German Side Research Articles

Redrawing Europe’s Map

Redrawing Europe’s Map

Littoral macroinvertebrates of acidified lakes in the Bohemian Forest

Mountain lakes in the Bohemian Forest, on both the Czech and German sides, were atmospherically acidified mainly in the 1960s–1980s and have since been recovering from acidification. In 2007, we performed the first complete study on littoral macroinvertebrates in all eight lakes. The goals of the study were to 1) compare macroinvertebrates in the lakes during the process of recovery and 2) investigate relations between the occurrence of taxa and water chemistry. Lake water pH varied from 4.6 to 5.7, concentrations of dissolved reactive Al and labile Al ranged from 118–601 and 11–470 μg L−1, respectively, and DOC concentrations were < 6 mg L−1. Altogether 73 taxa were identified from all lakes; a positive relationship was found between pH and the number of macroinvertebrate taxa. The highest number of taxa was found in the least acidic lakes Laka and Grosser Arbersee, including the mollusk Pisidium casertanum. In contrast, the lowest diversity was found in the most acidified Certovo jezero. Cluster analyses of macroinvertebrates and water chemistry suggested pH as the key factor influencing the occurrence of macroinvertebrate taxa. An interesting finding was the occurrence of the boreo-montane water beetle Nebrioporus assimilis in Prasilske record of this species in the Czech Republic since 1960.

Mälukultuur ja moraalne tunnistus: Teise maailmasõja mäletamine Bernard Kangro Tartu-romaanides

This article deals with how remembering the Second World War is conveyed in Bernard Kangro’s last three Tartu novels, The Stone Bridge (1963), The Black Book (1965) and Whirlfire (1969). The Second World War is a memory topos that has, more than anything else, divided the memory politics of European countries. If memory politics in Western Europe is focused predominantly on condemning Nazi crimes, primarily the Holocaust, then Eastern Europe, in addition to the legacy of Nazism, has to deal with the additional criminal legacy of Communism. To bridge the gap between Eastern and Western European nations’ collective memories, discussions started in 1990 about the European memory that should help form the basis for a unified European identity. In the opinion of Jan-Werner Muller, European memory assumes one of two processes. The first is linked to unifying the stances toward memory politics of various European nations; the second with unifying the contents of various collective memories. Although Kangro’s last three Tartu novels are among the peripheral works of Estonian cultural memory, they nevertheless deal with themes that have become relevant in the twenty-first century, on the one hand linking collective memory and national memory politics, and on the other hand, addressing the concept of European memory. Using Kangro’s Tartu novels, I first analyse the problematic aspects of national memory politics as they relate to remembering the Second World War in Estonia. Secondly, I point out the implicit criticism in the Tartu novels of the more inflexible and homogenizing form of European memory. For this I focus more closely on the formative stories of three characters – Benno Maran, Naatan Uirike and Juku Leebram. Benno Maran is one of the narrating voices in these novels, together with an anonymous narrator, an italicized narrator from a different time, and another character, named August September. Quotes from Benno’s diary dating from the days of the Russian and German occupations Russian and German occupations of Estonia are used extensively in the novels’ texts. These quotations overlap considerably with the inscriptions in Kangro's own diary from the period. This circumstance and the italicized narrator’s role as a witness to pivotal events in history enable Kangro’s Tartu novels to deal with moral witness, as explained by Aleida Assmann. According to Assmann, moral witness is the grievance of a forgotten historical injustice as well as an elegy which has no political objectives. What emerges from the italicized narrator’s text is that Kangro’s objective is to deliver a moral witnessing, as well as demonstrate the difficulty in bearing such witness: having participated in the events, he is responsible for the reality he remembers and portrays, and the impression he conveys of the people whose suffering he recounts. The process of bearing witness becomes the theme of these novels through the thoughts, comments and confessions of the italicized narrator; at the same time he distances himself from the narrated tale and characters, thus emphasizing the relative nature of the portrayal. The second characteristic keyword of the Tartu novels is pluralism, demonstrated by both their structure and subject matter. Namely, by using multiple characters, Kangro portrays very different Second World War experiences that are inconsistent with nationalistic memory politics as well as too conflicting for transnational memory politics. One example is theology student Juku Leebram’s life story. Juku collaborates with those in power during the Soviet occupation and takes part in the deportations, then turns traitor by fleeing to the German side, but is captured by the Germans and dies in jail. However, after the war, rumours circulate that Juku escaped and has become a Forest Brother. Thus, in the communicative memory of the Estonians in the homeland, Juku first becomes a martyr and then a resistance fighter and national hero.

