Germany's Participation Research Articles

The Delegation of the Republic of Armenia at the Conference of Constantinople

Key words: Armenian question, conference, delegation, negotiation, territorial issues, ambassador, independence, contract The signing of the treaty between Turkey and the newly independent Transcaucasian republics took place in Batum without the participation of Germany and Austria-Hungary. Germany, being against the increase of Turkish influence in Transcaucasia at the expense of Germany, made a proposal to review the decisions made in Batum. The Armenian delegation went to Constantinople by the invitation of the Ottoman government. The delegation’s activity was aimed at ensuring the signing of a more favorable agreement compared to the treaty of Batum. The Turks, not attaching any importance to the declaration of independence of Armenia and the documents presented by the Armenian delegates, emphasized that everything came to an end in Batum, the pact was signed thus, it was only necessary for the powers to sign the document. The high-ranking Turkish officials gave abstract and evasive answers to the practical questions of the Armenian delegates, and they unconditionally supported Azerbaijan in territorial issues, resolutely opposing the issue of including Karabakh and Zangezur to Armenia. The Armenian delegation kept hope for the German Empire, but Germany did not intend to extend the patronage of Armenia, let alone protect it from the territorial ambitions of neighboring Georgia and Azerbaijan. Austria-Hungarian Empire also had no desire to spoil relations with Turkey because of Armenia. Hopes to receive Bulgarian support did not have any results either. As in Berlin and Vienna, as well as in Constantinople, the countries of the Quad Union did not want to take upon themselves the issues of the Armenians and offend their ally Turkey. Thus, the conference of Constantinople did not take place. The RA delegation stayed in Constantinople until the terms of the Mudros truce became known and returned to Armenia after a four-year wait.

Perspektywy reformy Wspólnej Polityki Bezpieczeństwa i Obrony Unii Europejskiej do 2025 roku. Autonomia strategiczna UE?

PROSPECTS FOR REFORM OF THE EUROPEAN UNION’S COMMON SECURITY AND DEFENCE POLICY TO 2025: EU STRATEGIC AUTONOMY? The research objective of the paper is to highlight the prospects for the implementation of the main directions of the reform of the Common Security and Defense Policy (CSDP) of the European Union until 2025. The caesuras of the work are marked by two events: the adoption of the Global Strategy for the Foreign and Security Policy of the European Union by the European Council on 28 June 2016 and the decision of the European Council of 24 March 2022 on the adoption of the Strategic Compass for Security and Defense. First of all, the research hypothesis should be established that the full implementation of CSDP reform, which was initiated with the adoption of the Global Strategy for the Foreign and Security Policy of the European Union, and the resulting projects can significantly strengthen the position of the EU in the international arena. This will lead to the establishment of the European Security and Defense Union and the EU Rapid Reaction Force (5,000 troops) by the end of 2025. However, since many of the planned reform elements have not yet been completed or initiated, much will depend on the political will of individual member state governments, the level of spending on reform implementation by member states and the EU, and the progress of other reforms already underway (including addressing the economic and social consequences of the pandemic crisis and implementing eurozone systemic reform). The following research questions should then be asked: (1) How has the implementation process of the Global Strategy for the European Union’s Foreign and Security Policy gone so far? (2) How has the implementation of new projects (including the European Defense Fund, PESCO, and the Strategic Compass) affected EU-NATO relations? (3) How do selected EU member states assess these projects? (4) To what extent can the project to establish a European Security Council with the participation of Germany, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Poland compete with and usefully complement the EU Strategic Compass project? The first part of the analysis presents the implementation process of the Global Strategy for the Foreign and Security Policy of the European Union until 2022. The second part analyzes the goals, priorities, and assumptions of the Strategic Compass, the implementation of which is intended to lead the EU to strategic autonomy by 2030.

