Reformation Germany Research Articles

Tara Nummedal. Anna Zieglerin and the Lion’s Blood: Alchemy and End Times in Reformation Germany.

Tara Nummedal. <i>Anna Zieglerin and the Lion’s Blood: Alchemy and End Times in Reformation Germany.</i>

Visualizing Narrative: Lutheran Theology in the Engravings of Lucas Cranach

The early stage of the Reformation in Germany was marked by an iconoclastic movement inspired by radical reformers. In the scientific literature, iconoclasm is often interpreted as a phenomenon that became a catastrophe for German art, as it halted its renaissance progress. The purpose of the article is to prove that the Lutheran Reformation did not become an event that stopped the development of German art, but, on the contrary, gave a new impetus to its development, especially the art of engraving. Throughout the history of Christianity, there have been discussions about what church art should be, in what form it should exist and what function it should carry. In the days of the Reformation, these discussions flared up with renewed vigor. Most reformers held the view that the church needed to be cleansed of works of art that were seen as a legacy of Catholicism. The iconoclast movement that transitioned into church pogroms and the destruction of works of art in Wittenberg in early 1522 prompted Martin Luther to publicly express his disagreement with the radical reformers and to express his own position on the fine arts in the reformed church. In a series of sermons from March 9 to 16, 1522 (Invocavit), Martin Luther recommended the destruction of images that became objects of worship, but considered it appropriate to leave works of art that illustrate biblical stories or reformation ideas. For Luther, the didactic significance of images became a decisive argument. The main points of the series of Luther’s sermons (Invocavit) show that he not only condemned the vandalism of iconoclasts, but also argued that the presence of works of art in the church does not contradict the Bible, but, on the contrary, helps to better understand important truths. It is noted that the result of Luther's tolerant position was the edition of the September Bible (1522) illustrated by Lucas Cranach's engravings. The reviewed narrative and visual sources prove that due to Reformation the art of engraving received a new impetus, and Lutheranism was formed not only as a church of the culture of the word, but also of the culture of the eye. It was established that the main requirement for art was strict adherence to the narrative, which is observed in the analyzed engravings of Lucas Cranach. It is considered that the engravings to the book of Revelation are characterized not only by the accuracy of the text, but also by sharpened polemics, adding a new sound to biblical symbols, sharp criticism of the Catholic Church, and visualization of the main enemies of the Reformed Church. It is proved that the polemical orientation of the engravings spurred interest and contributed to the commercial success of the September Bible. The rejection of traditional plots by protestant artists did not become overly destructive, and in some cases, it even led to the enrichment of European visual culture.

‘Then you just have to perform better’: parents’ strategies for countering racial othering in the context of neoliberal educational reforms in Germany

ABSTRACT This article analyses the discourse on ‘good parenthood’ that has emerged in Germany in the context of neoliberal educational reforms in recent decades. The analysis shows that this discourse is structured mainly along the lines of race, class and gender. It also shapes the parents’ responses to racial othering that they and their children experience in school. Using a dispositive analytical approach and Judith Butler’s concept of subjectivation, the author identifies subtle strategies used by parents to challenge prevailing racist knowledge about them in their children’s schools. As the analysis shows, parents’ entanglement in racialized neoliberal discourse complicates their ability to resist responsibilisation as ‘active’ and ‘committed’ parents. The parents interviewed for this study mostly appeared to internalize the neoliberal premise that every parent is the architect of his/her child’s success, thus absolving education policy and the school of responsibility for educational inequalities and institutionalized forms of racial discrimination.

Role of labor demand in the labor market effects of a pension reform

AbstractThis paper shows that labor demand plays an important role in the labor market reactions to a pension reform in Germany. Employers with a high share of older worker inflow compared with their younger worker inflow, employers in sectors with few investments in research and development, and employers in sectors with a high share of collective bargaining agreements allow their employees to stay employed longer after the reform. These employers offer their older employees partial retirement instead of forcing them into unemployment before early retirement because the older employees incur low substitution costs and high dismissal costs.

