Historical German Research Articles

Towards a Datatset of Digitalized Historical German VET and CVET Regulations

The digitization of historical documents has gained particular interest in recent years in the digital humanities. The goal is to digitize historical documents by extracting and structuring text from scanned images. Here, we focus on the processing of historical German VET (vocational education and training) and CVET (continuing vocational education and training) regulations to support educational research. This dataset contains data from 1908 to the present and includes 2125 documents as PDF, 983 fully converted XML documents, and additional metadata for 7090 documents from the archive. We present an overview of the historical background and the challenges of processing different historical documents from three different federal states.

Problematic Possessivity: Possessive Pronouns and Repair Sequences in Historical German Dramas

Problematic Possessivity: Possessive Pronouns and Repair Sequences in Historical German Dramas

Landmark Base Point Approach to Positional and Coastal Accuracy Analysis for Historical Map Before WWI: A Case Study 1836 Moltke and 1914 German Blue about in Historical Peninsula of İstanbul

AbstractCartography, unquestionably one of the world’s oldest disciplines of scientific study, is among the fields that have been most influenced by technological improvements. These improvements have enhanced interest in historical maps while also paving the way for modern mapping. All of this process has created new topics of study for cartographers. It is possible to examine old maps using software such as MapAnalyst which can enable the investigation of time-dependent changes. In this study, two historical maps, namely, Moltke and German Blue, were analyzed in the study area including the Historical Peninsula, Golden Horn, some part of Bosphorus, and the Marmara Sea in İstanbul, Türkiye, employing Helmert, Affine, and Huber loss robust estimation methods. It was revealed that the region with the highest deterioration on both maps is between Beşiktaş and Üsküdar. The coastline change analysis was also performed. According to the results, it was observed that the regions with the most coastal change are located on the southern and eastern coasts of the Historical Peninsula.

A tale of two eras: assessing the impact of breeding programs on historical and modern German wheat cultivars under distinct management

Breeding advancements have significantly improved grain yield over recent decades, yet further progress is needed to meet global food demands amid a growing population. In this study, we systematically examine the responses of both historical and modern winter wheat cultivars, released between 1895 and 2007 in Germany, to varying management intensities. We quantified the independent contributions of nitrogen (N) levels, growth regulators, and plant protection measures to crop productivity and growth variables over two growing seasons. Historical cultivars (pre-1960) exhibited a lower yield (4.6 t ha−1) and harvest index (0.30) compared to modern cultivars (post-1960), which demonstrated a higher yield (6.8 t ha−1) and harvest index (0.40) across all treatments, even those excluding both nitrogen and agrochemicals. We found positive trends in the yield and yield components for both historical (1895–1960) and modern (1961–2007) cultivars; however, significance was only noted for modern cultivars. Crop growth in historical cultivars was aided more by growth regulators, while modern cultivars gained more benefits from plant protection. However, both categories of cultivars produced a synergistic response when combining agronomic practices. Based on a comparison of N application rates and agronomic practices, N had a distinctly greater impact on yield and yield components than other treatments. In both historical and modern cultivars, grain number per ear was the most influential contributing factor to yield. Nevertheless, the effect of the thousand grain weight on yield was notably less for modern cultivars compared to their historical ones. Grain nitrogen yield increased up to mid-supply nitrogen application but remained constant at high rates. Results underscored that cultivar-specific responses for yield and yield components need to consider the interactions between fertilization and other agronomic practices.

Культура исторической памяти современного немецкого монархизма

The article examines monarchism as a form of memorial culture and historical policy in contemporary German society. The research aims to analyze monarchism as a form of historical memory. The author explores the role and significance of monarchist intellectuals in shaping historical policy and the memorial culture that evolves within the framework of monarchist historical imagination. The novelty of the study lies in examining the current stage of monarchist ideology in Germany, not as a form of political participation, but as a version of historical memory and memorial culture, grounded in the principles of both historical revisionism and German nationalism. The article demonstrates that (1) monarchism in contemporary Germany cultivates its own perceptions of the past and history; (2) the historical imagination of German monarchism is a form of historical revisionism, as the monarchist past and legacy are systematically mythologized and ideologized in the political imagination of monarchist supporters; (3) in its historical imagination, monarchism constructs alternative versions of historical memory and memorial culture, distinct from those proposed by civic identity. The article highlights that monarchist forms of historical memory contribute to ongoing transformations in memorial culture, promoting the parallel development of alternative counter-memories that operate within the political and ideological framework of monarchism. It is suggested that the visualization of collective historical memory regarding the unique historical experience of monarchy, including the narrative and discursive tactics and strategies of contemporary monarchists, enhances the heterogeneous nature of Germany’s memorial tradition, fostering the consolidation of unique perspectives on the past, which form the foundation of monarchist historical imagination and memorial culture as a form of alternative memory.

