The author presents initiatives launched by the European Union in order to overcome the financial crisis of the eurozone member states. To meet this goal emergency instruments were created (aid programs for Greece, European Stability Mechanism and purchase by the European Central Bank of loans issued by countries of the eurozone in debt crisis) as well as permanent instruments (the Euro Plus Pact, sharpened regulations of the Stability and Growth Pact and the Fiscal Pact). Emergency measures did not bring about any substantial positive effects since only the financial situation of Ireland improved to some extent. The state of public finances in Greece is still critical and therefore many economists suggest that this country should declare its bankruptcy. Permanent instruments to fight debt might yield the desired effects (in the case of a majority of the eurozone countries) if they are used consistently and in accordance with their object.
More...Günter Prinzing: Peter SCHREINER, Byzanz 565-1453. 3., völlig überarbeitete Aufl age München 2008 [erschienen Ende 2007] (Oldenbourg Grundriss der Geschichte, 22). XVI, 340 S., ISBN 978-3-486-57750-1 Walter Puchner: Byzantina et Moderna. Mélanges en l’honneur d’Hélène Antoniadis-Bibicou. Hgg. Gilles Grivaud / Socrate Petmezas. Athènes: Alexandria-Verlag [2007]. 479 S., Abb., Tab., ISBN 978-960-221-372-8 Aydın Babuna: Bosnien-Herzegowina. Wegweiser zur Geschichte. Hg. Agilolf Kesselring. Paderborn u. a.: Ferdinand Schöningh 2005. 168 S., Ill., Ktn., ISBN 3-506-72976-4, € 9,90; 2. durchgesehene und erweiterte Aufl age 2007. 216 S., Ill., Ktn., ISBN 978-3-506- 76428-7 St efan Ihrig: Victor STEPANIUC, Statalitatea poporului moldovenesc. Aspecte istorice, politico-juridice [Die Staatlichkeit des moldawischen Volkes. Historische und politisch-juristische Aspekte]. Chişinău: Tipografi a Centrală 2005. 520 S., zahlr. Ill. und Tab., Kt., ISBN 9975-78-452-6 Jozo Džambo: Robert J. DONIA, Sarajevo. A Biography. London: Hurst & Company 2006. XXII, 435 S., Abb., Ktn, Taf., ISBN 1-85065-765-3 Ma rkus Wien: Richard J. CRAMPTON, Bulgaria. Oxford: Oxford University Press 2007. XXII 507 S. ISBN 978-0-19-820514-2 Andreas Mü l l e r: Hans-Dieter DÖPMANN, Kirche in Bulgarien von den Anfängen bis zur Gegenwart. München: Biblion Verlag 2006 (Bulgarische Bibliothek, NF 11). 153 S., ISBN 978-3- 932331-90-9 Armin Heinen: Rumänien. Raum und Bevölkerung, Geschichte und Geschichtsbilder, Kultur, Gesellschaft und Politik heute, Wirtschaft, Recht und Verfassung, Historische Regionen. Hgg. Th ede Kahl / Michael Metzeltin / Mihai-Răzvan Ungureanu. Wien, Münster: LIT-Verlag 2006 (Österreichische Osthefte, Sonderband Jg. 48). 976 S., ISBN 3-8258- 0069-5 Tobias Weger: Mýty naše slovenské [Unsere slowakischen Mythen]. Hgg. Eduard Krekovi / Elena Mannová / Eva Krekoviová. Bratislava: Academic Electronic Press 2005. 248 S., ISBN 80-88880-61-0
More...Keywords: Croatian Pragmatic Sanction 1712; Habsburg Monarchy; Emperor Leopold I; queen Eleonora; Emerik Esterházy; 18th century; question of succession.
The 1712 Croatian Pragmatic Sanction is one of the most important laws in Croatian juridical history. Common opinion in the historiography on this subject is that Croatian National Parliament – Sabor – brought that law and gave legal right of succession to the Habsburg’s female line without any interference of the Habsburgs themselves. Yet, the author analyses the possibility that initiative actually came from the Vienna Court. In this political game main performer was queen Eleonora, Leopold’s widow. In the time of the Croatian Pragmatic Sanction promulgation, she was the regent of the Habsburg Monarchy. Protecting Habsburg’s political interests within the Hungarian-Croatian Kingdom, she found ideal political partners in the Croatian Kingdom and especially in the figure of Emerik Esterházy, bishop of Zagreb. On the other hand, Croatian political elite, led by bishop Esterházy, considered the Croatian Pragmatic Sanction as an opportunity for the fulfillment of their own political interests and a possibility for the improvement of their status within the Hungarian-Croatian Kingdom and Monarchy.
