German History Research Articles

Translation of German History Texts in Romanian: Knowledge and Ideology Transfer as a Steppingstone into the Modernity of the Nineteenth Century

Translation of German History Texts in Romanian: Knowledge and Ideology Transfer as a Steppingstone into the Modernity of the Nineteenth Century

Élargir l’horizon des jeunes lecteurs : l’Afrique comme nouveau cadre du roman d’aventures pour la jeunesse en Allemagne à la fin du xixe siècle

Élargir l’horizon des jeunes lecteurs : l’Afrique comme nouveau cadre du roman d’aventures pour la jeunesse en Allemagne à la fin du xixe siècle

Jürgen Schmidt. August Bebel: Social Democracy and the Founding of the Labour Movement.

With a life spanning from 1840 to 1913, August Bebel, the longtime leader of Germany’s Social Democratic Party (SPD), witnessed the dramatic transformation of the German lands. He saw Germany’s transition from a set of disparate states in an era of revolution and reaction to a powerful force within Europe on the brink of war. Bebel’s Germany was constantly torn between reform and repression. With its policy on universal manhood suffrage, it was a beacon of democracy. With national laws on social insurance and vast infrastructure schemes following its rapid industrialization and population growth from the middle of the century, Germany was also a locus of social reform. And yet, Germany under the conservative Bismarck also had effectively banned socialism and turned a blind eye to working conditions. Bebel was both a central actor in as well as witness to these enormous changes over the course of his lifetime. His story, told in this masterful but concise biography by Jürgen Schmidt, is not only relevant but also compelling reading for all those interested in German history or, indeed, the history of Europe in the long nineteenth century.

Národnostný vývoj spišských Nemcov v 20. a 21. storočí

Presented study deals with the demographic development of German minority in the area of cultural-historical Spiš region in eastern Slovakia. The focus is set specifically on the time period of 20th and 21st century. In the text, a brief history of Germans living in Spiš region is described. Subsequently, individual years of census and data of a German population of Spiš region are analysed as well as compared with the data of the whole German population in Slovakia. The reasons for increases and decreases of the values caused by different historical events are explained in this entry. Conclusion focuses on the prediction of a further possible development. The aim is the analysis of a national development of Spiš region German in 20th and 21st century. According to the analysis of the issue, it was discovered that a number of German of Spiš region is decreasing. The least of them lived in the areas approximately in 1980 and their current population is around 1139.

Рецензия на книгу: Der Römische Blick: Eugenio Pacelli und Seine Nuntiaturberichte aus der Zeit der Weimarer Republik (Paderborn: Brill, Ferdinand Schöningh, 2021)

The reviewed collective monograph, published in 2021, is devoted to various aspects of the work of the Apostolic Nuncio in Germany, Eugenio Pacelli, the future Pope Pius XII (1939–1958). The main source for these papers were the reports he sent from Munich and Berlin to Rome almost every day and which have recently become available to researchers. The authors and editors of the monograph are the participants of the project «The Critical Online Edition of Eugenio Pacelli’s Nuncial Reports (1917–1929)». The head of the project is Dr. Hubert Wolf, professor at the University of Münster and one of the leading church historians in Germany. The range of topics presented in this volume is wide and impressive: from the complex process of creating Nuncio’s reports to Pacelli’s participation in public events and in advising the Roman Curia on a variety of issues. The articles presented in this book demonstrate the enormous research potential of the nuncial reports as a source on the history of the Vatican and the Weimar Republic. Undoubtedly, the authors have made a significant contribution to the study of the biography of the most controversial Pope of the 20th century, which is why the relevance and importance of this book cannot be overestimated

Проблемы управления Сибирью в XIX - начале XX В. В освещении англо- и немецкоязычной историографии

