My dissertation project is based on the relationship between the Lutheran–Pietist mission in Tranquebar (1706–1845) and similar locations, and the other Christian denominations, particularly the Roman Catholics, that also promoted their faith in southern India in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The first documented reference by a Lutheran to other Christians is found in the letters of Bartholomäus Ziegenbalg (1682–1719), who was the first Pietist missionary to work in India and translated the Bible into Tamil. The German missionaries sent from Halle were able to establish themselves in Tranquebar thanks to the support of the Danish King, Frederick IV (1671–1730). Most of the Lutheran missionaries prepared for their missionary work at the educational institutions in Halle founded by August Hermann Francke (1663–1727). To explore this topic, I use the communications of the Tranquebar missionaries, which are known as the Halle Reports (Hallesche Berichte, 1710–72) and the New Halle Reports (Neue Hallesche Berichte, 1776–1848).
Continue reading The Danish–English–Halle Mission (1706–1845) and its Connection to the Society for Promoting Christian KnowledgeThe Enemy’s Weapon: Learning Guerrilla Warfare Through an American Rifle
Sarawak, January 1964
‘You may be intrigued to hear that we have got our first Armalite rifle in Sarawak—captured from the Indos yesterday’, an officer of the British Far East Land Forces stationed in Singapore wrote to his colleague in Whitehall. ‘This may act as a suitable incentive to hasten our own.’1 In the context of the broader correspondence between these officers, preserved in the National Archives, the ironic tone becomes clear—a barely concealed frustration with the sluggish procurement bureaucracy in London, expressed through studied understatement.
Indeed, British troops fighting since 1963 in an undeclared war against Indonesian guerrillas in the jungles of Borneo felt abandoned by their leadership. While their own long, heavy rifles, designed for conventional warfare against Soviet troops, were of little use in the dense jungle, their opponents carried brand-new American weapons with which they could execute rapid raids from the undergrowth. Attempts to obtain such rifles themselves led to what amounted to organized looting expeditions; the British government could only gradually procure these still barely known weapons, today familiar under the name AR-15 and primarily known for horrific mass shootings and as an identity symbol of American gun culture.
Continue reading The Enemy’s Weapon: Learning Guerrilla Warfare Through an American Rifle- J. F. Kenyon to T. J. Richardson, 6 Jan. 1964. The UK National Archives (hereafter TNA), DEFE 24/644. [↩]
The Changing Face of Factory Regimes in South Asia: The Great Indian Peninsula Railway Workshops in Parel, Bombay, between 1879 and 1939
In 1879, Bombay (today Mumbai) saw the opening of the workshops of the Great Indian Peninsula Railway Company (GIPR) in Parel, the single largest industrial complex in the city at the time. On a site of roughly sixty acres it employed thousands of workers to maintain the locomotives and wagons that facilitated passenger travel and the exchange of mail between the centres of British rule on the subcontinent, as well as the transport of goods, especially cotton, to and from the city’s harbour. This circulation of people, information, and commodities was dependent on the smooth running of the trains, which in turn could only be assured if the staff employed at the workshops kept them in proper condition.1
Continue reading The Changing Face of Factory Regimes in South Asia: The Great Indian Peninsula Railway Workshops in Parel, Bombay, between 1879 and 1939- Questions of maintenance have recently attracted more attention from historians, who acknowledge its centrality despite its invisibility to most observers. See e.g. Martin Meiske, ‘How to Commemorate Railways at 200? Unearthing Histories of Maintenance, Global Material Flows, and Colonialism’, German Historical Institute London Blog, 31 July 2025. [↩]
The Book and its Missions: Past and Present as a Missionary Source for Global Bible Distribution
Introduction
My research project, entitled ‘A Global History of Bible Women, 1857–1916’, explores the history and agency of the Bible Woman as a missionary figure within world Christianity. Bible Women were local female evangelists employed to spread Christian teachings, distribute Bibles, and educate local women in literacy and Scripture. Initially emerging in London through the Protestant philanthropist and writer Ellen Henrietta Ranyard’s London Bible and Domestic Female Mission in 1857, the role rapidly expanded across Europe and the Global South through missionary networks, particularly those associated with the British and Foreign Bible Society. The project investigates the partnership between the London Bible and Domestic Female Mission and the Bible Society, focusing on the latter’s strategies for Bible distribution and the Bible Women’s motivations for engaging in this mission.