Germany's contribution to global carbon reduction might be underestimated – A new assessment based on scenario analysis with and without trade

The pollution paradise hypothesis states that international trade shifts pollution from developed countries to developing countries, ignoring the positive effects that the participation of developed countries in international trade has on the reduction of carbon emissions. To evaluate a country's contribution to carbon reduction comprehensively, this paper constructed a framework for calculating carbon emissions in two trade scenarios using a multi-regional input-output model. It took Germany as an example, analyzing it at global, national, and sectoral levels. The main findings were as follows: firstly, Germany's contributions to the reduction of emissions may have been underestimated. Without Germany, global embodied CO2 emissions would have increased by 1.53% on average during the research period. Secondly, Germany's participation in international trade contributed to carbon reduction in developing countries, particularly China and Russia. This was due to the lower intensity of Germany's carbon emissions. Finally, at the sectoral level, changes to carbon emissions in different trade scenarios mainly came from “manufacturing” and “electricity, gas and water supplies”. As a result, corresponding policy suggestions were proposed. Studying Germany confirmed that trade protectionism did not benefit the environment and free trade was a better choice. However, more evidence is required to see whether this conclusion would be true for other countries.

АНАЛІЗ ФУНКЦІОНУВАННЯ ФІНАНСОВО-БЮДЖЕТНОЇ СИСТЕМИ НІМЕЧЧИНИ

This paper examines the draft federal budget of Germany for 2022 and the government's fiscal plan until 2025. The main budget indicators, official statistics on budget expenditures and revenues, budget balance, the ratio of national debt to gross domestic product and the growth rate of GDP in 2021 and the forecast for 2022–2025 are analyzed. In addition, the implementation of the budget in 2021, measures to stabilize the economic and financial situation implemented by the German government in connection with the pandemic COVID-19 were considered. An analysis of the social component of the budget, the role of financial control in stabilizing the situation causrd by a pandemic and Germany's participation in finding solutionto such global challenge as unprecedentedly rapid climate change was also made. The next few years are crucial for strengthening Germany and Europe — for the major challenges posed by climate change, the need for digitization, securing our prosperity, social cohesion and demographic change. Germany needs a stable and reliable government that addresses the challenges facing the country. Following the elections in Germany in September 2021, a series of talks were held between the elected parties, during which they reached agreements on the main areas of their cooperation. SPD, BÜNDNIS 90/DIE GRÜNEN and Free Democrats recognize that Germany needs a new beginning. Even more than 30 years after the peaceful revolution, Germany remain committed to the task of completing internal unity – socially and economically. Meeting climate protection targets will also require an accelerated phase-out of coal-fired power generation. In order to respond to changes in the world of work and to address the wishes of employees and companies for more flexible working time arrangements, parties want to support trade unions and employers to enable flexible working time models. Germany's economy is leading not only in Europe but also in the world, so all the processes taking place in its financial system of Germany have a direct impact on the state and trends of further development of economic processes in the European Union. Analysis of the formation of the draft German budget, its main indicators and the government's fiscal plan until 2025, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, is important for understanding the general state of the German economy.

Beyond Tomorrow: German Science Fiction and Utopian Thought in the 20th and 21st Centuries by Ingo Cornils

