German Career Research Articles

'We do bad things to bad people' – Krav Maga's German career in the light of social systems theory

Despite its worldwide popularity, Israel originated Krav Maga is still remarkably unexplored. With regards Krav Maga´s global spread, the article focuses on the social career of Krav Maga in Germany and asks about the conditions for its success. Beginning in the 2000s, Krav Maga has rapidly resonated throughout Germany, nowadays showing a high degree of social connectivity and differentiation. Analysed through the lenses of social systems theory, Krav Maga´s German career appears not least being an effect of globalised streams of communication – in particular realized through the marking of relevant differences to existing practices and systems of self-defence and serving of contemporary social and individual needs and expectations (e.g. the ability to effectively defend oneself). Following initial analyses of the spread of Wing Chun in Germany, this case study makes a further contribution to an understanding of the socio-cultural evolution of self-defense systems in Germany.

Review: Richard Krautheimer in Deutschland: Aus den Anfängen einer wissenschaftlichen Karriere 1925–1933

Review: <i>Richard Krautheimer in Deutschland: Aus den Anfängen einer wissenschaftlichen Karriere 1925–1933</i>

A Life in Limbo: Otto von Strahl’s Activities for and against Germany in the Union of South Africa

ABSTRACT During World War II, Baron Otto von Strahl, a German career diplomat and trader, became one of South Africa’s most important intelligence assets in the fight against Nazi infiltration. But he died indigent, an immigrant to the United States of America, because the German post-war authorities refused to recognise him as a Nazi opponent. Many decades after his death historians have begun to praise him as a resistance fighter, though ignoring certain ambiguities in his activities in South Africa. Von Strahl had denounced fellow Germans as dangerous Nazis without any tangible evidence, bringing about their internment by the South African authorities. Based on archival research in South Africa, Namibia, and Germany, this article exposes a paradox in von Strahl’s activities for South Africa: as an undoubted expert of South Africa’s infiltration by Nazi envoys and their propaganda, he focused on the German population, which constituted a relatively minor threat to the country’s stability, but he ignored the menace coming from pro-Nazi radical Afrikaner movements. His role has been exaggerated by those who accused him of treason during and after the war in Germany, whilst both his accusers and post-war defenders neglected his pro-Jewish attitude as the main motivation for switching sides in 1939.

Von Wistinghausen, Henning Freimaurer und Aufklärung im Russischen Reich. Die Revaler Logen 1773–1820, mit einem biographischen Lexikon (review)

SEER, 96, 2, APRIL 2018 364 critical discussion of and contextualization within the rich field of scholarship on both the Russian and Western European Enlightenments (John Robertson’s study on Naples and Scotland, two other peripheral and economically underdeveloped European states, comes to mind). Hamburg chooses instead to quote his sources at length, framing their interpretation within a wealth of detailed biographical information which, however, is not always directly relevant to an understanding of the source at hand. For any scholar interested in Russia’s intellectual history, the chance to corroborate and verify a reconstruction of the development of intellectual life and currents of thought against a solid body of existing research is essential (a comprehensive bibliography is missing in the book). However, this might be an unreasonable expectation given that Hamburg’s book is the first to trace the history of Russian political thought from medieval times until the end of the eighteenth century. As such it is an important, erudite and informative contribution to the field which will be appreciated by intellectual historians as well as historians of Europe and Russia. Basel Charlotte Henze vonWistinghausen,Henning.FreimaurerundAufklärungimRussischenReich. Die Revaler Logen 1773–1820, mit einem biographischen Lexikon. 3 vols. Böhlau, Cologne, Weimar and Vienna, 2016. 1061 + 356 pp. Illustrations. Notes. Appendices. Bibliography. Index. €150.00. This is a major contribution to the history of Freemasonry in the Russian Empire. Henning von Wistinghausen is a German career diplomat who is also an erudite historian of his family’s native Estonia, with numerous publications to his name on its Imperial Russian past and especially the ‘Kotzebue time’ (late eighteenth to early nineteenth centuries). Here Wistinghausen chronicles in great detail the history of the Masonic lodges in Reval (Tallinn), placing them firmly in the context of Imperial Russian Freemasonry from its beginnings around the 1740s to its final prohibition in 1822: volume one takes the story to approximately 1800, volume two covers the reign of Alexander I. He has ranged across Europe in search of sources and deploys a huge array of archival and rare published material, much of it previously unused, as well as demonstrating sovereign familiarity with the literature of the subject. The third of his three volumes is a biographical lexicon which provides extensive personal information on the over 400 individuals identified as Masons in Estland and mentioned in the monograph’s text. The Estonian narrative is woven together with the more familiar events in Russia proper — the interaction between the competing Masonic systems REVIEWS 365 and national allegiances of Reichel, Elagin, Gagarin and Melissino, the search for higher degrees and ‘true’ Masonry, and developments leading to the first closure of the lodges in the 1790s. (Wistinghausen cites approvingly Faggionato’s explanation of Catherine II’s crack-down on Novikov and his circle.) In particular the role of foreigners is highlighted, especially the hitherto underappreciated part played in Russian Masonry of the time by the brothers Georg and Wilhelm von Rosenberg. Catherine’s Baltic provinces had a number of lodges, in Dorpat/Tartu, Mitau/Jelgava and Riga as well as in Reval/ Tallinn; many young Baltic German nobles met Masonry while studying in Germany. Reval at this time was an important port but a provincial backwater; one of the features well portrayed here is the change over time of its culture and intellectual life, the gradual penetration of ‘Enlightenment’. The first of the four Reval lodges, Isis (1773–92), which inducted ninety-two members over its initial lifetime, was composed mainly of well-educated incomers, finding little resonance either in Reval’s stuffy merchant society or among the surrounding landed nobility. The Brotherly Love lodge (1777–88), established by an officer of the Kazan´ Cuirassier Regiment, relied heavily upon other regimental officers for its membership. The Three Polehammers (1778-85) followed the Strict Observance and the Swedish system, and did not survive the latter’s demise in Russia. The ephemeral fourth lodge, Hope at Innocence (1788–91?), was plagued by internal conflict. Isis, the only lodge to survive into the 1790s, maintained a skeleton life after 1792 to look after its property and continue its support for the poor. Under Alexander I Freemasonry revived, but once again...

