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Acknowledgments THE RESEARCH FOR this study was made possible by a generous grant from the Friedrich-Weinhagen Stiftung in Hildesheim. An exploratory visit to Hildesheim was funded by a Mellon Summer Research Grant. For their friendly and cooperative assistance, I would like to thank the directors and staff of many institutions in Hildesheim: the Stadtarchiv und -bibliothek , the Bistumsarchiv and Dombibliothek, the Pfarrei St. Godehard, the Magdalenenhof Altersheim, and the Hildesheimer Allgemeine Zeitung. In the United States, I would like to recognize the support and assistance of the Departments of History at the University of Chicago, Franklin and Marshall College, and the University of Missouri–Kansas City as well as the staff at Indiana University Press. For their constructive criticism and personal assistance, I would like to thank Alessandro Baldioli, Barbara Bayley, Robert Beachy, James A. Bell, Daphne Berdahl, Jana Beznoskova, John Borneman, Peg Boucher, John Boyer, Matti Bunzl, Alon Confino, Alicia Cozine, Adam Daniel, Marion Deshmukh, Martina Elstner, Peter Fritzsche, Bartira Galati, Hans-Jürgen Hahn, Gesine Hasselhof (as well as her father and friends), the Heep family , Günther Hein, Matthias Heine, Alois and Lydia Hemmerde, Shannon Jackson, Jennifer Jenkins, Jeanette Louise Jones, Jonnie Kaiser, Hans and Monika Kehr, Moses Kimchi-Mehl, Brett Klopp, Sonja Koch, Stefanie Krause, Kathryn Krug, Kate Lacey, Gayle A. Levy, Julie Lindstrom, Alf Lüdtke, Thomas Mache, Gerlind and Magali Mander, Maria Mitchell, Joseph Perry, Guillaume de Sion, Bruce Moran, H. Glenn Penny III, David Pickus, Anne Röhrig, Eve Rosenhaft, Elizabeth Sage, Stefan Sanders, Theresa Sanislo, June Schapiro, Hans-Dieter Schmid, Jörg Schneider, Phyllis Soybel-Butler, Martin Spiller, Andreas Steding, Helga Stein, Hans Steinke, Guy Stern, Gifford Teeple, Barbara Thimm, Rudolf Thomasius, Bernd-Jürgen Warneken, Stephanie Willadsen, Reiner Wahl, Britta Weidtke, Kerstin Witt, Stefan Wolff, Eric Zolov as well as the members of the Association for Integrative Studies, the Central European Studies Workshop at the University of Chicago, the Forschungsinstitut regionale Gesellschaftsentwicklung e. V. at the Universität Hannover, the Midwest Graduate Seminar in German xiv Acknowledgments Studies, the Midwest German History Workshop, the Washington Area German History Seminar, the “Work of Memory in Germany” Workshop, the Institute for European Studies at Cornell University, the German history graduate students at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and at Georgia State University, as well as the Interdisciplinary Faculty Workshops at the University of Missouri–Kansas City. A special note of respect and appreciation goes to my mentors: Isabel Hull and Terence Cole; Andrew Apter, Leora Auslander, and John Boyer; and especially Michael Geyer. I would also like to thank the Buerstedde family of Hildesheim for their special efforts on my behalf: they were always ready to help me find my way and feel at home in Hildesheim. This study could never have become a reality without the unwavering support of my family and relatives. Most especially, I would like to thank my interview partners, many of whom are no longer here to read these lines of appreciation . I hope that this book does justice to the Hildesheim of their youth. ...

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