My doctoral research demonstrates that a broad spectrum of sexual encounters occurred in French-occupied Germany following the Second World War, including marriages, long-term relationships, casual sex and dates, commercial sex, sexualised violence, and rape.

Throughout the occupation, the everyday life of civilians and military personnel retained many ordinary aspects, from complaining about one’s landlord to having a drink in the local pub, from experiencing sexual harassment to going out on a date or getting married. Yet, their extraordinary circumstances shaped their experiences, including military service, the presence of garrisons, and changing regulations and procedures under the military government and High Commission.

Combining literature on Allied-occupied Germany as a military, political, and cultural project with scholarship on sexuality in wartime and postwar Europe, I argue that separating the ordinary from the extraordinary hinders our understanding of everyday life under occupation. It contends that people in French-occupied Germany engaged in a diverse range of sexual encounters, expanding upon existing research that is largely limited to rape at the end of the Second World War, and explores how abstract processes of rebuilding postwar society translated into everyday experiences.