Research

The Drillingsberichte can be found on the platform 'Special Collections' of the University Library Nijmegen. It concerns both scans of the original letters and the transcriptions. Also added to the collection are family pictures, drawings of the children and scientific publications by Felix Oestreicher. The material is an open source, searchable and downloadable.

The "Drillingsberichte" are a unique opportunity for researchers from different disciplines to come together. A historical educationalist could make excellent use of the material to research the German Bildungs-ideal from which Felix raises his daughters and about which he wrote frequently. A researcher interested in Jewish history can use the material for research into, for instance, cultural mixing of Dutch, German, Jewish and Czech influences. A linguist can study Felix's writing, who wrote less and less in standard German, Dutchisms appear in the letters, and there are Czech-coloured German words and family jargon. Religion researchers can see that Germanic gods are discussed, but that the girls also wondered why they are Jews and why God allowed the war.

Our ambition is to bring together researchers from different disciplines to work on the Drillingsberichte together. To this end, we want to develop a digital interactive platform where researchers can discuss, present results to each other, brainstorm about new angles and keep each other informed of new developments. If you are interested in becoming part of this future community,  please use the form below to express your interest and we will keep you updated.