The paper objective is to analyze and evaluate the research findings obtained by the English- and German-language scholars who studied the administrative system of Siberia in the 19th - early 20th century, when the regionalist policy of the Russian Empire was gradually replaced by a more rigid centralism, standardization and unification. Anglo-American and German historians using the conception of “Russian eastward expansion” (E.M. Hicks), theories of “frontier” and “colonization” (A. Kappeler, W. Sunderland, S. Becker et al.) analyzed a wide range of problems associated with the administration of pre-revolutionary Siberia. Comparing “instruments of expansion” and “colonial practices” of the Russian empire with the historical experience of other countries, Western authors critically evaluated the results of “civilizing” mission of Russia in Northern Asia, emphasizing in particular negative aspects of aboriginal and penal policy. However, most of researchers the administrative system created in Siberia provided a rather successful integration of the region in the imperial space. Political and socioeconomic factors influencing Siberia's administrative system were studied primarily in Anglo-American historiography (M. Raeff, T. Armstrong) while sociocultural factors - in German historiography (C. Weiss, S. Frank et al.). Western authors paid special attention to analysis of reasons, essence and outcomes of the 1822 Siberian reform introduced by M.M. Speransky which, in their view, largely determined the region's development till the end of the imperial period.

Biographies of a Reformation: Religious Change and Confessional Coexistence in Upper Lusatia, c. 1520–1635. Martin Christ. Studies in German History. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2021. xiv + 262 pp. $100.

Biographies of a Reformation: Religious Change and Confessional Coexistence in Upper Lusatia, c. 1520–1635. Martin Christ. Studies in German History. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2021. xiv + 262 pp. $100.

Competing memories? The Holocaust and colonial atrocities in German history

A new controversy has been polarising German history and public memory since 2020. Dubbed Historikerstreit 2.0 in reference to the 1986 debate on the uniqueness of the Holocaust, the dispute revolves around the memory politics of the Holocaust and of German colonial-era atrocities, but it is also very much about how Germany deals with its xenophobic present and its attitude to Israel's current settlement poli¬cies. This discussion forum takes a broader view in order to contextualise the debate within the wider scope of contemporary German historiography and memory culture and introduce a nuanced assessment of the issues at stake to the Italian public, in a country which still struggles to own up to its antisemitic past, let alone its skewed post-colonial memory and racist present.

German History of the Twentieth Century in the Reflection of Russian Historical Memory (B.L. Khavkin, K.B. Bozhik. The Russian Mirror of German History. XX Century. Moscow, 2021)

German History of the Twentieth Century in the Reflection of Russian Historical Memory (B.L. Khavkin, K.B. Bozhik. The Russian Mirror of German History. XX Century. Moscow, 2021)

Soviet Historical Science and Foreign Policy Dynamics in the Late 1930s and 1940s: The Mishulin Line

Historical scholarship in the USSR in the 1930s and 1940s developed along with the dynamics of foreign policy. The main issue that shaped the development of historical scholarship was Soviet-German relations. The Soviet alignment with Great Britain and France determined the dominance of the “anti-German” line even in those areas of historical research which, at first glance, were unrelated to modern history in general and German history in particular. Thus, this line is clearly evident in the discussion of the causes of the decline of the Harappan civilisation, which allegedly came about under pressure from the Indo-Aryan tribes, with whom Germany was implicitly identified in relevant studies in the second half of the 1930s. The initiator of the “anti-German” line in ancient history was Alexander Mishulin. After the conclusion of the Soviet-German Non-Aggression Treaty on 23 August 1939, the tone of the works on ancient history changed abruptly to “Germanophile” at the initiative of the same scholar. At the same time, the first – “anti-German” – line still persisted and developed in parallel with the second. Soviet-German academic cooperation was also progressing, as can be observed in the documents of the archives of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The “pro-German line” disappeared with the outbreak of the Great Patriotic War, while the “anti-German” (“anti-Indo-Aryan”) one disappeared with the independence of India in 1947 and the gradual forging of friendly relations between the USSR and India.

