Nils Bergmann
Nils Bergmann is a doctoral researcher and part of the BLOCKADES Hamburg-based team. His project examines how British and American decision-makers learned from the Allied blockade of the First World War. The work attempts to demonstrate how controversies over the right lessons and assumptions to draw from this experience influenced the implementation and continuous evolution of the Second Blockade of Germany (1939–1945).As such, it investigates contemporary perceptions of the enemy’s (in)vulnerabilities and explores the wide range of views on the potential and effectiveness of a hypothetical future blockade.
By shedding light on these largely overlooked aspects of the interwar period, the project aims to close significant gaps in the existing literature on blockades, and to deepen our understanding of the broader history of WWII.
Bergmann previously completed a BA in Modern and Contemporary History as well as English and American Studies at the Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, followed by an MA in History at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. His wider research interests include 20th century history with a focus on the period of the World Wars in the US, UK and Germany.
His master’s thesis explored wartime food rationing in Berlin between 1941 and 1942. In it, he examined how the city’s administration conceived, introduced and organized food rationing according to national-socialist ideas of distributional justice.