“… I denne Tid maa man ogsaa kunde taale at se Blod”. Frits Clausen i russisk krigsfangenskab 1915-18

Frits Clausen, the future leader of the Nationalist Socialist Workers Party of Denmark (DNSAP), was a Russian prison of war from 1915-18. The development that he underwent in captivity is examined through contemporary letters and later articles and reminiscences. He was forced to enlist in the German army as a professed Danish nationalist, and for him the war represented a possibility and a hope that Germany would lose, providing an opportunity for North Schleswig to be reunited with Denmark. He put this goal higher than other considerations, including the German orientation of Schleswigers, and his dislike of the Danish Social-Liberal Party was due in an inordinate degree to press releases from Denmark reporting the party’s half-hearted attitude to the North Schleswig issue. He also clashed with the Danish clergyman who was sent to minister to the prisoners of war from North Schleswig. The clergyman was more of an upright, neutral Danish official than a wholehearted advocate of the North Schleswig case. In this respect the clergyman was a disappointment in Frits Clausen’s eyes. His recommendation that the pro-Danish prisoners of war from North Schleswig should return to Germany to resuming fighting on the German side following the separate peace treaty between Germany and Russia was more than Frits Clausen could cope with. He went over the clergyman’s head and tried, together with a small number of like-minded individuals, to fight against Germany, but his attempt failed. In the course of his endeavours he developed a hatred of the new Soviet regime, as personified by the Marxist Jew, but in other respects had gained an excellent impression of the Russians, who he in no way considered to be an inferior people. On his return from Russia he expressed his anti-Semitism and anti-Communism in various anonymous articles in the press. This was the first step towards keeping the promise, made to himself during his captivity, to dedicate his life to the struggle against Marxism.

Dialog naukowy czy element polityki – spotkania polskich historyków emigracyjnych i historyków niemieckich w 1956 i 1964 roku

The international realities which existed after the end of World War II and, in particular, after the Cold War began, including the status of the authorities of the Republic of Poland in exile and the fundamentals of the Federal Republic of Germany’s foreign policy, ruled out any possibility of establishing political contacts. However, contacts of social nature were possible. Some, though, involved considerable risk, such as, for instance, the undertaking of conversations with communities of Germans expelled from the territories incorporated into Poland after 1945. The émigrées exposed themselves to criticism on the part of both the émigré milieux as well as those in Poland.Meetings between Polish and émigré historians became one of the forms of contact of this nature. However, browsing through the newspapers of the day leads to the conclusion that they met with mixed reactions among the Polish émigré community.The first meeting was held from 10th to 14th October 1956 in Tübingen and the second, from 17th to 19th March 1964, in London. At both, the German side was represented by numerous professional historians and directors of academic institutes dealing with East Europe and, or including, Poland. Professor Tytus Komarnicki, a pre-war diplomat, was particularly active on the part of the Poles. For the Germans, these contacts were valuable, inter alia, because the Polish expatriate milieu in London, as well as those in the U.S. and France, were very knowledgeable as regards archive resources for the period from 1918 to 1945 and had access to a great many documents concerning the history of Poland and held, for instance, by the Polish Institute and the General Sikorski Museum. There were also numerous witnesses to history among those communities, as well as eminent pre-war scholars. No further bilateral meetings between Polish émigrée historians and German historians were ever held. This resulted, to a large degree, from the fact that their formula had been exhausted. The pre-war generation of Polish historians was passing away. The next generations of Polish émigrée historians moved in general academic circles and were less enclosed within a milieu of their own.The bilateral relations between the FRG and the PRP were changing as well. Interest in a more active Ostpolitik was on a continuing upsurge in Bonn, which resulted in more extensive opportunities for academic contacts as well. The PRP authorities, for their part, were interested in overcoming the state of suspension in relations with the FRG. The domestic academic milieu was changing, too.Both the meetings were a form of academic contact, but they were also of significance to the reconciliation of the two nations, or to the search for opportunities of overcoming their enmity.