ФРИДРИХ II ПРУССКИЙ И ПАВЕЛ I В ОЦЕНКАХ НЕМЕЦКИХ ИСТОРИКОВ

The purpose of the article is to analyze the image of the Prussian King Frederick II, who received the title «The Great» in history, and the Russian Emperor Paul I as a continuer of the traditions of Frederick II of Prussia in Russia in the context of German historiography. The presented materials are based on comparative – historical, historical – systemic and culturological methods. The analysis involves original and translated works of German historians from the 18th to the 21st century. The representation of the image of Frederick II of Prussia is associated with historical social processes in Germany of different eras. The author of the article comes to the conclusion that the assessment of the personality of Frederick II the Great, as well as his activities, was constantly undergoing transformations. Until now, the King of Prussia is an ambiguous and controversial figure in German history. The representation of the Russian emperor in German historical literature concerns, rather, the psychological aspects of his personality, the metamorphoses that occurred with the emperor Tsarevich and with the ruler. The results of the analysis make a certain contribution to the general historiography of Frederick II of Prussia and Paul I and can be used both in the educational and research process.

POLITENESS AS A REGULATOR OF COMMUNICATIVE BEHAVIOUR OF GERMANS IN THE 18th CENTURY

This paper analyses politeness as one of the most important categories regulating communicative behaviour in a culture based on the codes of conduct of the 18th century. The latter played an important role in courtesy becoming a cultural value in German history. Through methods of description, component and contextual analysis, the author investigates what was considered polite discourse in the German society and what it depended on. Principal behavioural situations studied include greetings, expressing gratitude, apologies, bidding farewell, as well as table manners, etiquette of dancing and travelling, extending invitations, expressing condolences on a bereavement, congratulations on different occasions. Сompliment, a basic concept of eighteenth-century etiquette, is primarily understood as an etiquette formula applied to a particular etiquette situation. Addressing has two functions: addressing an utterance and reflection of the relationship between the addressee and the addressee, which is strictly regulated by the social status and position of both. One defining feature of etiquette statements in the codes of conduct is the active use of superlative forms. It is concluded that in the 18th century, the category of politeness was primarily an ethical one, which depended on the time, place and persons involved in discourse, first and foremost on their social status and gender. The novelty of the study lies in the material chosen and in studying the development of the politeness category in diachrony.

The Digital Linguistic Atlas of Hessian (DHSA)

The Digitale hessische Sprachatlas (‘Digital Linguistic Atlas of Hessian’) completes the network of regional dialect atlases of German. It attempts to exhaust the possibilities of a digital presentation, combining visual economy with phonetic precision, to document and trace dialect dynamics between 1880 and 2014 in a scientifically exact manner. The paper’s first part explains the functionality of the atlas. The second part of the paper demonstrates how the analysis of short-term diachrony can be applied to the reconstruction of German’s long-term diachrony. As an example serves one of the most striking processes in the linguistic history of German, the merger of the sounds resulting from the Early New High German diphthongization with the Old German diphthongs.

Ersatzstoffe im Zeitalter der Weltkriege: Geschichte, Bedeutung, Perspektiven ed. by Elisabeth Vaupel

