Academic literature on the topic 'Germany Cultural policy History 20th century'

The article studies the extralingual factors that influenced the choice of female and male names of Uzhhorod citizens during the 20th century. The research draws on the Uzhhorod civil registry books stored in the Transcarpathian State Regional Archive. It has been found out that dynamic historical events (the region’s becoming a part of various states with their language policy), economic, political, cultural and educational changes in Transcarpathia over the centuries influenced the cultural and linguistic situation and manifested in the changes of personal names. The choice of male and female personal names was also influenced by the changes in the population ethnic composition as well as people’s national and confessional identity. The coexistence of more than 70 nationalities and nations, including Ukrainians, Hungarians, Czechs, Slovaks, Russians, Belarussians, Bulgarians, Poles, Romanians, Moldovans, Roma, Swabians, Jews, Germans, Azerbaijanis, Gagauz, Armenians, Uzbeks, etc., certainly influenced the Uzhhorod name repertoire, since it was different cultures, ethnic naming traditions, and various names. Although the religion and ethnicity affected the anthroponymic repertoire and matter for choosing names for newborns, they were not so much significant as to affect the general system of personal names of Uzhhorod residents in the 20th century.

The article deals with travel guides in German language about current territory of Ukraine at the end of 19th – first half of 20th centuries. It is noted that they represent quite a small group of literary sources. Major part of their content is reference information about geography, history, specific features of daily life and household traditions of one region or another, but major function is imposing of normative perception of foreign, alien culture. The most well-known are those, which were issued by publishing house “Baedeker”, as well as those, published in the times of Austrian-Hungarian monarchy. The author analyses image of Jews as ethnic community in the regions of Eastern Galicia and so-called Great Ukraine before the First World War, in the interwar period and during the Second World War. It is emphasized that thorough consideration of image of the Jews through prism of travel guides during dramatic and tragic events of the end of XIX – the first half of XX centuries may open to the readers of the XXI century new perspectives in understanding of such socio-political phenomena, as a state policy towards ethnic minorities; collective auto- and hetero-stereotypes; dynamics of antisemitism from common level of everyday life to discrimination and extermination of Jews. Moreover, travel guides contain various materials for analysis of issues, related to cultural transfer, models of journeys, attractiveness of certain destinations and objects of cultural and historical heritage at the territory of regions, which for centuries were known by coexistence of various ethnic groups and frequent changes of borders. Necessity of usage of interdisciplinary approach was an additional stimulus for research on the subject under consideration. The author stressed that the book of Franz Obermeyer “Ukraine. Land der schwarzen Erde”, as well as the travel guide by Baedeker, 1943, and the travel guide for Kyiv, 1942, were instruments of the criminal Nazi-Propaganda, contrary to publications during Austrian-Hungarian monarchy, which to certain measure can be considered as a source of knowledge about inter-cultural communications and tolerance. But in both cases the character of these books depended on a political and ideological conjuncture. While in the books, published before the WWI, the image of a Jew was presented mainly from the ethnographic perspective, but in Nazi publications during WWII it was transformed into the image of an enemy. But the authors avoided usage of formulations like “judo-bolshevism” or “worldwide Jewish conspiracy”. Most likely, the traditional format of a travel guide as an instrument of inter-cultural communication limited its actual transformation into a primitive racial or anti-Semitic propaganda. Certain attention in the article is given to the soviet travel guides, edited by Alexander Rado and published by All-Union Society of Cultural Relations in the 1920-ies, which were and are still little known.