More...By establishing characteristic contexts of the early medieval constitutional terms designating concepts of rule and sovereignty a reconstruction of the original terminologal system and phraseology is attempted. Thus the reconstruction of characteristic contexts supports the reconstruction of Proto-Slavic constitutional vocabulary and vice versa. Forthis purpose not only Slavic but also biblical and Latin sources are used. The result is a substantial fragment of the system of Proto-Slavic constitutional vocabulary and a fair specimen of formulaic phraseology pertaining to the same field.
More...review of: -------------------- JAN ASSMANN, Ägypten. Eine Sinngeschichte, Wiss. Buchges., Darmstadt; Carl Hanser Verlag, München, Wien 1996, 8°, 550 Seiten
More...Keywords: German international relations; the Visegrad group; the Visehrad group;
German policy has experienced dynamic development and significant elements of change since the country’s unification, mainly in the area of security and integration policy. However, German policy has been still defined to a great extent by its internal “institutional pluralism”(Bulmer, Paterson, Jeffery). The “pragmatization” of German integration policy (Schmalz) does not mean rejection of principal orientation on multilateralism. German policy towards the Visegrad group countries (the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia) has focused mainly on normalisation of mutual relations and their gradual multilateralisation.
More...Keywords: Post-Yugoslavia; Hyper-modernization; Disintegration of Yugoslavia; Nostalgia for Josip Broz Tito; Novosti; Lepa Brena; Boris Tadić; Tomislav Karamarko; Tomislav Nicolić; Zoran Milanović; Edvard Kardelj.
Central text in four languages: Hungarian, French, German, English. Philosophical essay as a critical analysis of the present situation of Post-Yugoslavia.
More...Der erste Teil dieses Beitrags, der den Kaspar-Hauser-Stoff in der Literatur und im Film zum Thema hat, setzt sich mit der literarischen Gestaltung der Sprachlosigkeit, des Schweigens und des Spracherwerbs (J. Wassermann, G. Trakl, P. Handke) auseinander, dem zweiten Teil liegen drei Verfilmungen (W. Herzog, P. Sehr, F. Truffaut) zu Grunde. Die Erziehung des Findlings, das Lehren der Sprache und das erste Erkennen einer Ich-Identität verbindet beide Teile dieses Beitrags, wobei der Letztere, vor allem die Szenen der ersten, initiatorischen Selbst- Bespiegelung, in einen Bezug zu der Theorie Jacques Lacans gebracht wird.
More...Keywords: NGO; democracy; politics
The rise of the NGOs in recent years has raised various new problems, most pressingly that of the мdemocratisation paradoxо: Whilst the NGOs ultimate aim is to promote democratic structures in respective countries, their own structures remain relatively unaccountable and undemocratic. Other questions concern the sharing of power between NGOs and democratically elected chambers and the influence NGOs are able to exert over them. Claus Leggewie looks at the complex mechanisms involved and proposes ways out of the legitimation crisis.
More...Keywords: Sighișoara, Transylvania; clockmakers; family chronicle; register; dialects;
This chronicle is to be found in a typed copy transcribed to A3 format in the “Czoppelt” collection of the Transylvanian library with archive in Gundelsheim/ Neckar. It probably comes from the priest family Kinn in Reghinul Săsesc. Initially it was written on several scatterred pages in a notebook which priest Martin Guist gave to the Kürschel family. During his student years spent in several towns of the German-speaking countries, Guist had his fellow students make him dedications in a notebook, for the greater part religious quotes, most of them in Latin, but also in Ancient Greek, French, Hungarian and Italian. While being a student in Toruń (today in Poland) he meets Johannes Kirschel, a German journeyman who was improving his craft as a clockmaker in the hometown of Copernicus. He invites him to Sighișoara, Transylvania, where the craftsman settles down, changes his name to Kürschel, becomes a master through marriage and introduces the striking of the quarter hours on the town-hall tower clock. Kürschel takes over Guist’s notebook and then one of his sons, Johannes, continues his father’s trade as well as the family chronicle, just like his own son Hartwig. Both register events concerning the family, business matters, the town and the surroundings of Sighișoara, in German (Hochdeutsch) as well as in the Transylvanian Saxon dialect of Sighișoara. Thus, the document contains plenty of information on wandering students, their family relationships, gender history and military, environmental and astronomical history.