War and its Bestiality: Animals and their Fate during the Fighting in France, 1940

AbstractThe fighting in France and Belgium in May-June 1940 has generated a large literature. Mostly, however, this has concerned itself with military strategy, the triumph of the German operational methods popularly termed ‘Blitzkrieg’, the British evacuation at Dunkirk and the political consequences of defeat for the French. This article re-evaluates the mobilisation of 1939 and the conduct of combat operations in 1940 from a less conventional perspective: that of the animals in France. It explores what happened to the many domestic pets swept up, or left behind, in the flight of Belgian and French civilians southward to escape the invader; the livestock on the farmland of the Somme, Aisne, Oise and Meuse where the battles raged; and the horses which remained central to the transport of men, munitions and supplies on both the French and German sides. It argues that the recovery of the wartime experiences of the fauna of France should be part of a more holistic understanding of war's impact on the natural world and on all, non-humans as well as humans, who inhabit it.

SOME FRESH NEWS ABOUT THE 26 COMMISSARS: REGINALD TEAGUE-JONES AND THE TRANSCASPIAN EPISODE

One of the great founding legends of Soviet Union is that of the murder in September 1918 of 26 Soviet Commissars in Transcaspia, allegedly by a British officer, Reginald Teague-Jones. The episode which became the legend took place at the end of the First World War, at the very end of the eastern front, where the Russian withdrawal from the war left a vacuum and a situation which was confused, to say the least. Independent Sovietswere springing up and one of these was the short-lived Baku Commune (also mythologised by the Soviets) When the Commune collapsed its leaders, the 26 Commissars, were imprisoned. Weeks later, in the confusion of the capture of Baku by the Turks, the Commissars escaped by boat, bound for Astrakhan, then held by the Bolsheviks. But they ended up in Krasnovodsk, in the hands of the anti-Bolsheviks and they were subsequently executed. Limited British forces (Malmiss and Dunforce) were in the area. They were initially deployed against the Turks,who were fighting on the German side, but then the Bolsheviks became the primary concern for the British. It is clear that Teague-Jones had a liaison role with the anti-Bolsheviks, but modern evidence suggests that it is very unlikely that he was even present at the execution of the 26 Commissars. The article shows how the legend grew and why the involvement of an agent of British Imperialism fitted a propaganda need.

Another Baltic Postcolonialism: Young Latvians, Baltic Germans, and the emergence of Latvian National Movement

This article looks at the emergence of Latvian nationalism in the mid-nineteenth century from the intercultural perspective of postcolonial theory. The writings of early Young Latvians, and the reaction to them from the dominant Baltic German elite, show that the emergence of a modern Latvian nationalism is to a large extent due to postcolonial mimicry, as described by Homi Bhabha. Attempts to imitate German cultural models and to develop a Latvian high culture lead to hostile reactions from the German side, which, in their turn, lead to increasing consolidation of Latvian nationalism. Since the Baltic German elite increasingly legitimized its rule in terms of cultural superiority, the Young Latvians’ alliance with the Russian Slavophiles led it to treat the Latvian nationalists as culturally inferior and partly Asiatic, like the Russians.

