Faculty of Classics - University of Cambridge

Text only version

Where am I? »

Dr Helen Roche

Dr Helen Roche is the Alice Tong Sze Research Fellow at Lucy Cavendish College.

Helen is currently researching the impact of philhellenism on politics and diplomacy during the Third Reich. She is a member of Professor Sir Richard Evans’ Modern German History Research Seminar, and chair of the Classics Faculty’s interdisciplinary ‘Classical Reception Discussion Group’ series of seminars and colloquia. For further information about Helen’s research and publications, see www.helenroche.com.

 

Contact Details
Lucy Cavendish College,
Cambridge, CB0 3BU

Email: hber2@cam.ac.uk

 

Research Interests

  • Classical reception in general, and German philhellenism in particular
  • the influence of philhellenism during the Third Reich.
  • historical and historiographical work on elements of Greek history, with particular emphasis on Sparta.
  • historical perspectives on German elite education
 

Selected Publications

Sparta's German Children: The ideal of ancient Sparta in the Royal Prussian Cadet-Corps, 1818-1920, and in National Socialist elite schools (the Napolas), 1933-1945, Swansea 2012.

'Spartanische Pimpfe: The Importance of Sparta in the Educational Ideology of the Adolf Hitler Schools', in Sparta in Modern Thought: Politics, History and Culture, ed. Stephen Hodkinson, Ian Macgregor Morris, Swansea 2012, pp. 315-42.

"Go, tell the Prussians…": The Spartan paradigm in Prussian military thought during the long nineteenth century', New Voices in Classical Reception Studies 7, Summer 2012 issue.


'"In Sparta fühlte ich mich wie in einer deutschen Stadt" (Goebbels): The Leaders of the Third Reich and the Spartan Nationalist Paradigm', in English and German Nationalist and Antisemitic Discourse (1871-1945), ed. Felicity Rash, Geraldine Horan, Daniel Wildmann, Oxford 2012.


'Spartan Supremacy: A "ktêma es aiei"? Reconstructing Lakedaimonian expectations of Sparta's enduring ascendancy', in Hindsight, or Unfulfilled Expectations in Antiquity, ed. Anton Powell, Swansea 2013.

'"Spartanische Pädagogik deutscher Art": Der Einfluss Spartas auf den Königlich Preußischen Kadettenanstalten', in Das Antike Sparta, part of a series entitled Syssitia. Studien zur Geschichte und Kultur Spartas und zur Sparta-Rezeption, ed. Ernst Baltrusch, Andreas Luther, Düsseldorf 2013.  

‘Classics and Education in Nazi Germany’, in Fascist Ideology and Classical Culture: A Companion, part of a series entitled Brill’s Companions to Classical Reception, ed. Luca Asmonti, Kyriakos Demetriou, Leiden 2014.