Reviewed by: Beyond Tomorrow: German Science Fiction and Utopian Thought in the 20th and 21st Centuries by Ingo Cornils Christina Becher Beyond Tomorrow: German Science Fiction and Utopian Thought in the 20th and 21st Centuries. By Ingo Cornils. Rochester, NY: Camden House, 2020. Pp. x + 322. Cloth $80.00. ISBN 978-1640140356. Ingo Cornils's Beyond Tomorrow: German Science Fiction and Utopian Thought in the 20th and 21st Centuries is the third major publication on German science fiction literature, or more specifically, on science fiction from a German vantage point, within the last three years, among Hans Esselborn's Die Erfindung der Zukunft in der Literatur. Vom technisch-utopischen Zukunftsroman zur deutschen Science Fiction (2019) and Dietmar Dath's monumental essay "Niegeschichte. Science Fiction als Kunst- und Denkmaschine" (2019). This series strongly indicates a rising academic interest in an engagement with German science fiction that is long overdue. Cornils's book comes at just the right time to open up the discussion for international students and scholars: by providing an English-language study on German science fiction (SF), he tackles the fact that "German Studies has a blind spot when it comes to speculative fiction" (3). Cornils's contribution is led by his hypothesis "that German SF is an ongoing project of Zukunftsbewältigung" (9). Drawing on seventy novels and twenty-five films (a chronological list is provided in the appendix) he maps out [End Page 629] the didactic potential of science fiction to make its recipients aware of the changes and ethical pitfalls that go along with new technologies, to enhance their resilience in a world that grows more complex, and how that helps them to make informed choices as responsible citizens. In doing so, Cornils draws a historical panorama with an emphasis on West Germany and recent literature. Beyond Tomorrow contains two main parts: the first explores what Cornils presents as the three tributaries for science fiction, namely futurism, utopian thought, and utopian/dystopian fiction. While utopian thought is concerned with philosophical questions, i.e., "what the future ought to look like," futurism identifies "probable futures (plural) and determin[es] which of them are likely to become reality" (33). As a third tributary, utopian, dystopian, and apocalyptical fiction supplies the aesthetic level that processes the other discourses. One of the great advantages of an English-language perspective on German science fiction is shown by Cornils's presentation of two corresponding angles on the three discourses: the Anglo-American and British context, that, in a sense, represents the target group of his publication, and the German discourse, which is unilaterally influenced by the English one. Despite this impact, Cornils raises the question of whether "there is a distinctively German flavor to the texts" (192) and answers it by historically referring to Germany's participation in World Wars I and II, the Holocaust, its position during the Cold War, the country's division into the FRG and the GDR, its reunification, and also to a "strong sense of belonging (Heimat)" (82) that is condensed in German science fiction. I would argue that this rather schematical explanation might apply for every other genre as well. Cornils infers that it is especially the German science fiction after the millennium that points "to strategies that could lead to a mindset that is better equipped to face the moral, ethical and ideological challenges we will be facing," that is Zukunftsbewältigung (222). Since "there is no such thing as a canon of German SF" (77), Cornils points to the three threads of futurism, utopian thought, and their fictional processing that are used to weave any science fictional textum. Instead of giving a rigid definition, this rather loose approach reflects the difficulty of defining the heterogeneous field ranging from the Zukunftsromane around 1900 to today's posthuman conceptions and allows for a broad overview that is not concerned with differentiating between low- and highbrow literature. This "inclusive" (7) approach also enables Cornils to talk about literature as well as film. The second part of Cornils's study follows a systematic structure that extrapolates thirteen main themes that are displayed in German science fiction and also relate to their specific historical context. I will exemplarily address...

Сотрудничество ФРГ с партнерами по ЕС и НАТО в сфере обороны: Северо- и центральноевропейское измерения

The key basis of German foreign policy is positioning itself as an integral part of Euro-Atlantic community. At the beginning of the 2020-s Germany faces a growing number of obstacles at the national (internal policy), regional but also global levels on the path to become the supreme world power. That is why the more active and full-scale participation of the European NATO and EU member states in joint strengthening of defense capabilities is coming to the fore. The goal of the article is to explore the dynamics and intermediate results of German efforts in this field. Attention is paid not only to general, but also to sugregional and bilateral links of German cooperation with partners in military sphere. The article highlights the features of German participation in the launching and development of potential of Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO) platform. The paper notes that the number of functional PESCO projects with German participation is more than technical-technological ones. The author faces the fact that the number of new projects initiated by or with the participation of Germany since 2019 has become less than in 2017–2018 but at the same time the general tendency of their development is different. Outside PESCO Berlin pays permanent attention to the strengthening of defense capabilities on bilateral and trilateral bases. The cases of Norway and PESCO demonstrate that Germany is interested in the creation of common military-logistic hubs network in Europe and the growing of armed forces` mobility. This is important for Germany, because its armed forces have been reduced since 1990-s until the 2010-s. The prospects of Berlin`s cooperation with Scandinavian states and Germanspeaking Austria and Switzerland in the military field are also highlighted in the article.