Continue reading The Book and its Missions: Past and Present as a Missionary Source for Global Bible DistributionThe International Participation of Women in the Spanish Civil War: Searching for Traces in British Archives
Modern wars have global impacts. The war in Ukraine in particular has produced a large international solidarity movement. As a result, numerous international volunteers have travelled to Ukraine to take part in the war—including women. This fact has attracted a great deal of attention in international reporting since the beginning of the war. It still seems unusual to see women in the armed forces and in active warfare, especially when they are voluntarily participating in a war that does not directly affect them. This reveals gender stereotypes associated with war that go back many centuries: active men who protect their homeland, wives, and families vs passive women who dutifully care for their homes, children, and the wounded. As a result, women are denied political maturity, which has fatal consequences for their political role and rights of participation in times of war and peace alike.1
Continue reading The International Participation of Women in the Spanish Civil War: Searching for Traces in British Archives- See e.g. Barton C. Hacker and Margaret Vining (eds.), A Companion to Women’s Military History (Leiden, 2012); Karen Hagemann, Stefan Dudink, and Sonya O. Rose (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Gender, War, and the Western World since 1600 (New York, 2020); Karen Hagemann and Stefanie Schüler-Springorum (eds.), Home/Front: The Military, War and Gender in Twentieth-Century Germany (Oxford, 2002); Ute Frevert, Die kasernierte Nation: Militärdienst und Zivilgesellschaft in Deutschland (Munich, 2001). [↩]
Who’s Responsible? ‘Illegitimate’ Children in England and Wales
Throughout time, the concept of ‘the family’ has had a variety of—often politicized—meanings in different parts of the world. In twentieth-century Britain, the nuclear ‘male breadwinner family’ remained the ideal, consisting of a father who provides for the family and a mother who raises the children and takes care of the household.
Continue reading Who’s Responsible? ‘Illegitimate’ Children in England and WalesRethinking Transnational and Devolved (Hi)stories: German-Speaking Refugees from National Socialism in Wales
Part 3: The Kindertransport: Child Refugees to Wales
This is the third in a three-part series of blog posts. See also part one and part two.
Refugees under the age of 18 did not need a visa. They could either travel on their parents’ visa or, after November 1938, they could be part of an organized rescue scheme such as the Kindertransport. But unless they managed to travel with their family, and their family received support in one way or another, the minors’ opportunities for resettling in the UK were dependent on the support of sponsors, whether individuals or charities. The UK government facilitated the visa waiver scheme now known as the Kindertransport, but it did not support child refugees financially or organizationally.
Continue reading Rethinking Transnational and Devolved (Hi)stories: German-Speaking Refugees from National Socialism in WalesRethinking Transnational and Devolved (Hi)stories: German-Speaking Refugees from National Socialism in Wales
Part 2: Artist Refugees in Wales
This is the second in a three-part series of blog posts. See also part one.
In the early years after 1933, and possibly also immediately after March 1939, most refugees tried to settle near either established Jewish communities or refugee or diasporic communities. Those with political affiliations sought to live where other members of the same political parties or groupings had established themselves. For religious Jewish refugees, a synagogue and an active congregation were obviously important. This meant that many areas of Wales were considered less attractive than the large urban centres of England. Only a few prominent refugees resettled in Wales—many of them after the outbreak of the Second World War, when pressures in the urban centres became unbearable.
Continue reading Rethinking Transnational and Devolved (Hi)stories: German-Speaking Refugees from National Socialism in WalesRethinking Transnational and Devolved (Hi)stories: German-Speaking Refugees from National Socialism in Wales
Part 1: Refugees’ Work, Visas, and Lives in Wales
This is the first in a three-part series of blog posts on the migration history of Wales. In the first, I will set the scene, outlining the conditions under which German-speaking refugees lived and worked in Wales during the Second World War. In the second and third, I will focus on the experiences of two specific sub-groups: artists and children.
Continue reading Rethinking Transnational and Devolved (Hi)stories: German-Speaking Refugees from National Socialism in WalesThe View from the Island: Britain’s Perception of the Franco-German Brigade
Formed in 1989, the Franco-German Brigade was the first operational military unit established in peacetime Europe whose soldiers were recruited permanently from two nations and whose units were constantly under binational command. It became an important part of multinational military cooperation in Europe, with the political ambition of Germany and France being the driving force behind European security and defence policy.
Continue reading The View from the Island: Britain’s Perception of the Franco-German Brigade