More...Keywords: Conflicting Communist Identities; Politicization; Legitimation; Power; Communist Parties; East Central Europe after Stalinism;
This article aims to tease out the transformation of communist identity and the sense of legitimacy within the ruling parties of the Eastern Bloc (particularly Poland, Czechoslovakia and the GDR) in 1956. It explores how communist identity was negotiated and reshaped beyond the highest level of party leadership and prominent communist intellectuals and how ordinary party members perceived this ideological turnabout. It seeks to demonstrate how the sense of belonging was articulated in the reflection of the parties’ recent past by ordinary party members on a local level: functionaries, apparatchiks, propagandists and local party historians. In the aftermath of 1956, communist and working class identities were seriously challenged by renewed national, ethnic, confessional or regional identities in a steady process of exclusion and inclusion. Examining the de-Stalinization “from below”, the study concludes that despite the earthquake-like ideological upheavals a new form of identity emerged among the parties’ rank-and-file that, centered around the parties as an imperfect yet heroic collective, secured the sense of legitimacy for the decades to come.
More...Keywords: Auschwitz; Polish historical debate; 1990s;
Following the demise of Communism Poland was faced with a multitude of transformational challenges. It was not only a matter of building up a market economy, but also of establishing democracy and constructing new political institutions. Polish society, at all levels, was absorbed in changing the power structures, creating new elites, developing political participation, finding its position in international affairs, reformulating the role of various institutions, and redefining its national identity. Political liberalisation opened the doors of public debate and discussion free from government control and censorship. In this atmosphere, interest was particularly directed to historical subjects, or, to be more precise, subjects which called the existing historical orthodoxies into question. One of these was the Cross at Auschwitz. What became known as “the Cross debate”, which took place across the whole spectrum of Polish media at the end of the 1990s, was characterised by three main features. Firstly the debate concerned Auschwitz, a place of intense historical national interest in Poland – a place which, under Communism was a permanent bone of contention between the communists, who wished to use it as an instrument in their version of history, and national-Catholic identification, and which, for this reason, acted as a bridge between the two sides. Secondly the debate, because of its focus, attracted attention far beyond Poland’s borders and made evident the diverse appraisal of the significance of Auschwitz both within and outside Poland, which in its turn led to numerous misunderstandings. Thirdly the debate reflected the social phenomena and processes – not untypical of a society in transition – which characterised Poland in the 1990s. In my study I use the Cross debate to reveal some of the fundamental characteristics and problems of Polish society in transition at the end of the 1990s. This is done on the basis of a survey of Polish history and the importance of this historical memorial site in Poland, something which is generally given only cursory attention among international contributors to the debate. Finally, the Auschwitz Cross debate 1998-1999 is analysed with the focus on three fundamental social questions which crystallised in the course of the debate: the redefinition of national identity, the continuing existence of positive and negative stereotypes, and the political power struggle between church and state. The basis of the analysis is the public debate in Polish press in 1998-1999. To illustrate the debate as fully as possible, the analysis not only includes reports and commentaries but also excerpts from speeches and sermons, as well as readers’ letters.
More...Keywords: Cities and towns; Cracow; 1894 General Provincial Exhibition in Lemberg;
The theme of the paper is the tension in the inter-relations between national culture and life as led in the municipalities. This issue is examined, taking the presentation of the city Cracow at the General Provincial Exhibition of 1894 as an example, analysing both national rhetoric and local government in practice. Particular attention is paid to the efforts of the Cracow municipal administration to present a city dedicated to preserving tradition as a modern living space. The analysis of municipal presentation will be supplemented by an examination of the ceremonies which accompanied the Exhibition (visit of the Crown Prince) and events (meeting of the Municipal Conference). In the final section the author endeavours to assess the significance of the Exhibition for the process of modernisation in Galicia. The paper closes with a brief comparison with the “Exhibition of Municipalities”, during the 1929 General Provincial Exhibition held in Posen, in which the essential differences between the Lemberg and the Posen presentations with regard to the sense of national belonging and the level of civilisation are brought to light.