The Role of Vocational Education and Training in the Integration of Refugees in Austria, Denmark and Germany

Context: Vocational education and training (VET) plays a crucial role in the social inclusion of refugees. The aim of this paper is to examine how the VET systems of Austria, Denmark and Germany responded to the arrival of young refugees since 2015. VET in these countries are all categorised as systems of collective skill formation, which offer apprenticeships in addition to school-based training. The article examines and juxtaposes the legal rights, the actual opportunities and the barriers to refugees’ participation in and completion of VET at upper secondary level in the three selected countries.Methods: The study is based on reviews of literature and an analysis of refugee policies in the three countries. The literature search used a snowballing strategy and included policy documents, research publications and grey literature from organisations of civil society. The literature review employed a narrative, issue-focused approach to explore and compare key categories relating to the research question. To elaborate, refine and structure the categories for each of the three countries we used an input-process-output model (Adams, 1993) and a combination of deductive and inductive analysis procedure.Findings: The findings of the study are divided into six categories that structure the analysis: admission requirements, validation of prior learning, vocational guidance, language training, social support measures and access to apprenticeships. The analysis finds that both asylum seekers and recognised refugees have more opportunities in Germany than in the other two countries regarding the key categories. The findings show no major differences in the position of the social partners in the three countries in relation to refugees’ participation in VET, however the national governments reacted differently to the influx of refugees. In Austria and Denmark, new governments with strong anti-immigration agendas took office and reduced the access to and participation in VET for asylum seekers and refugees. At the same time, the German government introduced various integration measures for refugees in cooperation with employers with the aim of making VET more accessible to refugees.Conclusion: To access and complete VET, refugees depend on supporting measures to overcome a variety of barriers, e.g. regarding language training and access to apprenticeships. Overall, reforms in Germany demonstrate promising initiatives to overcome the barriers to the integration of refugees in VET, while reforms in Austria and Denmark have limited refugees’ opportunities to access and complete VET.

The Contours of the Non-Lutheran Reformation in Germany, 1522–1546

Abstract Among the common ways of portraying Reformation divides are the following categories: Magisterial vs Radical Reformations; or a “church type” vs a “sect type” of reform. This essay offers an alternative view. It underscores the differences between Lutherans and Anglicans on one side; and the Reformed, Anabaptists, and Schwenckfelders on the other. The Lutherans, like the Anglicans under Henry VIII, worshipped in altar-centered churches which were Roman Catholic in appearance. They presented themselves as reformers of Catholic errors of the late Middle Ages. By contrast, when the Reformed, Anabaptists, and Schwenckfelders met for worship, it was in unadorned Bible-centered meeting houses. The Anabaptists were targeted for martyrdom by the decree of the Holy Roman Empire of 1529 against Wiedertäufer (“rebaptists”). Contrary to the later memory that they practiced a theology of martyrdom, the preference of apprehended Anabaptists was to recant.

Born in the USA? A Comparison of "Inspired" Health Care Reforms in Germany and France.

Despite numerous examples of health policy transfer in Western health systems, the nature of such "inspired" reforms has received little detailed attention. The aim of this article is to apply and refine a specific theoretical angle for the analysis of these reforms using the theoretical frameworks of transfer and translation. The design is based on a comparative case study: the introduction of disease management programs (DMPs) for diabetes in Germany in 2002 and in France in 2008, drawing on a literature review and semistructured interviews. In introducing its DMP, Germany chose and combined several components in a process of selective borrowing, while France opted for copying a specific foreign program and adapting it. Such differences in process are linked to distinct system structures, in particular the setup of health insurance and the representation of physicians. Furthermore, the displayed versus actual degree of inspiration varied significantly, with a branding strategy in Germany (high display of foreign influence) and the inverse picture in France (high degree of actual inspiration). This analysis has applied the dual perspective of transfer and translation. Both perspectives proved complementary and necessary, and translation appeared as a main determinant of implementation success.