Straf- und ordnungsrechtliche Regelungen in ländlichen Rechtsquellen und ihr spezifischer Wortschatz Dargestellt anhand des Materials im Deutschen Rechtswörterbuch

German-language rural legal sources contain a multifaceted vocabulary that is unusually colourful compared to the rest of the legal language. This holds especially true regarding criminal law, criminal procedure and breaches of order, as this paper will illustrate with selected examples. They are based on the material of the “Deutsches Rechtswörterbuch” (DRW). This comprehensive dictionary of historical German legal terms encompasses extensive rural legal sources. In particular, the freely accessible online version with its various search tools offers convenient access to the rural legal sources and their terminology. Already the designations of the rural legal codes vary enormously, as do those of the courts and the legal proceedings such as the obligatory calling of the alarm in the case of a crime (so-called “Gerüfte”) in the Middle Ages. Although thefts occurred in town and village, the crimes differed in the objects stolen, which in the countryside were mainly related to everyday farming life. Poaching and fraudulent border manipulation played a major role in rural law. A separate vocabulary also developed for insults and acts of violence – such as pub brawls. The same applies to swearing, false oaths, superstitious practices and breaches of morality. Just as in the city, there were numerous fire regulations with their own terminology in the villages. Especially in the field of regulatory law, the large subject area of agriculture also plays a central role – with a broad canon of regulations for the protection of animals, pastures and plantations.

Reportatives sollen in historischen deutschen Zeitungen (1660–1954)

This study conducts a quantitative analysis of reportative sollen in historical German newspapers (1660–1954). The study shows that, throughout the investigated period, the conditions triggering the possible readings of sollen remained stable and are linked to the presence of an information source either in the nearer or broader context of sollen. Additionally, the study highlights a steady decrease in sollen under impersonal speech report predicates. This could suggest that sollen evolved into a reportative marker by taking on the reportative function formerly expressed by its superordinate (impersonal) reporting clause. Further investigations of sollen are needed to prove this hypothesis.

Active thermography to look beneath the surface of a historic German aircraft

Thermography is a well-established non-destructive testing technique in materials research and defect detection. In addition, it is used on cultural heritage in the form of buildings and paintings. This contribution explores the utilisation of active thermography on an object of technical heritage – a historic aircraft of the Second World War, the Messerschmitt Me 163 b, as a part of an exhibition in the Deutsches Museum in Munich. Unfortunately, the appearances of many exhibits in museums have been altered before or during their time with the museum and are not in a historically accurate condition. Furthermore, the active service history is often not documented in detail or might have been lost. Both features are equally important in the presentation of information on a displayed item and destructive techniques cannot be employed on historic objects. Hence a non-destructive, non-contact way of examination was chosen in the form of thermography. With the help of phase analysis, flash thermography is also an invaluable tool for the evaluation of layered systems and can differentiate between paint layers. During the research presented herein, traces of abrasion and chemical stripping of older paint layers were visible. This complicates the compilation of sufficient information for a historically accurate restauration with any technique. Nonetheless, flash or pulsed thermography proves to be capable of finding not only identifying markings, defects, and different paint layers, but also the inner workings and substructure of the object under investigation.

The Historical School and German International Legal Thought in the 19th Century

Abstract This article traces the influence of the German Historical School of Law around Friedrich Carl von Savigny has had on various fundamental concepts of international law during the 19th and into the beginning of the 20th century in a detailed manner. During this time, the Historical School’s radical reformulation of the notion of law as a peoples’ spiritual essence unfolding through its habitual social action allowed 19th century scholars to redefine international law as customary law and, together with notably Hegelian teleological thought, laid conceptual groundwork for the integration of themes of European cultural superiority into the doctrines and philosophy of international law. Its conceptual legacy can further be traced in the later German positivism à la Jellinek or Oppenheim with its theories on ‘common civilised consent’ as foundation of international law.