Академическая психология Германии в период Первой мировой войны

<p>В статье представлен обзор основных, значимых для мировой психологической практики, идей по реализации психологических знаний в обеспечении военных потребностей государства, предложенных и разработанных представителями академической психологии Германии в период Первой мировой войны: В. Вундтом, М. Дессуаром, Э. Крепелином, К. Левином, О. Липманном, К. Штумпфом.</p><p>Анализ критических высказываний в классических работах психологов Германии начала ХХ в., манифестов, а также военных мемуаров ученых-психологов, принимавших непосредственное участие в сражениях Первой мировой войны, позволяет судить о том, что характер оценки причин мировой войны, а также отношение к войне и воюющим сторонам связаны с идеологической позицией этих ученых и вовлеченностью их в политические процессы. Участие Германии в Первой мировой войне породило необходимость разработки современных, более эффективных методов психологического сопровождения индустриального развития империи, военной пропаганды, профессионального обучения и военной медицины.</p><p> </p>

Особенности участия Германии в урегулировании вооруженных конфликтов в Мали и Сомали

Особенности участия Германии в урегулировании вооруженных конфликтов в Мали и Сомали

A strategic culture analysis of German ballistic missile defense policy

ABSTRACTSince the end of the Cold War, territorial ballistic missile defense (BMD) has played a key role in shaping relations between the U.S., NATO, and Russia. This article applies the concept of strategic culture to examine how Berlin rationalized and legitimized BMD and Germany's participation in the NATO BMD project. For Berlin, BMD served as a tool to strengthen NATO and held promise to paving the way to strategic partnership with Russia. With the current stalemate between NATO and Russia and the internal dissent within NATO over BMD's composition and role in its broader deterrence and defense posture, the German long-term strategic interest in BMD has lost relevance. Yet Berlin still has not established a new policy line on BMD. The article argues that the German cooperative strategic culture did not provide off-the-shelf alternatives that fit the changed geopolitical circumstances. It also did not adapt, but rather exhibited a prevalence for continuity.

The German Federal Constitutional Court's Ruling on Outright Monetary Transactions (OMT) – Another Step towards National Closure?

The German Federal Constitutional Court (FCC) ruling of 14 January 2014 deserves a thorough evaluation on several accounts: It is the first ever reference by the FCC to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), it represents a continuation of FCC case law aimed at restricting the impact of European Union law as interpreted by the Court of Justices of the European Union (CJEU) on German law as well as questioning Germany's participation in an ever closer European Union, and it has the potential to dictate the future course of the EU's Economic and Monetary Union (EMU).

La “Cruzada europea contra el bolchevismo”: Mito y realidad

El artículo aborda una visión transnacional de la participación de tropas aliadas de los alemanes durante la guerra germano-soviética de 1941-45, tratando tanto los contingentes enviados por los Estados beligerantes contra la URSS como los muy diversos grupos de voluntarios de Europa Occidental, Nórdica y Oriental que ayudaron al esfuerzo de guerra alemán en las filas de la Wehrmacht y las Waffen SS, al amparo de la campaña propagandística que presentaba la guerra como una Cruzada Europea contra el bolchevismo, y asimismo se encuadra la experiencia de la División Española de Voluntarios o División Azul dentro de ese contexto.

Germany's participation in the Kosovo war: Bringing agency back in

In 1999, the Federal Republic of Germany participated in NATO's air campaign Operation Allied Force against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. It was the first offensive combat mission in the history of the country. Most of the theoretically informed literature discusses the decision from a structural perspective (for example, role theory, strategic culture). In contrast, the personalities and idiosyncrasies of the individual decision-makers that took the decision have received little attention. This article takes up this neglect in the literature by applying one cognitive and one psychological agency-based approach of foreign policy decision-making to the case, namely analogical reasoning and prospect theory. The discussion suggests that particularly prospect theory has strong explanatory leverage to account for Germany's decision to go to war. On a more general level, the article lends support to the claim that not only structure but also agency matters in foreign policy decision-making. Indeed, even in a country such as Germany, whose foreign and security policy is regarded as highly circumscribed by structural constraints, individual decision-makers can and do make a difference.