Cannabis policy reform in Germany: Political and constitutional discourses on decriminalisation and regulation strategies

&#x0D; There is relentless discussion in Germany about the right manner to deal with cannabis and its users. In 1994 and 2004, the Federal Constitutional Court reaffirmed the legal appropriateness of prohibition. However, since then, studies and data about the dangers and effects of cannabis use have quieted alarm, and Europe, alongside the once-prohibitive United States, has had its initial experiences with liberalised use of cannabis. Since the founding of the Schildower Kreis, a network of experts from science and practice, 122 German criminal law professors have petitioned the Bundestag for an Enquête Commission. The aim of this paper is, on the one hand, to provide insight into German narcotics law. On the other hand, the political arguments for sticking to prohibition are contrasted with the numerous empirical findings that are now available. The results of the empirical studies now challenge the Federal Constitutional Court and the legislature to review their previous course and possibly break new ground in drug policy. The basis of the Federal Constitutional Court’s decisions no longer exists. The Narcotics Act and constitutional discourse on cannabis prohibition need to be reviewed, as do political arguments about resources and high costs. Indications of a paradigm shift in drug policy, as required by the Global Commission on Drug Policy, are hesitantly appearing in Germany.

Dualisation as Class Conflict: The Case of Labour Market and Vocational Training in Germany

Popular accounts of labour market reforms in Western Europe have identified a process of dualisation over the last three decades, whereby service sector employ-ment has been deregulated while workers in the core manufacturing sector still en-joy high levels of employment protection and high wages. Two different labour market logics are thought to be in place between core and peripheral sectors and to co-exist in a stable equilibrium nurtured by the co-incidence of interests between capital and labour in core manufacturing sector, who jointly acted to safeguard workers in core sectors at the expense of peripheral service sectors. Building on the case studies of labour market and vocational training reform in Germany, this ar-ticle challenges this account. It is argued that processes of dualisation are best conceptualised as the contested outcome of a political conflict between capital and labour. Dualisation is not a stable equilibrium but rather the result of bargain-ing processes between employers who push for liberalization and unions who try to prevent it or - at least - mitigate it.

Employment Responses to Income Effect: Evidence from Pension Reform

For the design of the pension system, it is crucial to disentangle the employment responses related to the substitution effect and the income effect. In this paper, we provide causal evidence regarding the importance of the income effect, which is generally assumed to be small or non-existent. We exploit a pension reform in Germany that raised pension bene- fits related to children. For the identification, we exploit the discontinuity induced by the reform: only mothers with children born before 1.1.1992 were affected by the pension reform. Children born after this cut-off date did not change pension income. We use a difference-in-differences estimator based on administrative data from the German pension insurance that includes complete individual employment histories. We find that income effects are significant and economically important. We show that the policy led to a reduction in the employment of affected females. Further, we are able to show effect heterogeneity on different dimensions: by treatment intensity, age of the mother, and pre-reform pension wealth.

German and Italian Pensions: Similar Roots, Different Reform Paths, Comparable Trajectories?

The article employs a multi-level analytical framework to analyse pension reforms in Germany and Italy between 2011 and 2018, thereby focusing on the role played by the European Union. Whereas the EU is able to react to crises and prevent major deviations from its priorities, its influence has been uneven in the face of policy reversals and its capacity to spur the convergence of the two political economies has been limited. On one hand, the Commission’s recommendations to rebalance pension spending have not been fully followed in either country. On the other, pension-related interventions can only do so much to reduce labour market frictions (a problem particularly felt in Italy). Theoretically, the article innovates the literature on pensions in three respects. First, the study employs a three-level game, where not only the EU and policymakers interact, but also financial markets have an influence. Second, the article provides evidence of the persistent political nature of EU pension policymaking. Consequently, both EU and domestic policymakers have margins to interpret the rules. Third, the piece shows that the EU has little direct influence on reform outcomes. Contingent factors, such as the economic cycle, play a role in shaping the economic indicators of pensions.