Historical postmortem studies on catatonia: Close reading and analysis of Kahlbaum's cases and scientific texts between 1800 and 1900

In the 19th century, postmortem brain examination played a central role in the search for the neurobiological origin of psychiatric and neurological disorders. During that time, psychiatrists, neurologists, and neuropathologists examined autopsied brains from catatonic patients and postulated that catatonia is an organic brain disease. In line with this development, human postmortem studies of the 19th century became increasingly important in the conception of catatonia and might be seen as precursors of modern neuroscience. In this report, we closely examined autopsy reports of eleven catatonia patients of Karl Ludwig Kahlbaum. Further, we performed a close reading and analysis of previously (systematically) identified historical German and English texts between 1800 and 1900 for autopsy reports of catatonia patients. Two main findings emerged: (i) Kahlbaum's most important finding in catatonia patients was the opacity of the arachnoid; (ii) historical human postmortem studies of catatonia patients postulated a number of neuroanatomical abnormalities such as cerebral enlargement or atrophy, anemia, inflammation, suppuration, serous effusion, or dropsy as well as alterations of brain blood vessels such as rupture, distension or ossification in the pathogenesis of catatonia. However, the exact localization has often been missing or inaccurate, probably due to the lack of standardized subdivision/nomenclature of the respective brain areas. Nevertheless, Kahlbaum's 11 autopsy reports and the identified neuropathological studies between 1800 and 1900 made important discoveries, which still have the potential to inform and bolster modern neuroscientific research in catatonia.

Contact Zones in the Energy Transition: A Transdisciplinary Complex Problem

The success of energy transition relies on what happens in the contact zone, the area between citizens and municipality governments, which still awaits more thorough research. This article employs the concept of the contact zone both as a theory describing processes of developing energy prosumerism on a local level, and as a research method which enables one to uncover phenomena that are critical to attaining climate objectives. The research field was the Warmia and Mazury Province in Poland, which is the region with the lowest socio-economic potential both in Poland and in the European Union. The analyzed contact zone was divided into two parts: the human administrative legal contact zone and the more-than-human energy contact zone. To describe the relationships occurring in these subzones, the authors used empirical data originating from a survey addressed to citizens living in the above province. The aim was to explore the respondents’ knowledge about current prosumption processes and the opportunities to implement them in the local government sector. Multiple correspondence analysis was used to analyze the data. The main findings were the low knowledge of citizens about prosumption, which was represented by a large number of the prosumption principles not indicated by the respondents, and—on the other hand—the evidence that local communities expect the implementation of digital prosumption, which they know from the market sector, in public administration. It was also demonstrated that the absence of citizens’ involvement in the energy transition is a consequence of two historic colonialisms, German and Russian, which had a huge influence on the emergence of an autocratic management style in the analyzed region. Comparison of the analyzed contact zones with two reference zones showed that grassroots movements in the province are initiated mainly by external factors of a nationwide character. In the Warmia and Mazury contact zones, civic initiatives are in the early stage of development, although they display all features of developed zones, such as autoethnographic gestures, transculturation, struggle, violence, and anti-conquest.

God in Motion: A Critical Exploration of the Open Theism Debate, ManuelSchmid, Baylor University Press, 2021 (ISBN 978‐1‐4813‐1408‐4), viii + 208 pp., hb $24.99

God in Motion: A Critical Exploration of the Open Theism Debate, ManuelSchmid, Baylor University Press, 2021 (ISBN 978‐1‐4813‐1408‐4), viii + 208 pp., hb $24.99

A Century of Observed Temperature Change in the Indian Ocean

AbstractThe Indian Ocean is warming rapidly, with widespread effects on regional weather and global climate. Sea‐surface temperature records indicate this warming trend extends back to the beginning of the 20th century, however the lack of a similarly long instrumental record of interior ocean temperatures leaves uncertainty around the subsurface trends. Here we utilize unique temperature observations from three historical German oceanographic expeditions of the late 19th and early 20th centuries: SMS Gazelle (1874–1876), Valdivia (1898–1899), and SMS Planet (1906–1907). These observations reveal a mean 20th century ocean warming that extends over the upper 750 m, and a spatial pattern of subsurface warming and cooling consistent with a 1°–2° southward shift of the southern subtropical gyre. These interior changes occurred largely over the last half of the 20th century, providing observational evidence for the acceleration of a multidecadal trend in subsurface Indian Ocean temperature.

