Maria Fritsche
Maria Fritsche studied History, Political Science and Gender Studies in Vienna and Bern, and completed her doctorate on Austrian postwar cinema at the University of Portsmouth. She subsequently held research positions at the University of Southampton and at the German Historical Institute in Washington, D.C. In 2010 she took up a position at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), where she was appointed Full Professor in 2016.
Since 2016 she has been co-editor of the journal L’Homme. Europäische Zeitschrift für feministische Geschichtswissenschaft. From 2018 to 2022 she served as co-editor of the series War in History, published by F. Schöningh Verlag/Brill.
Maria Fritsche has been Head of Research at the Heeresgeschichtliches Museum since February 2026.
RESEARCH INTERESTS
- German occupation of Europe, with a particular focus on Norway
- Nazi military justice
- Military and masculinity
- Austrian film and cinema history
- US propaganda and cultural diplomacy
- Reconstruction of Europe and post-war societies
CURRENT RESEARCH
Fritsche’s work investigates the dynamics of wartime and post-war societies, drawing on cultural, social and gender perspectives. Her current research focuses on the social experiences of war and occupation in Europe. Drawing on court records, she investigates everyday life under German occupation in Norway to shed light on the varied forms of contact between the occupiers and the occupied, as well as the physical and social spaces of encounters. A further strand of her research explores the role of cinema during the Second World War, focusing particularly on soldiers’ cinemas, which formed an essential part of German troop entertainment. Analysing newspaper listings, archival sources and personal documents such as diaries, the project illuminates cinemagoing practices as well as Nazi propaganda and film programming strategies in the occupied territories.
RECENT PUBLICATIONS
Maria Fritsche, Wehrmacht Military Courts as Instruments of Occupation: The Case of German-Occupied Norway, 1940–1945. In: K. Maddox, T. Schölz, & U. M. Zachmann (Eds.), Military Justice in Modern History. Berlin: De Gruyter Oldenbourg, 301-323. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110989588-012
Maria Fritsche (Ed.), NS-Verfolgung und Militärjustiz in Wien. Gerichtsort Hohenstaufengasse. Wien: Böhlau-Brill 2025. URL: https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/104999
Maria Fritsche, Aushandlungen (homo-)sexueller Identitäten vor Wehrmacht- und SS-Gerichten im besetzten Norwegen (1940-1945). L’Homme. Europäische Zeitschrift für feministische Geschichtswissenschaft, 35/2 (2024), 35-52.
Maria Fritsche, Die deutsche Kriegsgerichtsbarkeit in den besetzten Gebieten: die Rolle und Tätigkeit der Militär- und SS-Gerichte in Norwegen, 1940-1945. In: Ministerium der Justiz NRW (Ed.): Wehrmachtjustiz. Juristische Zeitgeschichte Nordrhein-Westfalen 25. Düsseldorf 2025, 175-195.
Maria Fritsche, “Correct” German Conduct? German Requisition Practices and their impact on Norwegian Society during World War II. Journal of Modern European History, 20/2 (2022), 199-217. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/161189442210956
LINKS:
LinkedIn: https://no.linkedin.com/in/maria-fritsche-6a544465
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6521-2256