Berlin School Research Articles

Nine partner languages, one path: Minority language reading proficiency development among German two-way immersion students

BackgroundAt the State Europe School of Berlin (SESB) students with different language backgrounds learn together in two languages of instruction: German and one of nine partner languages (English, French, Greek, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, and Turkish). AimsThis study investigates the reading proficiency trajectories in the minority or partner language among students in a two-way immersion (TWI) program. SampleParticipants were 977 TWI students. MethodsThe study included longitudinal large-scale assessments in Grades 4 to 6. Latent growth curve models were utilized for analysis. ResultsThe analyses revealed significant progress in partner language reading skills across all language combinations. However, notable differences in initial proficiency levels and developmental trajectories were observed between partner languages, even after controlling for background variables such as socioeconomic status and cognitive abilities. Furthermore, the results demonstrate that students' initial German reading proficiency positively influenced their reading proficiency in the partner language. ConclusionsOverall, the study demonstrates the effectiveness of the TWI program in promoting partner language proficiency development in TWI programs, particularly within the unique context of a diverse linguistic environment. This research provides valuable insights into how students develop reading skills in a multilingual environment.

Untimely Bodies, Untimely Aesthetics: Temporality, Relationality, and Intimacy in the Cinema of the Berlin School by Simone Pfleger (review)

Untimely Bodies, Untimely Aesthetics: Temporality, Relationality, and Intimacy in the Cinema of the Berlin School by Simone Pfleger (review)

“Middle East conflict in Berlin schools”: on the affectability of “fake news”

Abstract The article revisits my older work on moral panics over “Muslim homophobia” and youth crime to make sense of the arrival of a new criminalized figure: the Palestinian school kid who becomes prone to terrorism and antisemitism after consuming “fake news” on social and Arabic-language media. It addresses the current outbreak of anti-Palestinian racism in Germany as the latest expansion of an archive of criminalization that targets young people who, far from innocent and deserving of care and education, are constructed as folk devils that require heavy-handed punishment, segregation and deportation. While former panics have singled out the problematic heterosexualities of Muslim populations that fail to catch up with women-and-LGBT-friendly communities that care about diversity, the debate about the “Middle East conflict in Berlin schools” foregrounds media use as a central determinant of cultural pathology. This departure from languages of care and diversity, the article argues, reflects a dehumanizing tendency in racial capitalism that appears increasingly undisguised.

Stem Cell Studies of Professor Doctor Sureyya Tahsin Aygun

Stem cells are unspecialized cells in the human body. They can differentiate into any cell of the organism and have the ability to renew themselves. Thus, they contribute to the formation of all mature cells in the body and form the basis of every cell, tissue and organ. A stem cell can ensure both self-renewal and differentiation. Süreyya Tahsin Aygün received his Ph.D. from the Berlin School of Veterinary Medicine in 1926. He focused on cell culture and conducted studies on cardiac stem cells. He observed the regenerative and proliferative capacity of cardiac stem cells. Aygün concluded that young, immature, homogeneous human cells have an unexpected medical effect because animal cells are suitable for animal organism and human cells are suitable for human organism. Aygün's treatment with human cell cultures can be used for many diseases such as heart, kidney, liver and circulatory diseases, stroke, tumors, schizophrenia and multiple sclerosis. Even prolongation of physiological age and life expectancy combined with visible rejuvenation has come into the realm of possibility as pathophysiologically aging cells regress and are replaced by young, viable human cultured cells. Süreyya Tahsin Aygün is the first Turkish scientist to work on stem cells. Süreyya Tahsin Aygün's studies in Germany and Turkey demonstrate his contribution to stem cell and regenerative medicine. Looking at Aygün's other studies, one better understands the importance of joint research between veterinary medicine and medicine. Ord. prof. Aygün's work "Die Human-Zellkultur-Therapie, Neue erfolgreiche Möglichkeiten zur Therapie des Mongolismus und anderer Krankheiten" and other works should be reissued in view of their contribution to today's medical developments.