Design and Implementation of a Historical German Firm-level Financial Database

Broad, long-term financial, and economic datasets are scarce resources, particularly in the European context. In this article, we present an approach for an extensible data model that is adaptable to future changes in technologies and sources. This model may constitute a basis for digitized and structured long-term historical datasets for different jurisdictions and periods. The data model covers the specific peculiarities of historical financial and economic data and is flexible enough to reach out for data of different types (quantitative as well as qualitative) from different historical sources, hence, achieving extensibility. Furthermore, we outline a relational implementation of this approach based on historical German firm and stock market data from 1920 to 1932.

The origins of catatonia – Systematic review of historical texts between 1800 and 1900

Since January 1st 2022, catatonia is (again) recognized as an independent diagnostic entity in the 11th revision of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11). This is a relevant time to systematically review how the concept of catatonia has evolved within the 19th century and how this concept changed under the influence of a wide variety of events in the history of psychiatry. Here, we systematically reviewed historical and modern German and English texts focusing on catatonic phenomena, published from 1800 to 1900. We searched five different electronical databases (https://archive.org, www.hathitrust.org, www.books.google.de, https://link.springer.com and PubMed) and closely reviewed 60 historical texts on catatonic symptoms. Three main findings emerged: First, catatonic phenomena and their underlying mechanisms were studied decades before Karl Ludwig Kahlbaum's catatonia concept of 1874. Second, Kahlbaum not only introduced catatonia, but, more generally, also called for a new classification of psychiatric disorders based on a comprehensive analysis of the entire clinical picture, including the dynamic course and cross-sectional symptomatology. Third, the literature review shows that between 1800 and 1900 catatonic phenomena were viewed to be ‘located’ right at the interface of motor and psychological symptoms with the respective pathophysiological mechanisms being discussed. In conclusion, catatonia can truly be considered one of the most exciting and controversial entity in both past and present psychiatry and neurology, as it occupies a unique position in the border territory between organic, psychotic and psychogenic illnesses.

Komt de bosbouwkundige betekenis van rabat uit Nederland of Duitsland?

Did the use of the word ‘rabat’ in forestry originate in the Netherlands or Germany? ‘Rabatten’ are common historical relics in Dutch forests. These earth banks with ditches in between for drainage were used to grow trees in wet areas. In the recently published article Wat betekent ‘rabat’ en sinds wanneer leggen we bossen op rabatten? (What does ‘rabat’ mean and since when do we use ‘rabatten’ in forestry?)Mulder & Toorians (2021) provide an explanation for the origin of the word ‘rabat’ and its use in forestry. This originally French term has been used in Dutch garden architecture since the 17th century to indicate the outer planting beds in gardens. According to the authors the word ‘rabat’ subsequently was used in Dutch forestry. They conclude that the forestry meaning of ‘rabat’ is typically Dutch. However, a closer look at the historical German forestry literature seems to contradict this conclusion.

Submarket emergence, customer base expansion and strategic entry timing in the evolution of the German farm tractor industry

AbstractTechnological discontinuities create new submarkets in existing industries, which may favor incumbents or provide opportunities to new entrants. Complementing prior research on the emergence of integrative submarkets that leave the industry’s customer base unchanged, we introduce the notion of additive submarkets, which are characterized by enlarging the focal industry’s customer base and its heterogeneity. Our empirical analysis focuses on how the emergence of an additive submarket after a competence-destroying technological discontinuity affected entry and firm survival in the historical German farm tractor industry. Using propensity score-weighted hazard models to control for the endogeneity of entry timing, we find that diversifying entrants from customer-related industries were more likely to enter and survive after the submarket emerged. We develop a conceptual framework to structure the implications for entry and survival of various types of entrants when technological discontinuities create new integrative or additive submarkets.

Formen und Funktionen des Konjunktivs II in historischen ostoberdeutschen Predigten.

This article presents a diachronic survey of forms and functions of the subjunctive II grammatical category in historical German. The subjunctive II is historically based on the subjunctive preterit form but has lost its temporal function and become a purely modal category. It has developed a variety of synthetic and analytical forms since Old High German, especially in vernacular varieties, but also in Standard German, and fulfils a range of functions, chiefly that of non-affirmativity. The present study aims to shed light on the historical development of the subjunctive II’s form and function. Its focus is on East Upper German, and its temporal scope spans over a millennium from the 9th to the 19th century. In order to study the usage and development of the subjunctive II in historical East Upper German sermons, the south-eastern part of SermonC, a diachronic corpus of historical German sermons, is analysed. While this (sub‑)corpus is restricted in terms of region and genre, it provides a unique window to written language usage, variation and change in a clearly defined domain over a very long time. The results show that the refunctionalization of the subjunctive preterit as a purely modal category does not date to prehistoric times, as is generally assumed; instead, they point to the 11th century as the likely time for this change, with limited temporal uses persisting into the 15th century. The 15th century is also the time when the synthetic subjunctive II form with -et/-at, a typical feature of Bavarian dialects, seems to have emerged in the spoken register. Analytical forms started to appear from the 13th century, and the periphrasis with würde, today accepted in Standard German, prevailed among several written German analytical variants in the 18th century. While Standard German has preserved the distinction between two subjunctive categories, East Upper German spoken language has in effect reduced a two-way morphological system (tense and mood) to a pure mood system, with tense expressed syntactically, in effect refunctionalizing morphological tense as a mood marker.