THE BATTLE OF KURSK: HOW THE WESTERN HISTORIANS APPRECIATE IT

In the article the author analyses how the largest battle of the Great Patriotic War and the second World War, the Battle of Kursk, is shown in the west historiography: the intentions of the opposite sides, the degree of preparation to the coming battle, the correlation between number of people and military machines, the realization of decreed tasks, the peculiarities of strategy and moving fighting forces for the battle, the mistakes of German side which were the result of defeat. There are some arguments that the foundation for the forming ideas of western historians about the events on the Soviet German front in summer 1943 is in the workings of captured German generals and officers which were prepared by the task of military – historical service of US army. The workings played the important ideological and methodological role. Trying to excuse themselves these authors explained the defeat of Wehrmacht using some accidental factors which were not connected with their activity as military leaders. In particular there were some mistakes of the highest German political and military leadership, climatic and geographical peculiarities of the war in Russia. In the article the controversial battle Western historians, forms, methods and means of falsification of history and the role of the battle; exposure technique attempts to distort the essence of the events and the outcome of the battle.

While Jews serve in my army I will not allow their deportation

Despite 60 years' intensive research and thousands of publications, certain aspects of the Second World War are still little known or remain to be discovered. It is only now, since the collapse of the Soviet Union, for example, that we can reconstruct the full story of Finland's participation in the war. Consider the paradoxes. Finland fought on the German side (although it always refused to call itself an ally and insisted that it was only a co-belligerent). Yet it refused to deport, persecute or even discriminate against its Jewish population. And the country even behaved humanely towards Jewish prisoners of war. Even stronger, Jewish soldiers fought in the Finnish ranks as equals—thereby, inevitably, helping the Germans achieve some of their war aims. Yet in doing so, I will argue, they also served Jewish interests. This article explains the background to these startling anomalies.

“O continente ainda inexplorado”: a República Federal Alemã na era Adenauer e a América Latina em contexto global

Relations between Germany and Latin America in the Cold War period have so far not been studied intensively. Brazil is no exception. This article argues that transnational actors and their networks were crucial in reestablishing these relations after 1945, in the period of the Konrad Adenauer administration in West Germany until 1963. It presents an overview that aims at raising more questions than answering them because fundamental research on German-Brazilian relations still remains to be done. It first addresses perceptions and expectations on the German side at the end of the Second World War which are the basis for the relations as such. These will be discussed in the light of German sources and in the context of global connections and commerce.Key words: Federal public of Germany, Konrad Adenauer administration, German-Brazilian relations.

The (Restored) Practice of DEFA Co-productions with the “Normalized” Czechoslovak Film Studio in the 1970s

After four co-productions which the East German and Czech studios made from 1957 to 1965, a five-year hiatus in DEFA-Barrandov co-productions took place. During the Czechoslovak New Wave era, the Czech filmmakers gave DEFA the cold shoulder. But the process of “normalisation” that took place after the August 1968 Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia put both the regimes and the film industry structures back in sync. While the end of independent production groups at DEFA and Barrandov damaged the creative environment and the quality of productions as a whole, it also had an unforeseeable effect: the revival of DEFA-Barrandov co-productions. On the German side, DEFA was interested in help from experienced practitioners, especially scriptwriters. On the Czech side, Barrandov´s filmmakers—now isolated from previous contact with western partners and under strict ideological control—strove to shape the DEFA projects they were offered according to their own criteria. There was thus a harmonization of goals and tools, which worked especially well in the sphere of children movies. This was not only because this type of production rarely crashed against divergent interpretations of the past by the two partners. There were two more important reasons as well: namely, that the dramaturge group for children’s movies was under looser ideological control by Barrandov management; and that the personal continuity with the pre-normalization era was stronger in this group than was the case for other groups. In the 1970s, both studios were motivated to find an effective mode of co-operation.