Reviewed by: Ersatzstoffe im Zeitalter der Weltkriege: Geschichte, Bedeutung, Perspektiven ed. by Elisabeth Vaupel Rouven Janneck (bio) Ersatzstoffe im Zeitalter der Weltkriege: Geschichte, Bedeutung, Perspektiven Edited by Elisabeth Vaupel. Munich: Deutsches Museum, 2021. Pp. 348. In 2002, the German historian of technology Ulrich Wengenroth published his controversial article, "Die Flucht in den Käfig." He argued that German innovation culture was decisively shaped by the two world wars, which led German science to focus on substitute materials even during peacetime and explained the lagging behind of German science after 1945. Th is view quickly met opposition that led to numerous research projects. The critical discussion of Wengenroth's thesis is the guideline of the present compilation on substitute materials in the age of the two world wars. Asking what was the lasting effect of research on substitutes and their uses in Germany between 1871 and 1945, Ersatzstoffe im Zeitalter der Weltkriege [Substitutes in the era of the world wars] consists of three parts that are instructively introduced by the volume's editor, Elisabeth Vaupel. The first part is dedicated to substitutes for ferrous and nonferrous metals. One of the challenges for the German war economy in World War I was a lack of the strategic metal copper. As Helmut Maier shows in his article on nonferrous metals, major efforts to find a replacement resulted in useful scientific findings in the field of steel production but did not produce an [End Page 276] economic alternative in times of peace. Therefore, Maier argues, the effective innovation and modernization push should be considered a transformation of the culture of innovation. The prevailing practical experience was replaced by scientification. This interpretation is shared by Andreas Zilt, who gives an overview of the endeavors to find a replacement for manganese or at least a way to economize its use, which resulted in an accelerated scientification of materials and process engineering in industry. Addressing the aspect of synthetic rubber, Peter Morris draws a different picture. In his view, World War I was not a crucial factor for the scientific development of this field. Only British attempts to control the world's natural rubber market in the 1920s pushed chemical companies to pick up the question of synthetic rubber again, even though its success remained doubtful for a long time. The contributions of Markus Raasch on liquid propellants and lubricants and Sandor Fehr on Chile saltpeter discuss substitutes for basic chemicals and chemical products. Raasch gives a comprehensive overview of the different approaches undertaken during World War I. In the long run, this led to the foundation of societies and university institutes that were dedicated to the issues of coal research and mineral oil synthesis. Ultimately, all efforts—even under the National Socialist autarky program—remained unsuccessful, because the expansion of science and industry overstretched the financial and economic power of the German Reich. This is not the case, however, with nitrogen synthesis. After a short presentation of the different approaches to synthesis, Sandro Fehr argues that World War I became a decisive innovation driver for the final success of the Haber-Bosch process. Nonetheless, its undisputed international triumph followed only after 1945. The field of luxury food, foodstuffs, and feedstuffs is the subject of the third part of the volume. In his detailed discussion of Coffarom, Claus Priesner presents the insightful case of the hunt for a synthesis of coffee flavor. Although a successful product could not be offered due to an erroneous economic assessment of the market and of the acceptance by customers, Priesner convincingly shows the persistent secondary effects of the undertaking. The most important one was that the research undertaken expanded the methods for classical organic microanalysis, which was essential for the achievements in many other fields such as hormones. Ulrike Thoms sheds light on the topic of the utilization of animal carcasses as animal feed with emphasis on the time of the Great War. Among the different methods applied, meat-and-bone meal prevailed as the dominant one. Its use was continued after the war and underwent a breakthrough after 1945, before it was prohibited at the end of the century. In summary, the book gives an instructive insight into the history...

Imperial and Princely Court of the Holy Roman Empire in Early Modern in Modern Historiography

The article considers the phenomenon of the imperial and princely court of the Holy Roman Empire in the focus of modern historiographical discussion of German historians. What were the new methodological approaches to the study of the court at the end of the 20th century? How strong was the influence of historical sociology and anthropology? What new schools and trends can be identified at the turn of the century? The specificity of the German material is especially emphasized: the need for a comparative study of over 300 residences of the imperial estates in the early modern period. Today, the princely and imperial courts are seen by historians not so much as a political instrument of power, but as a reflection of the diverse social and cultural processes in the society of the beginning of modern times.

The First Anti-Criticism on the “Spirit of Capitalism”

A polemical article by the classic of sociology Max Weber in the genre of “anti-criticism” contains his response to a series of critical publications by the principal German historian Felix Rachfahl. As a specialist in the history of the Dutch Revolution in the second half of the 16th century, Rachfahl wrote five articles under the general title “Calvinism and Protestantism” that he sought to rebut Weber’s views on the genesis of capitalism from the spirit of the Puritan work ethic. In a rather harsh retort, Weber in turn tries to show the reader the entire inconsistency of Rachfal’s criticism. On the whole, he assesses the discussion as unfair on the part of his opponent and, therefore, as insufficient from the point of view of the subject itself — the cultural significance of the Protestant economic ethics for the emergence of the capitalist economy of the modern type. He accuses Rachfal of deliberately distorting both Weber’s own argument and the views of his friend and colleague, the eminent theologian and church historian E. Troelch. In attempting to defend his arguments advanced in the articles in the series “Protestant Ethics and the Spirit of Capitalism”, Weber rhetorically chooses an extremely aggressive tone, while allowing a number of insulting epithets to the recognized expert in his field. His general strategy in the polemic is aimed at discrediting the criticizing historian himself as a typical representative of a related academic discipline, clearly exceeding the limits of his competence. At the same time, Weber assigns the role of objective arbiter in this dispute to his reader, urging him to perceive the arguments put forward impartially. Weber concludes by claiming that Rachfal’s lengthy critique is so off-target that he need not change a single word in his writings.