The Schema and Organization of the Cell: An Introduction to Ernst Brücke’s Die Elementarorganismen (1861)

Ernst Brücke’s 1861 essay Die Elementarorganismen has often been cited as a watershed in the history of physiology as well as in the history of cell theory. In its time it was widely read as a reform of animal cell theory, shifting the concept of the cell away from Schleiden and Schwann’s original cell schema of a membranous vesicle with a nucleus, and towards the protoplasm theory that had developed in botany, centered on the cell’s living contents. It was also notorious for its arguments against the necessity of both the nucleus and the cell membrane. An English translation of “The Elementary Organisms” is presented for the first time in this journal issue, with annotations and illustrations, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10739-024-09773-9. Brücke’s essay was not only an intervention into cell theory: historians can read it as a continuation of debates on the nature of the organism and theories of organization, and as an epistemological meditation on the microscope. In addition, although Brücke was known as a founder of the Berlin school of organic physics, “The Elementary Organisms” shows how he combined an avant-garde physicalist physiology with a much older tradition of comparative anatomy and physiology. The following introductory essay will provide a scientific biography of Ernst Brücke up to 1863, with background on debates on biological organization, cell theory, and muscle histology.

Health-related quality of life and impact of socioeconomic status among primary and secondary school students after the third COVID-19 wave in Berlin, Germany.

In the earlier phases of the COVID-19 pandemic, studies in Germany and elsewhere found an overall reduction in health-related quality of life (HRQoL) among students. However, there is little evidence on later pandemic stages as well as socioeconomic influencing factors. We aimed to (1) describe HRQoL in a Berlin student cohort at two time points in mid-2021, and to (2) analyze the effects of household income and education. We assessed HRQoL of students from 24 randomly selected primary and secondary schools in Berlin, Germany, with the KIDSCREEN-10 index in June and September 2021. To adjust for non-response bias, inverse probability weighting was applied. The potential effects of both household income and education (lower vs. higher) were estimated in generalized linear mixed models, based on prior assumptions presented in directed acyclic graphs. Our cohort comprised 660 students aged 7-19 years. In June 2021, 11.3% [95% CI = 9.0% - 14.0%] reported low HRQoL, whereas in September 2021, this increased to 13.7% [95% CI = 11.1% - 16.5%], with adolescent girls more frequently reporting low HRQoL at both time points (20% [95% CI = 17.1% - 23.3%] and 29% [95% CI = 25.5% - 32.5%]) compared to boys and younger children. While there was no statistically significant total effect of lower household income on HRQoL, a negative effect of lower household education was statistically significant (β = -2.15, SE 0.95, 95% CI = -4.01 to -0.29, p = 0.024). In summary, students' HRQoL in mid-2021 was better than that documented in other studies conducted at pandemic onset using KIDSCREEN-10. Female adolescents reported low HRQoL more often, and lower household education significantly reduced children's HRQoL. Support strategies for psychosocial wellbeing should consider socioeconomically disadvantaged children as important target groups.

Healthy, Inclusive and Sustainable Catering in Secondary Schools-An Analysis of a Transformation Process with Multiple Tensions.

Interest in catering for public sector schools is increasing due to its potential role in addressing the prevailing problems of malnutrition, food insecurity and non-sustainable food habits. Based on the case of secondary schools in Berlin, this study aims to explore this potential by focusing on the process of transformation towards healthy, inclusive and sustainable school catering. It employs a multi-perspective analysis based on the two concepts of food environment and social cohesion. Results are based on quantitative and qualitative data collected via an online survey of pupils from 25 secondary schools in Berlin as well as field notes from six stakeholder events. The survey findings were analyzed by descriptive means and provide explanations for the fact that most of the pupils (66.7%) never eat lunch at school. Based on the qualitative analysis of the stakeholder events, key tensions between actors from the federal state, municipal, school and private levels could be identified. Major areas of conflict arise due to (1) a lack of public funding and catering standards, (2) incompatible demands and preferences, (3) a lack of resources and opportunities for complementary education and participation, and (4) peer and parental influence. Transforming school food environments requires integrative strategies with interventions introduced by multiple actors operating on different levels.