Validation of the German Career Decision-Making Profile—An Updated 12-Factor Version

The Career Decision-Making Profile (CDMP) was developed by Gati and colleagues in 2010 as an attempt to reliably measure which strategies individuals apply when making career decisions. In order to provide counseling and coaching professionals with a German version of the scale, we translated and validated the German version (G-CDMP) in two studies (total N = 622). Results of Study 1 verified the proposed 12-factor structure by means of confirmatory factor analyses, confirming that the G-CDMP assesses 12 distinct career decision-making strategies. Results of Study 2 demonstrated the G-CDMP’s construct validity on subscale level by relating it to self-evaluations (e.g., occupational self-efficacy) and personality (i.e., the Big Five) as well as to career-related constructs, such as career adaptability and cognitive reactions toward career-life decisions (e.g., life satisfaction). As the studies provide support for the G-CDMP’s factor structure and its construct validity, implications for its use during career counseling are discussed.

Careers and career research in Germany: a literature review

The aim of this paper is to systematically analyze the German career related literature in order to identify the main research areas. The main step of our analysis comprises a qualitative, content-based analysis of selected publications in four well established German scientific journals within the time period 1990–2013. Six research areas can be identified from the literature review of 411 publications. Furthermore, the findings resulting from the review of German career related literature are comparatively discussed in the light of previous career research that has mainly flourished in the Anglo-American region. A dependency of careers and career research in Germany on institutional and contextual factors that are inherent to the German context is indicated. Finally, implications for research and practice as well as future research directions are derived from the literature review.