In the 1940s, the totalitarian occupying regimes of Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union implemented the strictest control and ideological guidance of intellectual and spiritual life of all time in Estonia. Essentially, the mechanisms and results of control are known. Cultural life was subjected to strict pre-censorship and post-publication censorship, and in the Soviet era also to thematic dictation. The intellectual and spiritual resistance of Estonians in those years, in other words their refusal to accept the ruling ideology, has been studied very little. The most widespread way of putting up intellectual and spiritual resistance was to remain silent, in other words to avoid creating works that were agreeable to the authorities. Selective silence, that is the selection of one’s points of emphasis, and splitting, in other words writing for oneself works that one keeps in one’s drawer while at the same time writing for publication in print, are also placed in this category. Recording actual history in diaries through the eyes of contemporaries of events, reading intellectually and spiritually enjoyable literature, and other such actions were ways of putting up intellectual and spiritual resistance. The main objective of this study is to ascertain in historical context the attempts to put up intellectual and spiritual resistance in the comedies from the 1940s by Hugo Raudsepp (1883–1952), one of the most outstanding Estonian playwrights of the 20th century. Ideologically speaking, dramatic literature was clearly one of the most vulnerable branches of literature. It was created for public presentation in theatres, after all, for which reason authors had to be particularly careful in their wording. On the other hand, plays provided both authors and directors with opportunities to conceal messages between the lines. For this reason, theatre became exceedingly popular in Estonia by the final decades of the Soviet era. The ridicule and mocking of the Soviet regime were especially enjoyed. The subjugation of Estonian intellectual and spiritual life to the ideological requirements of the occupying regime was launched at the time of pre-war Stalinism (1940–1941). Its aim was to rear Soviet-minded people who would help to justify, fortify and enhance the Soviet regime. The systematic control of the activities of creative persons and the working out of dictates and regulations were nevertheless not yet completed during the first year of Soviet rule. Many outstanding cultural figures remained silent or earned a living by translating texts. At that time, Hugo Raudsepp wrote the non-political novel Viimne eurooplane [The Last European], which is noteworthy to this day, while his plays from the period of independent Estonian statehood were not staged in theatres. Starting with the German occupation (1941–1944), the point of departure for Hugo Raudsepp was writing between the lines in his comedies in order to get both readers and theatregoers to think and to give them strength of soul. In 1943, he wrote the comedy Vaheliku vapustused [Interspatial Jolts], which has later been styled as a masterpiece. He concealed numerous signs between the lines of this play referring to the fate of a small people, in other words Estonia, between its great neighbouring powers the Soviet Union and Germany. Performances of this play were soon banned. Performances in theatres of all other plays by Hugo Raudsepp were similarly banned, with one exception. During post-war Stalinism in 1944–51, the sovietisation of Estonian cultural life resumed. Hugo Raudsepp did not initially write on topical Soviet themes, rather he sought subject matter from earlier times. His first play from that period entitled Rotid [Rats] (1946) was about the German occupation during the Second World War and it ridiculed the occupying Germans. Raudsepp also skilfully wove messages supporting Estonian cultural identity into the play. The play was staged in the Estonia Theatre but was soon banned. Raudsepp’s second play from that period, Tagatipu Tiisenoosen (1946), earned first prize at the state comedy competition in that same year. The action in the play was set in the period of Estonian National Awakening at the end of the 19th century. It ridiculed Baltic Germans and the behaviour of parvenu Estonians. Similarly to his previous play, he demonstrated nationalist mentality in this comedy by way of nationalist songs. It is noteworthy that by the summer of 1947, Tagatipu Tiisenoosen had also reached expatriate Estonians and it was staged with an altered title as the only Stalinist- era play from Soviet Estonia in Canada (1952), Australia (1954) and Sweden (1956). The thematic precepts imposed on Estonian writers and the mechanism for ensuring that those precepts were followed became even stricter starting in 1947. Raudsepp wrote his next 7 plays on required Soviet subject matter: post-war land reform (Tillereinu peremehed [The Owners of Tillereinu], 1947), monetary reform (Noorsulane Ilmar [Ilmar the Young Farmhand], 1948), kolkhozes (Küpsuseksam [Matriculation Exam] and Lasteaed [Kindergarten], 1949, Mineviku köidikuis [In the Fetters of the Past] (1950) and his so-called Viimane näidend [Last Play], 1950 or 1951), and the beginning of the Soviet regime in Estonia in 1940 (Pööripäevad Kikerpillis [Solstices in Kikerpill], 1949). Hugo Raudsepp skilfully wove words of wisdom for Estonians on surviving under foreign rule through the mouths of his characters, or discreetly laughed about Soviet reality in a way that the censors did not grasp. Post-war cultural policy culminated with the 8th Plenum of the Estonian Communist (Bolshevist) Party (EC(B)P) Central Committee on 21–26 March 1950, where among other things, the EC(B)P Central Committee Bureau was accused of allowing the exaltation of the superiority of Western European science and culture. Cultural figures were branded bourgeois nationalists and they faced serious ordeals. The fate of the great figure of Estonian dramatic literature was very harsh. Hugo Raudsepp was depicted as a ‘fascist henchman’ in 1950. He was expelled from the Estonian Writers’ Union and was deprived of his personal pension. He was arrested on 11 May 1951. Opposition to the Soviet regime was stressed in the charges presented to him. His play Vaheliku vapustused, which the German occupying regime had banned, and his only play that was allowed at that time, Lipud tormis [Flags in the Storm], were named as the primary evidence supporting the charges. Hugo Raudsepp was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment in the autumn of 1951. He hoped to the last possible moment that he would be allowed to serve his sentence in Estonia. Unfortunately, on 18 February 1952 he was sent by train from Tallinn to Narva and on 19 February on to Leningrad. From there his journey took him to Vjatka, Kirov and finally Irkutsk oblast. This great man’s health was poor, and he soon died on 15 September 1952. Very few new literary works appeared in the 1940s. The historical nadir is altogether seen in post-war book production in the era of Stalinism. Estonian theatre was similarly in a most difficult situation due to censorship, shortage of repertoire, scarcity of funding, and layoffs and sackings of theatre personnel. Nowadays the survival of theatre at the time, regardless of difficult times, is appreciated, and actors are recognised for preserving Estonian identity and uniting the people. Hugo Raudsepp’s role as a playwright in supporting intellectual and spiritual resistance to foreign authorities has to be recognised on the basis of his occupation-era comedies. Hugo Raudsepp was one of the most productive authors of his day, writing a total of 11 plays in 1943–51. According to the assessment of scholars of literature, he never once rose with these works to the leading-edge level of his previous works. It was impossible to create masterpieces that would become classics in that time of strict ideological precepts and the monitoring of their observance. Taking into consideration the extremely restricted creative conditions, his works were still masterpieces of their time. As Hugo Raudsepp’s oeuvre demonstrates, spirit still managed to cleverly trump power regardless of censorship and official precepts. The denunciation of Stalin’s personality cult in 1956 once again opened the door to the theatre for Hugo Raudsepp’s best comedies from Estonia’s era of independent statehood. The witticism and laughter of Hugo Raudsepp’s comedies gave people renewed strength of soul.