Recruitment to STEM studies: The roles of curriculum reforms, flexibility of choice, and attitudes

Many countries are trying to increase the recruitment to Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) studies. Some have implemented curriculum reforms to this end, others may do so. Using experiences from curriculum reforms in Germany, the Netherlands and, in particular, Sweden, we consider a proposal from the Royal Society in England about a broader curriculum for 16–19‐year‐olds, involving more mathematics and science. In Sweden, a curriculum reform in 1995, for 16–20‐year‐olds, increased the academic content of vocational programmes, including mathematics and science, such that they provided eligibility to university studies. Another reform, in 2011, reinstated the distinctions between vocational and academic programmes and made courses yielding university eligibility compulsory for academic programmes only. Using longitudinal student population data for 1986–2017, we assess the reform outcomes through before‐after comparisons. The 1995 reform was followed by decreased recruitment to STEM studies while the opposite was true for the 2011 reform. A reform in Germany requiring students to study more mathematics was not very successful, either. We connect the positive consequences following the 2011 reform to the extensive Swedish opportunities to change study path. Including the option to attend a 1‐year ‘add‐on’ education programme, enabling students with non‐STEM upper secondary background to conduct STEM university studies, changes to STEM programmes dominate changes away from them. Accordingly, we recommend more, not less, flexibility in programme choice, preferably coupled with efforts to improve female STEM attitudes, which have proved effective in Sweden.

Design and effectiveness of start-up subsidies: Evidence from a policy reform in Germany

While a growing body of literature finds positive impacts of Start-Up Subsidies (SUS) on labor market outcomes of participants, little is known about how the design of these programs shapes their effectiveness and hence how to improve policy. As experimental variation in program design is unavailable, we exploit the 2011 reform of the current German SUS program for the unemployed which strengthened caseworkers’ discretionary power, increased entry requirements and reduced monetary support. We estimate the impact of the reform on the program’s effectiveness using samples of participants and non-participants from before and after the reform. To control for time-constant unobserved heterogeneity as well as differential selection patterns based on observable characteristics over time, we combine Difference-in-Differences with inverse probability weighting using covariate balancing propensity scores. Holding participants’ observed characteristics as well as macroeconomic conditions constant, the results suggest that the reform was successful in raising employment effects on average. As these findings may be contaminated by changes in selection patterns based on unobserved characteristics, we assess our results using simulation-based sensitivity analyses and find that our estimates are highly robust to changes in unobserved characteristics. Hence, the reform most likely had a positive impact on the effectiveness of the program, suggesting that increasing entry requirements and reducing support increased the program’s impacts while reducing the cost per participant.

“I am not a guinea pig”: Parental opportunity hoarding and tracking reform in Germany

PISA test data from 2000 to today have shown Germany’s education system is one of the most inequitable within the OECD, with high correlations between student background and achievement outcomes. Scholars have identified the highly differentiated school structure, which tracks students as young as 10 years old, as a central cause. This scholarship has not evaluated why German tracking has proved difficult to reform over the last 20 years, despite evidence of negative outcomes. Using a case study of parents’ actions in Hamburg, this paper employs a discourse analysis of debates surrounding a tracking reform to argue that opportunity hoarding—that is, parents with more social capital maintaining certain advantages through ingrained systems that are theoretically open to all—may contribute to why Germany’s early tracking system persists despite evidence showing that it increases educational inequality. The findings presented have implications for an international discussion of tracking reform and opportunity hoarding.

Tara Nummedal. Anna Zieglerin and the Lion’s Blood: Alchemy and End Times in Reformation Germany.

T<scp>ara</scp> N<scp>ummedal</scp>. <i>Anna Zieglerin and the Lion’s Blood: Alchemy and End Times in Reformation Germany</i>.

