Mark Kettler

Biography

Mark T. Kettler is a historian of Germany and East-Central Europe. His research examines German
imperialism and colonialism to analyze larger questions of national identity and the relationship of ethnic
minorities to the modern state.

His current book project, provisionally entitled The Knight, Death, and the Devil, examines the German
occupation of Russian Poland during the First World War. After occupying Russian Poland in 1915,
Germany’s military and civilian leadership initially concluded that bringing the region under Berlin’s
permanent control would require accommodating Polish desires for political and cultural autonomy. However,
Kettler argues, ongoing political turmoil in Poland and the occupation’s eventual collapse in 1918 conditioned
German elites to view national diversity as an inherent threat to imperial cohesion, and to regard aggressive
Germanization as indispensable for securing conquered territory.

Kettler completed his PhD in history at the University of California, Berkeley. His work has been supported
by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). His work has been published in Central European
History and German History. His 2020 article in Nationalities Papers, “Designing Empire for the Civilized East:
Colonialism, Polish Nationhood, and German War Aims in the First World War” was awarded the
Huttenbach Prize.