The German politics of war: Kunduz and the war in Afghanistan

This article analyses the way in which Germany's participation in the international intervention in Afghanistan has shaped and transformed the country's politics of defence and deriving policies. It argues that in the wake of operational challenges posed by the insurgency in northern Afghanistan since 2007, and in particular the increasing rate of German combat fatalities, established post-Cold War dogmas of German politics are becoming subject to erosion. Developments in the Kunduz region of northern Afghanistan, with the tanker bombing of 4 September 2009 as its apex, have had a catalyst function in this process. In particular, strategic, operational and tactical requirements for counterinsurgency operations have had significant politico-strategic repercussions for the country's defence and security policy more generally. As a result, in recent years the Bundeswehr has begun to undergo a far-reaching structural process of military adaptation and innovation. The article explains and analyses this phenomenon of political change and military learning in the context of political paralysis.

UV observations of sdB stars and prospects of WSO–UV mission for such studies

The hot subdwarf B (sdB) stars are considered to be core He-burning stars with surface temperatures Teff up to 40 000 K and log g≥5. They are UV bright and ultraviolet observatories have a significant impact on studies of these objects. Using the technical characteristics of the instruments of the World Space Observatory–Ultraviolet (WSO–UV) mission and data from previous UV studies of sdBs we estimate the limiting apparent magnitudes for these stars that can be observed with the signal-to-noise ratio required in fine spectroscopic analysis. WSO–UV is an international space observatory for observation in UV spectral range 100–350 nm, that is beyond the reach of ground-based instruments but where most of astrophysical processes can be efficiently studied with unprecedented capability. The WSO–UV project is currently funded by national space agencies of Russia and Spain with participation of Germany, Ukraine and China. The WSO–UV consists of a 1.7 m aperture telescope (under responsibility of Russia) with instrumentation designed to carry out high resolution spectroscopy, long-slit low resolution spectroscopy and direct sky imaging. The WSO–UV Ground Segment is under development by Spain and Russia. They will coordinate the Mission and Science Operations and provide the satellite tracking stations for the project. The WSO–UV will work as a targeted scientific observatory. The scientific program of the observatory is open to excellent scientific projects from the world-wide community and occupies up to 40% of total observational time.

The Basic Law at 60 – From 1949 to 2009: The Basic Law and Supranational Integration

Sixty years after the entry into force of the Basic Law the world is much more interdependent. The concepts of statehood and sovereignty have changed. The following contribution examines how the Basic Law, as amended and interpreted by the Federal Constitutional Court, deals with this development. As a foundational matter, the Basic Law contains a commitment towards integration, although sixty years ago integration largely was seen as a promise. Now, 60 years later, the Federal Constitutional Court is developing limits to integration and recently ruled out Germany's participation in a European Federal State and sees itself as the guardian of German sovereignty. A change of paradigms seems to have taken place. For the founding fathers and mothers, a united—possibly even federal—Europe was considered to be the solution to protect against war and relapse towards an undemocratic, terroristic regime. But now the Federal Constitutional Court feels compelled to protect democracy and the core values of the Basic Law against “too much” European integration.

German Participation in EU Decision-Making after the Lisbon Case: A Comparative View on Domestic Parliamentary Clearance Procedures

