CANCELED: 2020 in Historical Context: Election and Beyond – Virtual Platform

Anne Berg

Asst. Professor of History, University of Pennsylvania

Anne Berg will reflect on some of the parallels and differences between late Weimar Germany and the current election season in 2020 America. Since the outcome of the election may still be inconclusive when she speaks, events and developments yet to unfold will determine the precise nature of the argument presented. Regardless of the outcome, Berg will speak about how crisis rhetoric, economic hardship, political polarization, street clashes, conspiratorial thinking, and distrust in democratic institutions, combined in the politics of late Weimar Germany to result in the surrender of power to Hitler and the Nazi party.

Berg was born and raised in Germany, completed her undergraduate degree in history and psychology at Rutgers University and her PhD at the University of Michigan. She studies the histories of waste and recycling, film and cities, racism and genocide. Her first book, On Screen and Off: Hamburg and the Making of the Nazi City is under contract with the University of Pennsylvania Press. Berg has published articles on the history of waste in Nazi Germany, the United States, and South Africa. Her current book project examines the disturbing connections between waste management and genocide in the Third Reich.

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