Hello, welcome to my website!
I am currently a PhD-Candidate at the Berlin School of Economics - Humboldt University Berlin - under the supervision of Nikolaus Wolf.
My research interests lie at the intersection of quantitative economic history and political economy, with a particular focus on the rise of political extremism in 20th-century Germany. In my dissertation, I investigate how economic deprivation and party strategies, such as targeted repressive violence, contributed to the rise of the Nazi party before 1933.
You can find my CV here and get in contact at reiskemonique@gmail.com.
Research in progress
Losing the country: Debt, deflation, and the rural rise of the Nazi party
with Thilo Albers and Felix Kersting
Abstract
Using interwar German agriculture as a case, this paper explores the political costs of debt deflation, which we characterize with farmers' leverage ratios. Primary deficits drove their increase from 1924 to 1928, but deflation pushed them to unsustainable levels between 1929 and 1932. We construct corresponding exogenous county-level exposure measures and show their effect on economic distress as well as political radicalization. Our results suggest that debt deflation increased the Nazi party's rural vote share by 8 percentage points relative to a counterfactual baseline scenario and was thus a necessary condition for its rural dominance and ascension to parliamentary power.
Strategic political violence: The Nazis’ “Fight for Berlin”
Abstract
In this paper, I analyze how antidemocratic movements use violence to contain their political opposition and undermine state legitimacy by focusing on the National-Socialists in early 1930s Berlin. Based on original microgeographic data, I show that the Nazis strategically targeted Communist strongholds with street-level violence to limit local political mobilization. This strategy successfully depressed turnout at minimal cost to the NSDAP itself, while generating only limited backlash. Based on qualitative evidence, I argue that the Nazis were willing to accept these local losses in exchange for propaganda opportunities.
Voting dynamics within Berlin 1919-1933: A new microgeographic dataset
Abstract
I introduce an original microgeographic dataset on interwar election results in Berlin's historic center, representing 1.5 million of the German capital's 3.3 million voters. Whereas previous research was able to use only six data points per election for this area, my dataset, based on newly discovered archival material at the polling station level, contains roughly 1,000 observations per election. I validate the data using published statistics and describe my process of geocoding. I then discuss varying approaches to building a panel structure and derive a best-practice approach. Finally, I present a descriptive analysis of Berlin's voting dynamics between 1921 and 1933.