the 1920s and 1930s

Konsum und Imagination: Das Warenhaus und die Moderne in Film und Literature / Tales of Commerce and Imagination: Department Stores and Modernity in Film and Literature, 2015

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The Exhilaration of Not Falling: Climbing, Mountains and Self-Representation in Texts by Austrian Mountain Climbers

Austrian Studies, 2022

AJR information in the context of exile journal publication, 1933-1945

Austria and the Alps

Austria and the Alps || The Exhilaration of Not Falling: Climbing, Mountains and Self-Representation in Texts by Austrian Mountain Climbers

The Third Reich 2: “A German Victory”?

Interwar Vienna: Facts and Fiction: Rudolf Brunngraber, Otto Neurath, and Viennese Neue Sachlichkeit

“Der Fluß des Geschehens”: Time and Experience in Hermann Hesse’s Demian and Siddhartha

Literatur für Leser

'Time and space in the depiction of workers' leisure in Mother Krause's Journey to Happiness, People on Sunday and Kuhle Wampe'

Studies in European Cinema, 2022

Download

Roads to Nowhere? Cycling, Happiness and Emotional Authenticity in Contemporary German Fiction

Studies in 20th & 21st Century Literature, 2020

Download

»Wir sind die Söhne«. Generationsdiskurse und Geschichte(n) im Werk Joseph Roths

Europäisch-jüdischer Schriftsteller und österreichischer Universalist, 2011

$Research paper thumbnail of Austrian Satire and Other Essays || Modernity and Ambivalence in Alfred Kubin's \Die andere Seite\$

Austrian Satire and Other Essays || Modernity and Ambivalence in Alfred Kubin's \Die andere Seite\

$Research paper thumbnail of Austria and France || Joseph Roth in France: Re-assessing \Die weißen Städte\$

Austria and France || Joseph Roth in France: Re-assessing \Die weißen Städte\

Weltfabrik Berlin: Eine Metropole als Sujet der Literatur

The Modern Language Review, 2008

Joseph Roth and Benno Reifenberg: Aspects of the Author-Editor Relationship

The Modern Language Review, 2006

Download

Austrian Studies, 18: Austria and the Alps

by Jon Hughes and Judith Beniston

Max Schmeling and the Making of a National Hero in Twentieth-Century Germany. Palgrave Studies in Sport and Politics. Palgrave Macmillan, 2017.

This book presents the first in-depth study of the German boxer Max Schmeling (1905-2005) as a na... more This book presents the first in-depth study of the German boxer Max Schmeling (1905-2005) as a national hero and representative figure in Germany between the 1920s and the present day. It explores the complex relationship between sport, culture, politics and national identity and draws on a century of journalism, film, visual art, life writing and fiction. Detailed chapters analyse Schmeling’s emergence as an icon in the Weimar Republic, his association with America, his celebrity status in the Third Reich, and his rivalry with Joe Louis as a focus for an extraordinary propaganda and ideological contest. The book also examines how Schmeling’s post-war success in business associated him with the culture of the ‘zero hour’ nation in the era of the ‘economic miracle’, and how he was later claimed as ‘good German’ and moral example for a post-war generation of Germans determined to ‘come to terms’ with the past. This book will appeal to readers with an interest in the history and representation of sport and boxing, in sports discourse and political culture, and in questions of national identity in modern German history.

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From Fritz Lang to Frank Schätzing: A Century of Moon Fantasies in German Popular Culture

This is an unpublished talk given in December 2009 at 'Moonshot', an interdiscplinary symposium o... more This is an unpublished talk given in December 2009 at 'Moonshot', an interdiscplinary symposium on the theme of the moon in culture, held at Royal Holloway, University of London. It explores a range of German cultural responses to the moon and refers to Paul Scheerbart, Fritz Lang and Frank Schätzing.

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Jon Hughes

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