“An island of Jewish autonomous life”: Paul Rosner’s Diary and the Story of the Young Maccabi Movement in Germany

Abstract From April to August 1937, Paul Rosner recorded his experiences while attending the Beth Halutz/Maccabi Hatzair boarding school in Berlin, and while participating in the Maccabi youth movement in Germany. Clearly illuminating his personal history in the group, the diary describes daily life, and offers a glimpse into several important events of the Berlin Jewish community, particularly within Zionist circles. This article first covers the history of the Maccabi youth movement, before analyzing the diary’s coverage of various topics including culture, religion, politics, and leisure. Previously, the official writings of the movement’s leaders dominated the narrative of this group, but Rosner’s diary offers a youth’s perspective that is both unique and complex, exploring the movement’s successful attempt to create a parallel Jewish reality for its members during a period of ongoing persecution.

Collections of Music from the Arab World in the Berlin Phonogramm-Archiv

The number of collections of music from the Arab world housed in the Berlin Phonogramm-Archiv (BPhA), 30 in all, is impressive, as is the great number of wax cylinders. In the beginning, Arab music was not the main concern of the Berlin Phonogramm-Archiv; there were a small number of collections of music from the Arab world until 1918, but even then, extensive research was being done (see Hornbostel's 1906–7 article on Tunisian music). Recordings made in German prisoner-of-war camps during World War I augmented the holdings. Fieldwork in Arab countries peaked around 1930, with recordings made by Robert Lachmann as the leading figure and several other scholars associated with the Berlin School of Comparative Musicology. This article presents an overview of the BPhA's collections from the Arab world, their status and content, and highlights their specific features compared to its collections from other regions of the world. Based on the historical documents associated with the collections (correspondence, publications), information will also be given about the collectors, their backgrounds, motivations, and fieldwork.

Whom to Remember – How to Return? Brigitte Schiffer, the Voices of Siwa and the Entangled History of the Berlin School of Ethnomusicology

For some years now, there has been an intense and controversial debate about the relationship between the culture of memory and research into the consequences of colonialism, on the one hand, and the Holocaust, on the other. Michael Rothberg's concept of multidirectional memory and Nathan Sznaider's contribution to the debate on the vanishing points of memory ("Fluchtpunkte der Erinnerung") provide only a few of several examples. Using the recordings of the German-Jewish composer and ethnomusicologist Brigitte Schiffer, made at the oasis of Siwa in the Sahara in 1932/33, as a case study, the article reflects on the implications of this debate for dealing with the so-called Berlin School of comparative musicology. Beyond that, the article asks how the complexity of competing memory discourses affects current approaches and efforts of decolonizing archives and identifies perspectives and strategies for how to handle such collections today, especially regarding the chances and challenges of so-called recirculation.

Two-way immersion promotes additional language learning: performance of bilingual sixth-grade students in English as a third language

ABSTRACT Multilingualism is often associated with advantages for acquiring additional languages. Theoretical approaches explain these advantages by assuming a Common Underlying Proficiency or a Metalinguistic Awareness. At the State Europe School in Berlin, students from different language backgrounds receive instruction in German and a partner language according to two-way immersion (TWI). It is unclear how this bilingual instruction affects the acquisition of a third language. We examined the English proficiency of N = 656 TWI sixth-grade students and N = 739 mainstream students via a C-test. Multiple regression analyses revealed that TWI students exhibited higher English proficiency than mainstream students despite having received less English instruction. The results showed additional effects of German- and partner-language reading skills. The findings support the assumption of TWI programs that the use of two languages of instruction fosters third language acquisition.