Профессор Фридрих Мюнцер в Кёнигсберге

The article presents a brief biography of Friedrich Münzer (1868—1942), a prominent German historian of Antiquity, a expert in Roman political history. Throughout his life, Münzer taught at the universities of Basel, Königsberg, and Münster, demonstrating high creative activity and publishing numerous works on ancient history. His fate was tragic. Münzer became one of the victims of the National Socialist regime in Germany and died in the Theresienstadt concentration camp. The “Königsberg period” (1912—1921) in his career is characterized, this period involved teaching at Albertina University and the writing of several important scholarly works, including a fundamental monograph on the history of Roman aristocratic parties and families. The state of the sources does not allow for a complete reconstruction of the professor’s everyday life at Albertina. Nevertheless, the article attempts to recreate the circumstances of Münzer’s personal and professional life in Königsberg (adaptation after moving, university activities), and several assumptions are made about the scientist’s social circle. The proposal to commemorate the memory of the distinguished German classical scholar in Kaliningrad is justified.

Artistic commemoration of the wars in Germany

The research addresses the topic of artistic commemoration of the wars in which Germany took part: from the victorious Franco-Prussian War to two crushing defeats in world wars. The article is devoted to the military monuments (Kriegerdenkmal), which were erected at every stage of German history: the Second Reich, the Weimar Republic, the Third Reich, the GDR and the FRG. The commemoration of the wars pursued various goals: the rise of Reich patriotism and the glorification of national unity, popular pacifism, instilling aggressive nationalism, overcoming the past. The symbolism of the memorials stemmed not only from the results of the wars, but also from previous historical experience. This is the time during which the nation has gone from the idea of its own exclusivity to the need for atonement and the formation of a "culture of memory" addressed to the younger generation. War memorials erected in the second half of the XIX – XX centuries are of two different types: tombstones erected directly over the graves of fallen soldiers and monuments commemorating the event, but not being an index of the grave. For the Franco-Prussian and World War I, examples of war memorials installed on graves, including monuments to opponents, are most characteristic. The theme of memorials dedicated to the Second World War is much more diverse. In addition to military cemeteries, they reflect the history of concentration camps, Resistance, Operation Tiergartenstrasse 4. After World War II, the memorial was assigned the role of a monument in the name of peace.

The first in German history comprehensive National Security Strategy

On June 14, 2023, the Cabinet of Ministers of Germany presented the comprehensive National Security Strategy. This document was provided for in the coalition agreement (November 2021), it was due by the end of 2022, but got delayed by 6 months. The strategy must be approved by the German parliament. The author analyzes its main provisions and significance for German foreign policy.

국내 서양사학계의 환경사 연구 경향과 전망

The purpose of this thesis is to review from a historical perspective how Western historians in Korea have been studying Western environmental history. Western historians in Korea have produced quite a lot of research results in various areas and various topics in this field. As a result of review, these research results could be largely classified into three categories: ⑴ introductory research, ⑵ empirical research, and ⑶ interpretation research. Looking at the proportion, it was mostly focused on empirical research. Among the majority of excellent papers, there were also many papers of poor quality. The biggest problem is the lack of quantitative results due to the absolute lack of environmental history researchers. At the same time, the concentration of researchers who account for the majority of Western environmental history research in Korea by German history researchers is also emerging as a serious problem. This research trend is expected to continue in the future. It is hoped that Western history researchers in Korea will increase their interest in and research on environmental history.