This article discusses the genre of family narratives in contemporary German literature against the backdrop of cultural memory in postunification Germany.1 Family narratives lend themselves to a critical study of memory as they enact the transmission and transformation of memories from one generation to the next. Thus, these texts serve a pivotal role as both archives for and reflections on individual and collective memories of 20th century Germany history. Since the late 1990s, i.e., almost a decade after the collapse

AbstractNaturalizing and excluding. Nationality and citizenship law in 19th and 20th century Germany. Nationality law in Germany came up as a legal institution of German federal states at the beginning of 19th century and underwent a process of nationalization. The principle of descent (Abstammungsprinzip), which was – before a legal reform in 2000 – hegemonic, was used to define German nationality primarily as a community of ethno-cultural descent. This restrictive use of German nationality law did not establish, however, a direct line of conceptual and political continuity between ‘ethno-cultural’ and ‘racial’ criteria, and it was primarily based on a politico-social constellation of political, demographic and national instability, not on a specific German national discourse.

The article considers political, economic, social and cultural aspects of Brazilian-African cooperation at the end of the 20th century and at the beginning of the 21st century. At the present stage, after two decades of active development, Brazilian policy towards Africa has been losing momentum. Nowadays the cooperation between Brazil and African countries requires developing a new strategy.

Ostmitteleuropaforschung - Beyond East Central Europe? The Aporiae of a Niche Research Interest in Germany The article discusses some crucial problems of area studies drawing on the example of East Central European studies in Germany today. Against the backdrop of persistent methodological imperatives stemming from the 19th and early 20th century, we argue that general definitions of space, time or structure are of little use even in relation to a constructed region. Instead, we call for a praxeological approach that takes into consideration specific situational entanglements and their actors. In the context of global, European, imperial or transnational turns in historical cultural studies, a non-hierarchical, spatial and temporal perspective becomes essential. This article seeks to encourage discussion about the chances and risks that current developments in historical area studies in Germany entail, while also providing an impulse to think about possible future ramifications.

AbstractAlthough medical malpractice litigation in the United States has generated extensive professional and scholarly attention, few analyses of the issue have explored its underlying causes. This essay develops and employs an historical framework to explain the late 20th century phenomenon and concludes that widespread medical malpractice suits are the result of a combination of short-term topical causes and long-term cultural changes that are ignored or left untouched by most reform efforts. Most importantly, however, the development and proliferation of new and improved medical technologies has played a pivotal role throughout the entire history of the litigation, an effect that has become most prominent and important in the last third of the 20th century.

This paper examines the connection between the war pamphlet ?Merchants and Heroes? (1915) of Werner Sombart, one of the greatest European sociologists of the 20th century, and geopolitical theories about the conflict between land and sea powers. Although Sombart?s pamphlet emphasizes the spiritual-moral and cultural-sociological dualism between Germany and England in the First World War, where the first represents the characteristics of heroes and idealists and the other of merchants and opportunists, the paper shows that this conflict was primarily a war for the territories - a geopolitical conflict, and, only secondary, a cultural-normative conflict. Historical anal?ysis shows that German geostrategic actions before the Great War (in their colonial policy) and during the Great War were not in opposition, but very similar to Great Britain`s policies. Therefore, it can be assumed that the war between Germany and Great Britain 435 broke out because of the rivalries based on their similarities, both in actions and pretensions. Moreover, Wilhelmine Germany was almost copying Britain?s colonial expansion, so it became the greatest threat to Great Britain`s geostrategic interest. Further, the research established the links between the views of Sombart and Karl Schmitt and, later, with the oversized opposition between land and sea powers as ?the second law of geopolitics? in the views of some geopolitical thinkers during the 20th century. The paper shows that the sources of both views are the same and that they lie in the German romantic-idealistic youth subculture movements at the turn of the 20th century adopted in academic circles before the Great War, primarily in the philosophy of Kurt Hiller and sociology of George Simmel, from which they were accepted by Werner Sombart.