Przemiany narodowościowe w Kraju Kłajpedzkim w XX wieku

Population Transformations in the Klaipeda Region in the 20th CenturyThe Klaipeda Region is now an integral part of Lithuania. This was not, however, always the case; the region has a strong German history. (Its historical German name was Memelland, while in Lithuanian it was called Klaipedos Krastas.) Until 1525, the Klaipeda Region belonged to the Teutonic Order, but later changed hands several times. Initially, it belonged to the Duchy of Prussia (until 1701; and until 1657 was dependent as a fief of Poland), was later controlled by the Kingdom of Prussia (until 1871), and then finally became part of the German Empire (until 1919). For Germans, the province was a historical part of Eastern Prussia until 1945. For Lithuanians, the Klaipeda Region, as well as the area located along the north-eastern part of East Prussia on the south bank of the Neman River, was known as Little Lithuania (Lithuania Minor). The Lithuanians considered this territory to be their own ethnic land, which was wrongfully subjected to gradual Germanization. Before World War II this area was inhabited by Protestants who spoke Lithuanian or German. The 1920 census lists the territory’s population at 150,700, of which 71,000 declared German to be their first language, while 67,000 declared Lithuanian.The article first discusses the historical and political background of events in the Klaipeda Region in the first half of the 20th century. Next the author analyzes in a dynamic approach the demographic and ethnic structure of the population. His attention is later focused on the period of World War II when the province was incorporated into the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic. In the Soviet period, a major part of the local population was expelled to Germany, while the remaining residents were identified as either Lithuanians or Russians such that the province was no longer dominated by the Protestant and German speaking population. The final part of the article deals with the present demographic and ethnic situation. As a result of the postwar political and economic migrations, a majority of the people in the province now identify themselves as Lithuanian and Catholic. Lithuania, owing to the port of Klaipeda, has now an unrestricted access to sea.

Soviet Ukrainian Germanistics in Personal Dimension: Memoirs of Professor Yuri Mytsyk about Anatolii Zavialov

The publication presents the memoirs of professor, Father Yuri Mytsyk about Soviet Ukrainian germanist Anatolii Zavialov. Yuri Mytsyk worked with Anatolii Zavialov at the same department from 1974 till 1989, and from 1975 carried out the duties of his deputy.
 Zavialov’s academic life and his teaching career in 1960s-2000s was connected to Dnipropetrovsk university. At that time Zavialov actively studied the contemporary history of the German Democratic Republic, he was the author of many articles, including texts in prominent scientific journals, tutorials and published two monographs. He was one of the few Soviet germanists, who had business trips not only to the German Democratic Republic, but also behind the “Iron Curtain”. Zavialov also had the experience of teaching in the universities abroad. As the head of the department of world history, Zavialov made efforts to form a research direction in historical German studies at the university. The majority of dissertations, defended under his scientific supervision, were devoted to German history of the XXth century. Some of his graduate students-germanists continued their career at the department, and it became possible to create a strong center of German studies and turn the department of world history into a center of historical germanistics. To provide the opportunities to publish research in German history, in 1973 the scientific edition “The Questions of German History” was founded at the department of world history of Dnipropetrovsk national university, later it received the status of inter-university scientific edition. Articles here were published by historians-germanists from Soviet Union and the German Democratic Republic. After the fall of the Berlin Wall and the reunification of Germany, the study of the history of the German Democratic Republic went bankrupt and Zavialov turned to the history of German diaspora in Ukraine. He focused on political history of the German colonies at the beginning of the XXth century and the questions of the history of colonization in civilizational dimension. The last years of the historian`s life were over shadowed by a sharp deterioration of health and decline in scientific activity.