When the German Federal Constitutional Court pronounced itself on the constitutionality of the Treaty of Lisbon, its general reasoning on the character of the European Union sounded familiar. In its judgment, the Court recalls that the German Basic Law is a Europe-friendly constitution: its Preamble and its Article 23, regarding European integration, allow, and in fact prescribe, Germany's participation in the establishment of a united Europe. However, the Court also stresses the paramount position of the member states, their peoples, and their national parliaments in the institutional architecture of the EU. Already in its Maastricht Case, the Court had put an emphasis on institutional guarantees regarding the conditions under which sovereign competences may be conferred upon the EU from its constituent member states. The Lisbon Case builds upon the Maastricht doctrine, but now adds concrete instructions to the German legislature: whenever the EU institutions wish to apply certain strategic decisions under the Treaty of Lisbon, the German government may agree to them only after the two national legislative chambers, the German Federal Parliament (Bundestag) and the German Federal Council of States (Bundesrat), have given their prior approval. The national statute that regulates this must (and will) be changed accordingly before Germany may ratify the Treaty of Lisbon. The strategic decisions in question mainly concern what the Court considers to be, or at least potentially to be, de facto treaty amendment procedures by which EU institutions may dynamically expand their competences or change decision-making rules without having to resort to the regular ratification procedure for new treaties. The most prominent example is the so-called passerelle (or simplified treaty revision procedure), allowing the European Council unanimously, and with the European Parliament's assent, to introduce qualified majority voting and co-decision in areas where this does not yet apply. National parliaments are informed six months in advance and each of them may cast a binding veto, but ordinary positive ratification in all member states is not required. Also for the application of the flexibility clause, allowing for EU action to attain EU goals in the absence of a specific legal basis, the German Constitutional Court requires prior bicameral approval by the national legislature. The Court rejects the idea of future treaty amendment by tacit consent, because that would undermine the prerogatives of the national legislature and, essentially, German sovereign statehood. At the risk of sounding corny, we may therefore dub the Lisbon Case “Solange III,” after the two previous Solange Cases, and summarize it as follows: As long as (or, solange, in German) the European Union is not a federal state but comprises constituent member states, the people, through the national legislature, must consciously legitimize European integration step by step. The partially enhanced flexibility of future treaty reforms envisaged under the Treaty of Lisbon is, as far as Germany is concerned, undone. But what about the other member states? Where does the Lisbon case put Germany on the European map of parliamentary democracy? How do the ratification procedures on which the German Court insists compare with the procedures of national parliamentary oversight as they exist in the rest of the Union? The present article shall put the envisaged German procedures in a comparative perspective. But first it shall reflect on some of the main features of the judgment itself.

Falling into line? Kosovo and the course of German foreign policy

Germany's role in Operation Allied Force has been described as a watershed in its foreign policy. It remains perhaps the pinnacle of Germany's security and defence policy transition after the Cold War. Germany's participation in Operation Allied Force was the first aggressive use of force by the Bundeswehr since the Second World War and, remarkably, was undertaken without a United Nations Security Council mandate. The deployment of German forces in 1999 suggested that German reluctance to burden-share in crisis management alongside NATO allies had been overcome. Yet Germany remains a cautious actor when it comes to the deployment of offensive military force. In this regard, Germany has maintained a considerable degree of continuity in its foreign and security policy after unification, a theme which this article will outline.

German Culture, Politics, and Literature into the Twenty-First Century: Beyond Normalization