Development of Underground Water Extraction System for Karst Regions with Adapted Technologies and Operating System – Pilot Plant in Java, Indonesia

Abstract In many developing countries, despite of much national and international effort to improve the water supply situation, the technical and ecological as well as economical solutions are still insufficient. The situation in karst regions is even more severe due to the extreme climatic and hydrogeological conditions. In karst areas, a large percentage of the precipitation rapidly infiltrates from the surface into the karst rock. The water resources are therefore mainly stored in the karst aquifers as well as in underground river systems. Because of lacking storage possibilities on the surface, bad accessibility of the underground resources and often long running dry seasons, serious water shortages occur. Against this backdrop, an interdisciplinary research group of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), together with industry partners, concentrates intensively on the development and implementation of concepts and technologies for an adapted water resources management in karst regions of Southeast Asia. This paper focuses on the Indonesian-German joint project for the development of an underground hydropower pilot plant in a karst region on Java, Indonesia, which is, from German side, supported by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). After years of research and construction works facing several setbacks due to earthquakes and flood events, since mid of 2011 the plant is operated continuously under the responsibility of an Indonesian operational team.

François Mitterrand wobec rozpadu Jugosławii w latach 1991-1995

The French President, Francois Mitterrand, followed with a great deal of attention a deepening collapse of Yugoslavia in the late 1980s of the 20th century. In the beginning, he believed that thanks to reforms and Serbians it will be possible to maintain Yugoslavia as a country. Mitterrand - as opposed to Kohl, who since the beginning of the conflict supported Croatian and Slovenian expectations of independence - was against a ‘wild’ independence. This caused a serious conflict in French-German relations during this time. Finally, in December 1991, France and other members of the European Community, facing a fait accompli by the German side, agreed to acknowledge the independence of all Yugoslav republics, on the condition that they met specified requirements concerning the observance of human rights, including the rights of minorities. Since the beginning of the Yugoslav conflict, Mitterrand was in favor of further mediations and against the military intervention of France or the European Community. He did not change his mind until the end of his presidency in 1995. He believed that one cannot respond with a war for a war. Mitterrand was in favor of sanctions against the fighting sides, he was ready to support the humanitarian aid. On June 28,1992, he went to the surrounded Sarajevo in order to support the local community. Although this trip met with a surprise and admiration of almost the whole world, Mitterrand’s policy became an object of criticism in France by some of French intellectuals. They accused him of supporting Serbians and of showing indifference toward their acts of genocide, above all, in Bosnia. Mitterrand did not agree with these accusations. He stressed that France did more than anybody else for Bosnia.

La República Federal de Alemania ante el fin de las dictaduras ibéricas (1974-1976): miradas entrecruzadas

The role of the Federal Republic of Germany as an external player in the Iberian transitions —mainly through its government, political parties, political foundations, and unions— has been highlighted since the first studies on the international dimension of regime change in Portugal and Spain in 1974-1975. This article aims to contribute to our knowledge of the «German factor» in the Iberian transitions by underlining Bonn’s perception of the Iberian Peninsula as a whole and by tracking the interdependencies that were established on the German side, in the analysis and in concrete initiatives, when tackling the crisis that was triggered by the end of the Portuguese and Spanish dictatorships. This is done primarily by analyzing both published and unpublished diplomatic documents from the FRG. This analysis provides an assessment of the German perception of the case of Portugal, as a precedent and as a testing ground for policies to promote democracy later applied to Spain.