Die Architektur der Sternwarte auf Gut Bothkamp von 1869

Probably ›always‹ were people interested in the sky and watched the stars. The continuous progress of telescopes not only led to ever-changing uses of the stars, but also the instrument’s susceptibility to damage and bad pictures. Therefore, massive and useful locations were needed. In 1869 the Chamberlain Friedrich Gustav von Bülow – who wasn’t an astronomer himself – built on his estate’s edge in Bothkamp, Northern Germany, a private observatory, surrounded by water and open sky on a filled headland. Not only the location or it housing Europe’s biggest telescope were kind of unusual, but the observatory’s appearance and architecture. It was a rotunda with a hollow column in the middle on which the telescope stood, surrounded by eight rooms same size. The building had a gothic looking entrance, a walkable terrace with balustrade on the ground floor and a rotatable cone-type roof on the upper floor, which could be opened by an elongated flap. Bothkamp was one of just a few private observatories, which generally had little architectural design. Since it lacked the typical dome or at least a tower, it looked different anyway. Although Northern Germany had become Prussian at the time of building, the observatory’s appearance doesn’t correspond to the Berlin School at all. Additionally, there was the uncommon use as a multi-purpose building and the representative interior design. Since the astronomical research in Bothkamp ended with World War I and the building was pulled down in the 1930s, the article presents the observatory based on old views and reconstructions and classifies it within contemporary observatories and other buildings.

The Berlin-Brandenburg Air Study-A Methodological Study Paper of a Natural Experiment Investigating Health Effects Related to Changes in Airport-Related Exposures.

Objectives: This paper presents the study design of the Berlin-Brandenburg Air study (BEAR-study). We measure air quality in Berlin and Brandenburg before and after the relocation of aircraft (AC) traffic from Tegel (TXL) airport to the new Berlin-Brandenburg airport (BER) and investigate the association of AC-related ultrafine particles (UFP) with health outcomes in schoolchildren. Methods: The BEAR-study is a natural experiment examining schoolchildren attending schools near TXL and BER airports, and in control areas (CA) away from both airports and associated air corridors. Each child undergoes repeated school-based health-examinations. Total particle number concentration (PNC) and meteorological parameters are continuously monitored. Submicrometer particle number size distribution, equivalent black carbon, and gas-phase pollutants are collected from long-term air quality monitoring stations. Daily source-specific UFP concentrations are modeled. We will analyze short-term effects of UFP on respiratory, cardiovascular, and neurocognitive outcomes, as well as medium and long-term effects on lung growth and cognitive development. Results: We examined 1,070 children (as of 30 November 2022) from 16 schools in Berlin and Brandenburg. Conclusion: The BEAR study increases the understanding of how AC-related UFP affect children's health.

The political ecology of the entropy principle: 19th century physics and the electrification of Germany

The formalisation of the entropy law by Rudolf Clausius in 1865 marks a shift in 19th century physics. By defining energy as a process, German physicists were able to shape the necessary epistemological instruments for the second industrial revolution. The Berlin School of Thermodynamics applied physics for industrialising the recently unified Prussian state, making energy an important site of state governance. The entropy principle, an economic abstraction of the entropy law, called for a stronger interconnection of science and economics. Facilitated by a pessimistic anthropocentrism of Hermann von Helmholtz, German physics pushed for the application of statistical thermodynamics to the real world. Thus, nature's chaotic energy flows were rationalised for them to be legible to the state. Based on archival research in Berlin and Munich, this paper tells the story of such development, by highlighting how the entropy principle became institutionalised for industrialisation. Next to Clausius paradigm shift in 1865, it focusses on the foundation of the Physical Technical Reich Institute in 1887 and the International Electricity Exhibition in Frankfurt in 1891. The latter introduced the centralised production and grid-like distribution of electricity, revolutionising modes of production in urban as well as rural spaces. The analysis of such socio-technical development of the energy system in the fin de siècle enables the necessary thrust to make wider claims about how environmentalism, changing modes of production and the craft of the state are intertwined. This has great relevance for the historicization of current modes of transition towards a low-carbon economy in Germany and beyond. Physical knowledges and institutional arrangements of the energy system were shaped in conjunction, establishing a certain path dependency to such developments.