Reviewed by: German Culture, Politics, and Literature into the Twenty-First Century: Beyond Normalization Michelle Mattson German Culture, Politics, and Literature into the Twenty-First Century: Beyond Normalization. Edited by Stuart Taberner and Paul Cooke. Rochester, NY: Camden House, 2006. viii + 256 pages + 3 b/w illustrations. $75.00. The editors of this volume describe it as the "culmination of a three-year project [. . .] funded by the British Academy and based at the University of Leeds" (11) that revolves around the continued German quest to achieve "normal nation" status in the eyes of its international community. Many of the articles in the volume reference the others and—unlike many other edited collections—the overall structure of the book reflects a cohesive and shared thematic focus. The contributions all generally examine their specific topics from the post-unification period, stepping back occasionally to consider issues related to public reflection on the topic of German history just prior to unification. The articles cover topics from a number of disciplines such as political science, media studies, strategic studies, literature, and cinema; although the list of contributors suggests that the majority of the volume's authors come from some broadly defined area of German Studies. Since it is a collection of fifteen articles, it will be impossible in this review to comment on them all. Thus, what follows is a general assessment of the book and comments on a few of the chapters. The articles are all largely well written and quite accessible. They assume a bit too much background information to work really well as a textbook for courses dealing with the issues facing post-unification Germany. With adequate preparation on the part of the instructor, this reviewer believes, however, that this is probably the best use of the volume. Students will appreciate the clarity of the writing and the information on quite recent developments in Germany—or at least recent as of the time this review is published. The texts all competently analyze their specific topics, but they do not generate any truly novel approaches or innovative insights. Relatively well-informed readers will find much that is familiar to them and probably little with which to quibble. For German Studies scholars, the volume has, of course, two other potentially very useful roles. Each chapter deals with a cluster of texts/films/data that could easily form coherent sub-sections of an undergraduate course. The authors make available [End Page 430] cogent readings of their topics and good background and/or relevant literature. Scholars interested in specific topics covered here will also wish to consult the articles as part of their own research efforts. Three of the articles caused this reviewer to think further about certain questions. In "'(un)sägliche Vergleiche': What Germans Remembered (and Forgot) in Former Yugoslavia in the 1990s," Karoline von Oppen lays out the connections between Germany's involvement in the conflict that tore up the territories of former Yugoslavia and its past history in the region as well as Germany's own conflicted discourse about the increasingly multi-ethnic character of its own population. Von Oppen argues that Germany's condemnation of Serbian violence allowed it not only to distance itself from Nazi barbarism and in this distance to feel superior to its culturally underdeveloped neighbors, but also to avoid the questions of ethnic and racial identities that generally arose in the wake of unification. We know, of course, a great deal about the problems with xenophobic and racially-motivated violence in the nineties. Most German Studies scholars will also be familiar with the debates that surrounded Germany's participation in the Balkan military conflicts of the same decade. It was helpful, however, to think about these two issues together, particularly in terms of how Germany's own identity struggles at this time might have played a role in its foreign policy. Günter Grass has once again entered the spotlight of public discourse—first with the publication of Im Krebsgang and then with the controversy surrounding his autobiography. Kathrin Schödel's article "'Narrative Normalization' and Günter Grass's Im Krebsgang" offers a nuanced reading of the author's 2002 novel which explores the topics...

Rosetta Lander—Philae: Implications of an alternative mission

“Rosetta” is a Cornerstone Mission of the Horizon 2000 ESA Programme. Its goal is to rendezvous with a comet and to study its nucleus and coma using an orbiting spacecraft and a landed platform. The latter is called Philae; the Rosetta Lander has been designed to land softly on the comet nucleus and is equipped with 10 scientific instruments to perform in situ studies of cometary material. The Lander system is provided by international consortium with the participation of Germany, France, Italy, United Kingdom, Finland, Ireland, Hungary and Austria. The original Rosetta mission was planned to launch in January 2003 to reach comet 47P/Wirtanen in 2011 at a heliocentric distance of about 3 AU. Due to uncertainties regarding the reliability of the Ariane 5 launcher (after a catastrophic failure in December 2002) the Rosetta launch was postponed and a new mission studied. Changed mission characteristics (e.g. in launcher capacity; no swing-by at Venus) strongly limited the number of possible alternatives. After careful investigation, a decision was taken for a mission to comet 67/P Churyumov-Gerasimenko with a launch date in February 2004 and rendezvous in 2014. This new mission scenario has significant consequences for the Rosetta Lander, because the nucleus of P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko is expected to be considerably larger than that of P/Wirtanen. Current best estimates assume a radius of about 2.0 km and, thus, a mass which is about two orders of magnitude larger than that of the original target comet. This impacts strongly on the Lander separation, descent and landing scenario. Analysis of the increased landing risk on P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko has led to modifications of the landing gear to cope with the increased impact velocities expected.

The EU Enlargement and the Prospects of Eastern Germany Lands

From the point of view of the EU enlargement in 2004 the article considers selected aspects of Germany participation in international competition of economic environment. It summarizes the results of transformation of Eastern Germany economy and estimates the potential of this region in competition with the new EU members - CEE countries. The article concludes by making some corrections of existing assessments of market transformation in post-Soviet countries, including Russia.