German Film Scores from the Silent Era

German Film Scores from the Silent Era Daniel Bishop Gottfried Huppertz. Metropolis, op. 29: Musik zum Fritz-Lang-Stummfilm von 1925/26. Bearbeitung zum Film von Berndt Heller für Orchester. Erstausgabe mit einer Einleitung von Friedemann Beyer und Berndt Heller. Berlin: Ries & Erler, 2006. [Introd. in Ger., p. iii–vii; score, p. 1–394. ISMN M-013-51150-1, pub. no. 51150. €149.] [End Page 180] Wolfgang Zeller. Musik zum Lotte Reiniger-Stummfilm Die Abenteuer des Prinzen Achmed für kleines Orchester bearbeitet von Jens Schubbe. Berlin: Ries & Erler, 2008. [Score, p. 1–73 (1. Akt), 1–121 (2. Akt), 1–99 (3. Akt), 1–126 (4. Akt), 1–64 (5. Akt). ISMN M-013-51216-4 (score), M-013-83024-4 (parts), pub. no. 51216. €84.] Edmund Meisel. Berlin, Die Sinfonie der Großstadt: Musik zum Ruttmann-Stummfilm. Bearbeitung für 16 Instrumente, auf der Basis des Klavierauszuges der Original-Musik Edmund Meisels [von] Mark-Andreas Schlingensiepen. Berlin: Ries & Erler, 2009. [List of percussion requirements, inside front cover; score, p. I/1–I/97 (I. Akt), II/1–II/67 (II. Akt), III/1–III/108 (III. Akt), IV/1–IV/146 (IV. Akt), V/1–V/108 (V. Akt). ISMN M-013-51242-3, pub. no. 51242. €149.] Eduard Künneke. Musik zum Lubitsch-Stummfilm Das Weib des Pharao, op. 15, für Salonorchester. Bearbeitung zur Filmfassung 2011 von Frank Strobel. Berlin: Ries & Erler, 2011. [Instrumentation, 1 p.; score, p. 1–390. ISMN M-013-51286-7 (score), M-013-30339-2 (parts), pub. no. 51286. €149.] It is always a problem for teachers of music history to deal with music for which no published score exists. Although this problem arises less frequently when teaching the Western canon, when teaching film music, it is simply the normal state of things. Within the subfield of German silent-film music, a series of scores published by Ries & Erler represents a significant step toward addressing this problem. Under consideration here are Eduard Künneke’s score for Ernst Lubitsch’s Das Weib des Pharao (usually translated as The Loves of the Pharaoh, 1922); Wolfgang Zeller’s score for Lotte Reiniger’s Die Abenteuer des Prinzen Achmed (The Adventures of Prince Achmed, 1926); Gottfried Huppertz’s score for Fritz Lang’s Metropolis (1927); and Edmund Meisel’s score for Walter Ruttman’s Berlin: Die Symphonie der Großstadt (1927). These recent publications—all from 2006–2011—belong to a well-established and, it is hoped, ongoing project that includes numerous other films (twenty-one at present), which are listed, with some descriptive notes, at http://www.stummfilmmusik.com/filmmusik/ (accessed 15 May 2013). All four films are historically important, and all are gems of the German late silent cinema. We have here a virtuosic benchmark in the animation medium (The Adventures of Prince Achmed); the lavish apex of legendary director Ernst Lubitsch’s German career just prior to his emigration to Hollywood (The Loves of the Pharaoh); and a feature-length avant-garde masterpiece that strikingly exemplifies the interwar aesthetic of “New Objectivity” (Berlin). And, of course, in Metropolis, we have one of the most complex, analyzed, and debated works in film history, as well as—with its dazzling images and provocative politics—one of the few silent films to continually appeal to an extremely broad contemporary audience. The publication of such scores is a significant aid for the teaching of film-music history. Without relying upon transcription, memory, or the availability of archival resources, educators can lead students to delve into specific details of orchestration, large-scale tonal structures, and interrelated musical motives within a score. This, however, is not the scores’ only potential function. Venues still exist through which silent films can enjoy screenings with live music, and these publications (two of them—Metropolis and The Loves of the Pharaoh—appearing in conjunction with specific restoration projects) demonstrate that a contemporary German exhibition culture for silent-film music is alive and well. Thus, another purpose of these scores is to facilitate new performances through commercially available materials. [End Page 181] What are the various expectations for scholarly versus performative use of this material, and how do the editions represent...

The future in our hands.

The future in our hands.

Image and reality in Richard of Cornwall's German career

Image and reality in Richard of Cornwall's German career

Expressionism, Relativity, and the Einstein Tower

The Einstein Tower was the product of the complementary investigations of expressionism, reinforced concrete construction, and relativity undertaken by its architect, Erich Mendelsohn, between 1912 and 1920. The war-ravaged German economy of 1921, which impeded its construction, and the scientific agenda of its patron, Erwin Finlay Freundlich, which determined the character of its interior spaces, also helped shape its final appearance. Designed to serve scientific inquiry, it occupies a distinctive intellectual, as well as stylistic, position within the history of German expressionism. In this building Mendelsohn established the design approach that would characterize the rest of his German career, fusing attention to program with bold images of the thrilling instability of modern life. As its reception demonstrates, the functional aspects of the tower have been overshadowed by the degree to which its form has mistakenly been identified with a contemporary enthusiasm for mysticism, which in fact played no role in its design.