Первый Всероссийский съезд египтологов

The paper is timed to the 200th anniversary of the decipherment of Egyptian hieroglyphs by J.-F. Champollion and is dedicated to a century-old event - the First All-Russian Congress of Egyptologists in Moscow. The 1920s were a real trial for the young Russian Egyptology: many scientists of both older and younger generations died or left the country; contacts with West European colleagues were broken; there was an acute shortage of specialized scientific literature; and all this developed on the background of a difficult economic situation in the country struggling for survival. The situation can be best described by the words attributed to the People’s Commissar for Education A.V. Lunacharsky: “Currently, the young Soviet Republic does not need Egyptologists”. Undoubtedly, the First All-Russian Congress of Egyptologists became an important moment for the formation of the scientific Egyptological community in the Soviet Russia. It was convened on August 17-20, 1922 on the initiative of the All-Russian Scientific Association of Oriental Studies and the Central Institute of Oriental Studies in Moscow. The meetings of the congress were held in the Museum of Fine Arts (now the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts) and the Moscow Archaeological Society. The events of the congress (list of participants and reports, resolutions) are reconstructed by the authors of the present paper on the basis of available sources. They show that despite all the difficulties, Egyptology in Russia at that time was actively developing branch and an interest in the culture of Ancient Egypt could be seen in the society. The authors also publish a previously unknown letter from the Petrograd Egyptologist Natalia Davydovna Flittner to the founder of the Berlin school of Egyptology Adolf Erman in which she describes the celebrations of the 100th anniversary of the decipherment of Egyptian hieroglyphs in Petrograd and Moscow, and also gives a general description of the development of Russian Egyptology of that time.

Generalized anxiety disorder in Berlin school children after the third COVID-19 wave in Germany: a cohort study between June and September 2021

BackgroundDuring the COVID-19 pandemic, children and adolescents worldwide have disproportionally been affected in their psychological health and wellbeing. We conducted a cohort study among German school children, aiming at assessing levels of general anxiety disorder (GAD) and identifying associated factors in the second pandemic year.MethodsA cohort of 660 students from 24 Berlin schools was recruited to fill in questionnaires including the GAD-7 tool on anxiety symptoms at three time points between June and September 2021. To adjust for non-random attrition, we applied inverse probability weighting. We describe reported GAD levels stratified by time point, sex, and school type and report odds ratios from univariate logistic regression.ResultsIn total, 551 participants (83%) filled in at least one questionnaire at any time point. At the first time point in June 2021, 25% of the children and adolescents reported anxiety symptoms with a GAD-7 score ≥ 5, decreasing to 16% in August 2021 directly after the summer holidays and rising again to 26% in September 2021. The majority of reported anxiety levels belonged to the least severe category. Being female, attending secondary school, coming from a household with lower education or with lower income level, and being vaccinated against COVID-19 were significantly linked with reporting anxiety symptoms. Preceding COVID-19 infection and anxiety were negatively associated.ConclusionOverall, anxiety in school children was lower in mid-2021 than in the first pandemic year, but still double compared to pre-pandemic data. Reporting of anxiety symptoms during the second pandemic year was especially high in females and in secondary school students. Policy makers should pay additional attention to the mental health status of school children, even as the pandemic situation might stabilize.

Psychosocial wellbeing of Berlin school children during the COVID-19 pandemic, June 2020-March 2021