The Effects of Free Secondary School Track Choice: A Disaggregated Synthetic Control Approach

We exploit a recent state-level reform in Germany that granted parents the right to decide on the highest secondary school track suitable for their child, changing the purpose of the primary teacher's recommendation from mandatory to informational. Applying a disaggre-gated synthetic control approach to administrative district-level data, we find that transition rates to the higher school tracks increased substantially, with stronger responses among children from richer districts. Simultaneously, grade repetition in the first grades of second-ary school increased dramatically, suggesting that parents choose school tracks also to align with their own aspirations – resulting in greater misallocation of students.

More Opportunity, More Cooperation? The Behavioral Effects of Birthright Citizenship on Immigrant Youth

Inequality of opportunity, particularly when overlaid with racial, ethnic, or cultural differences, increases the social distance between individuals, which is widely believed to limit the scope of cooperation. A central question, then, is how to bridge such divides. We study the effects of a major citizenship reform in Germany—the introduction of birthright citizenship on January 1, 2000—in terms of inter-group cooperation and social segregation between immigrant and native youth. We hypothesize that endowing immigrant children with citizenship rights levels the playing field between them and their native peers, with possible spill-overs into the domain of social interactions. Our unique setup connects a large-scale lab-in-the-field experiment based on the investment game with the citizenship reform by exploiting the quasi-random assignment of citizenship rights around its cut-off date. Immigrant youth born prior to the reform display high levels of cooperation toward other immigrants, but low levels of cooperation toward natives. The introduction of birthright citizenship caused male, but not female, immigrants to significantly increase their cooperativeness toward natives. This effect is accompanied by a near-closure of the educational achievement gap between young immigrant men and their native peers.

Japan's carbon tax policy: Limitations and policy suggestions.

Japan is one of the first Asian countries to implement a carbon tax. With a tax rate of JPY2,89/ t-Co2 ($2.65), Japan is set to attain 26% reduction in carbon emissions by 2030. However, this target is substantially lower than one recommended by environmental scientists, 76% reduction in carbon emissions by 2030 (UNFCCC, 2019). Japan's geographic positioning in the Pacific makes it highly susceptible to climate change. Japan's carbon tax rate is also one of the lowest amongst developed economies. Thus, it is important to revisit Japan's carbon tax policy to bring it in line with international scientific recommendations and standards. This paper reviews Japan's carbon tax policy from a historical and contemporary perspective to identify policy limitations. By considering carbon policy reforms in Germany and U.S., the paper makes subsequent recommendations for carbon policy reforms in Japan. The paper applies qualitative analysis and comparative research methodology to identify Japan's policy limitations. It argues that Japan's carbon tax policy falls short because of its low carbon tax rate, and low effective carbon rates in industrial and electricity sectors. The paper also makes several policy suggestions to address Japan's domestic resistance to potential carbon price improvement and reduced coal dependence.

Формирование художественной компетентности в Евангелической церкви Германии в XX – начале XXI в.

In various Protestant denominations (particularly in the Evangelical Church in Germany) the demand for the formation of artistic competence has been growing since the mid 20th century. The celebration of the 500th anniversary of the Reformation in Germany in 2017 contributed to a new round of discussion of this issue. Luther's attitude to artistic images has been reevaluated. Interconnectedness of the word and image in the process of religious communication has been emphasized. The autonomy of art and freedom of creative expression of an artist in the dialogue with religion (in the form of exhibitions, installations in churches, etc.) has been recognized.

The Effects of Free Secondary School Track Choice: A Disaggregated Synthetic Control Approach

We exploit a recent state-level reform in Germany that granted parents the right to decide on the highest secondary school track suitable for their child, changing the purpose of the primary teacher's recommendation from mandatory to informational. Applying a disaggregated synthetic control approach to administrative district-level data, we find that transition rates to the higher school tracks increased substantially, with stronger responses among children from richer districts. Simultaneously, grade repetition in the first grades of secondary school increased dramatically, suggesting that parents choose school tracks also to align with their own aspirations – resulting in greater misallocation of students.