Landscapes of Revanchism: Building and the Contestation of Space in an Industrial Polish-German Borderland, 1922–1945

On March 28, 1926, government officials and borderland activists staged a massive rally to protest the border with Poland in Oppeln (Opole), the capital of the German part of the Upper Silesian borderland. The Social Democratic interior minister of the Prussian state, Carl Severing, took the occasion to articulate the terms of a rivalry with the Polish neighboring nation-state to which the disputed drawing of the border here in 1922 had given way. In his speech he noted that he was “not speaking about an arms race” but rather “a struggle” for “Germandom and Kultur” that “should be fought out with the weapons of the spirit”—rather than with actual arms. As part of the struggle, the whole of this border society was to demonstrate that they were “better than the eastern neighbor” in their everyday work. This promotion of good stewardship was meant not only to ensure that Germany would not lose another “single foot-long of soil,” but also foremost “to uphold the faith of the Upper Silesian masses in Polish Silesia's speedy return to Germany.” This last phrase was coined by Aleksander Szczepański, the Polish Consul in Beuthen (Bytom) on the German side of the border. Like other government officials, and also the media, he followed this rally and was startled by how—in his words—“tirelessly” “all of Germany” was calling for the border's revision. In turn, Szczepański warned the Polish government that “it is easy to imagine a sad outcome”—such as the revision of the border in Germany's favor—if Poland did not step up its efforts to counter such propaganda.

Nelson Edwards and the Newsreels: An American Life

Nelson Edwards (1887-1954) was among the first newsreel cameramen in American film history. From 1914 he filmed for Hearst International News Service and covered the Mexican Revolution. In 1916 he filmed the Turkish and the German side of the World War. He was also chief cameraman for Fox Newsreel during the year of its birth, and thereafter a longtime stringer for Paramount News. The essay describes Edwards's life and work, as well as some of the background of Hearst's first attempts to get into the newsreel business, based on research in Edwards's personal documents, reports in the press and interviews with his family.

Η Ίδρυση του Φιλολογικού Συλλόγου Φλώρινας «Αριστοτέλης» στη Φλώρινα την περίοδο της Κατοχής

The antifascist activity in the prefecture of Florina engaged different dimensions,which were related with the social origin of those that participatedin it. Thus, the representatives of the rural and working layers included themselves in the EAM party, while urban population, when they were found inthe maelstrom of international conspiracies at the expense Makedonia, selected the approach with the Germans in order to face the Bulgarian drawingsfor the region. The most crucial arm of cultural sovereignty used by the Greekbourgeois of Florina was the projection of «Hellenism» of the region and ofthe residents. The Association «Aristotelis» was called to serve this goal, thatis to appear the Greek cultural heritage against the Bulgarian infiltration. Theeffort of urban class was focused on developing relations with the German side in order to face Bulgarians. This effort however was proved particularlyfragile after Thomaidis, the Director of the «Aristotlis’» Chorus, had beenmurdered in Kladorahi in 1943. As after this murder, the effectiveness ofstrategy, which was being followed by «Aristotelis», began to enter in contestation.

Germany’s policy and the diplomatic agenda of Romanian neutrality (1914-1916). The Prospect of a plan for an alliance with Sweden

In the summer of 1915, concerned about Italy’s entry into the war in alliance with the Entente powers yet encouraged by the victories of its armies on the Eastern Front, the German diplomacy attempted to encourage Sweden and Romania to abandon their neutrality in order to give a decisive blow to Russia. In several reports dispatched from Berlin, Alexandru Beldiman, the envoy to Germany who was also Romania’s representative in the Scandinavian countries, raised the possibility of Sweden’s entry into the war on the German side. After he had identified Russia as the common historical enemy of the two countries, the Romanian diplomat suggested forging an alliance under the leadership of Germany. A strong alliance was thought to ensure Sweden’s ascendancy in Finland and the Baltic states, and Romania’s supremacy in the East at the Black Sea. Although this plan was rejected by the liberal government, Beldiman’s initiative in a period of neutrality remains an alternative in the Romanian political circles to Entente supremacy.

Transgression as a Rule: German-Polish Cross-border Cooperation, Border Discourse and EU Enlargement by Ulrich Best

Transgression as a Rule: German-Polish Cross-border Cooperation, Border Discourse and EU Enlargement by Ulrich Best