Abstract Background The COVID-19 pandemic and related restrictions have affected the wellbeing of school children worldwide. Specific problems evolving during the pandemic, their extent and duration haveńt been sufficiently explored yet. We aimed at describing school childreńs psychosocial and behavioral parameters and associated factors during the COVID-19 pandemic in Berlin, Germany. Methods Our longitudinal study included students from 24 randomly selected Berlin primary and secondary schools, assessing psychosocial wellbeing and behaviors at four time points between June 2020 and March 2021. We analyzed temporal changes in the proportions of anxiety, fear of infection, reduced health-related quality of life (HRQoL), physical activity and social contacts, as well as sociodemographic and economic factors associated with anxiety, fear of infection and HRQoL. Results Of initially 384 recruited students, 324 still participated in the fourth study round after nine months. During the observation period, presence of anxiety symptoms increased from 26.2% (96/367) to 34.6% (62/179), and fear of infection from 28.6% (108/377) to 40.6% (73/180). The proportion of children with limited social contacts (<1/week) increased from 16.4% (61/373) to 23.5% (42/179). Low physical activity (<3 times sports/week) was consistent over time. Low HRQoL was observed among 44% (77/174). Factors associated with anxiety were female sex, increasing age, secondary school attendance, lower household income, and presence of adults with anxiety symptoms in the student's household. Fear of infection and low HRQoL were associated with anxiety. Conclusions A substantial proportion of school children experienced unfavorable psychosocial conditions during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020/2021. In particular, students from households with limited social and financial resilience require special attention. Key messages

Visions of Disrupted Chronologies: Sergei Eisenstein and Hedwig Fechheimer’s Cubist Egypt

By juxtaposing two ostensibly divergent characters, the Jewish art historian and Egyptologist Hedwig Fechheimer (1871–1942) and Soviet filmmaker and theorist Sergei Eisenstein (1898–1948), this paper investigates how both approaches folded time, creating Cubist chronologies. Fechheimer adapted the philological focus of her Berlin School contemporaries to create an ahistorical, anti-teleological grammar of ancient Egyptian art which espoused an artistic affinity between the Egyptians and the Cubist movement. Eisenstein, who held a copy of one of Fechheimer’s books in his personal library, took a similar approach in the development of his critiques of historical allegory. This paper looks specifically at two shots of a sphinx during the bridge sequence in the 1927 film October to demonstrate how they correspond to Fechheimer’s views on Egyptian art and also function peculiarly within the film. Ultimately, I aim to demonstrate how the interpellations of the sphinx demonstrate a particular critique of historicity that Eisenstein later expands upon in his Ivan the Terrible films.

Negotiating Borders in Anna Seghers’ and Christian Petzold’s Transit

This paper focuses on the negotiation of borders in Anna Seghers’ novel Transit (1944) and Christian Petzold’s film of the same name (2018). Inspired by the German-Jewish communist writer’s own experience of traversing borders, Seghers’ Exilroman describes the torment of a nameless refugee from Germany waiting to escape Marseille, one of the last open frontiers in a Europe ravaged by National Socialism. 70 years later, the Berlin School director’s multilingual film delves into the history of displacement and nationalism in Europe by setting the 1940s fascist persecution amongst the refugee crisis in present-day France. Petzold’s distinctive trans-period approach gives a voice to the marginalized and displaced in two centuries and from two continents, making it impossible to separate ‘old’ from ‘new’ Europe. Presenting expulsion and migration as timeless phenomena, Petzold speaks to the historical fluctuation of borders and movement of populations. Both authors construe the crossing of borders as loss of identity and alienation, but offer different solutions, if any, to what they perceive as an existential as well as political predicament.

The Social Life of High School Seniors: COVID Experiences

COVID-19 marks a time of social isolation and social change in the lives of many people. While previous literature has focused on the mental health consequences of isolation on young people, our qualitative research aims to explore the lived experiences of adolescents during the pandemic. Based on 10 in-depth, semi-structured interviews with senior year students at the John F. Kennedy School in Berlin, this study seeks to determine whether both the government and school-imposed COVID-measures have impacted the social lives of our participants and to understand how they experience these potential changes. Our research found that students report a significant change in social life, but, in contrast with the existing literature, their experience of this social change is perceived as positive. These positive changes included a reported improvement in social connections, a more conscious use of social media, and the potential for more alone time. By exploring these three themes, our participants’ unexpected positivity can be placed into a larger context in which the pandemic is an opportunity to forge more meaningful connections while learning to be more conscious in spending time alone in an “always-on” culture.