More...Keywords: "Volksdeutsche"; Czestochowa; National Socialist Germanisation policy; wrongdoers; profiteers; bystanders of the Holocaust;
The example of Czestochowa's "Volksdeutsche" shows how this section of the population witnessed the disfranchisement, persecution and murder of their Polish and Jewish neighbours and, simultaneously, took advantage from these crimes. The National Socialists wooed the "Volksdeutsche" and subsidized them well beyond the Standards within the Reich. At the same time, their material well-being had to be secured, which could only be attained through the economic exploitation and elimination of the remaining population: The so-called "Volkstum" policy, accordingly, was directly related to local measures against Jews. The "Volksdeutsche", however, were more than just passive bystanders, since even belonging to the list of "Volksdeutsche" demanded an active commitment to the National Socialist occupying forces. However, this commitment often was motivated by economic reasons rather than by national-socialist conviction. Additionally, many "Volksdeutsche" participated in crimes against Jews and Poles as members of the "Volksdeutsche Selbstschutz", SS and police units or as employees of the administration; others were employed or promoted in companies and thus benefited from the dispossession and killing of their former Jewish owners or employees. On the other hand, Nazi administrators profited from their precise knowledge of local conditions and the Polish language. On the whole, there was a closer relation between economic considerations and loyalty to the regime in the occupied territories than in the core territories of the Reich. Nevertheless, the contribution of the "Volksdeutsche" is probably best characterized as active complicity, since they could not exert greater influence on the local occupation policy. In general, the National Socialist "Volkstum" policy was ambivalent. Only few "Volksdeutsche" actually fulfilled the racial requirements postulated by the regime. As objects of a systematic Germanization policy, they were nevertheless not fully accepted by the occupiers, who considered them as profiteers and opportunists. The intended Integration into the "Volksgemeinschaft" failed in Cz^stochowa, most "Volksdeutsche" remained a kind of second class Germans.
More...Keywords: Thomas Mann; „Magic Mountain”; didactic novel; philosophical novel; Schopenhauer; chapter: "Snow"; dream analysis; Castorp
During the last twenty years Thomas Mann’s The Magic Mountain has been dominated by two contradictory lines of interpretation. On the one hand, it is acknowledged that this tale is a development novel, and on the other, it is interpreted as a philosophical novel, deeply influenced by Schopenhauer’s pessimistic vision of life. The aim of this article is to demonstrate the conflicting specialist views on the subject of the story, and in particular the „Snow“ chapter which is rightly perceived by researchers of the work as the key one. Starting from various and frequently contradictory ways of interpreting Castorp’s vision, the author of the article sets herself the aim of examining the dream from the „Snow“ chapter using Freudian Dream Analysis. If we are to understand dreams as ,fulfilled wishes‘, as Freud intended, then there raises the question of what Castorp’s dream means in this case, what his visions personify and whether Castorp really gets closer to humanist thought through his dream and goes, as Thomas Mann himself put it, through an „education programme“.
More...Keywords: Simon Dach; „Sorbuisa”; literature and power;Prussia; obscurantism
On the basis of the drama Sorbuisa (1644) by Simon Dach, which deals with conflicts specific for the region related to education, science and religion, the present article makes an attempt to provide answer for the question about the relationship between literature and power. Especially useful for the conducted studies has been the diachronic model. It enables one to highlight the condition of constant tension between the western and autochthonic (conditioned by multiethnic and multiconfessional character of the region of „Prussia“) cultural influence. From the point of view of philology, we are dealing here with a puristic stylistic program (classicism), which, as a tool of power, is faced with local ‚obscurantism‘ and a forced individual or mystic linguistic proposal.
More...Online-Gespräch Kosovo nach den Wahlen: Im Gespräch mit Außenministerin Donika Gërvalla-Schwarz über Herausforderungen, Erwartungen und Chancen Kooperationsveranstaltung der Südosteuropa-Gesellschaft mit der Organisation deutschalbanischer Akademiker Hamburg e.V., Online via Zoom, 18. Mai 2021 Online-Diskussion 25 Jahre nach Dayton: Bosnien und Herzegowina zwischen Ethnonationalismus und Bürgergesellschaft Veranstalterin: Südosteuropa-Gesellschaft, Online via Zoom, 04. Mai 2021
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