The article offers an insight into the history of the Muslim communities in the Russian capital city of St. Petersburg in the 18th –20th cent. The author identifies the problems, which gradually arose in course of implementation of the state national policy in various periods of the Russian history. Equally she outlines the problems, which may be an obstacle in the interfaith dialogue.

This thesis is an investigation of how United States foreign policy was made in the context of German-American relations in the period between the two world wars. The problem under investigation is whether the United States was using a corporatist approach in dealing with the problems of Germany and ultimately Europe and whether the corporatist model is a good one for analyzing foreign policy development during this period. Corporatism, as it is used in this thesis, is defined as an organizational form which recognizes privately organized functional groups outside the United States government, which collaborate with the government to share power and make policy. In the case of foreign policy, the focus of this investigation is on the role played by autonomous financial experts, especially from the banking community.

This is a study of the foreign and domestic policies of the USSR as they pertain to its war-readiness, as well as the degree to which these policies presumably opened the door to the European conflagration and, in 1941, to the Nazi-Soviet war. Topics to be discussed include: (1) the crash industrialization of the Soviet Union and industrial war preparations from 1928--41; (2) the development of Soviet military doctrine before and after 12 June 1937; (3) a critical re-examination of the popularly accepted reasons for the devolution of the Soviet armed forces; and (4) Soviet foreign policy from 1937--41. The chronological end of the paper (1941) is followed by a brief epilogue discussing the evident success of the Soviet industrialization program by reference to Soviet industrial performance during the Nazi-Soviet war. Furthermore, the epilogue will challenge the popular depiction of the German invasion as an effortless, seamless advance into the Soviet heartland.

Ce travail se propose d'étudier les ambitions, d'envisager les modalités et enfin de mesurer les résultats de la politique culturelle française menée en Grèce du début des années 1930 à 1981 (date d'entrée de la Grèce dans la Communauté Economique Européenne). Durablement implantée comme culture étrangère dominante depuis la fin du XVIIIème siècle, la culture française se heurte, en Grèce, au cours d'un long XXème siècle à une rude concurrence et connaît une période de déclin au profit de la culture américaine après 1945. Cette étude présente donc le double intérêt de mettre en exergue à une "échelle locale", traversée par les influences de nombreuses puissances étrangères, l'évolution de la diplomatie culturelle française. Partant du postulat d'une "décadence" de la politique étrangère française à partir des années 1930, ce qui se joue en territoire hellénique serait, à bien des égards, le reflet de ce qui se joue plus globalement au niveau mondial pour le rayonnement français.

Bibliography: leaves 156-167. The aim of this thesis is to show how in practice the National Socialists sacrificed ideological considerations to the material advantages that could be gained from the sale of "degenerate art". In practice the term "degenerate" was extended beyond modern art to include French Impressionist and Post-Impressionist art, specifically because they were highly saleable. This is evinced by the sales of "degenerate art" which were conducted by the Reichministerium für Volksklärung und Propaganda (RMVP). The record of the sales compiled by the propaganda ministry in the summer of 1941, provide conclusive evidence that the Reich government compromised its ideological position for financial gain. The sale of "degenerate art" conducted by order of the Reich at the Galerie Fischer auction in Lucerne in 1939, provides further evidence that the practice of confiscation was economically driven.

1 About Political and Economic Development of Austria in Years 1931-1934 Miroslav Šepták Abstract The aim of the presented dissertation is the analysis of the Austrian foreign political development in the years 1931-1934 with the emphasis on the general development of the international relations. Furthermore, the selected intra-political events and the economic and social development of Austria will not be omitted as well. The time frame of the presented dissertation, i.e. years 1931 and 1934, has been chosen with respect to the important events which exceeded the Austrian boarders because of their significance and impact on the contemporary international politics. The first milestone is connected with publication of the plan of the German-Austrian customs union. Assassination of the Austrian Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss represents the second milestone. There occurs the deficit of the detailed analysis of the Austrian foreign policy, especially in the relationship towards Germany and Italy, in the existing historiography so far. It is particularly the absence of comparison of unpublished documents, Austrian, German and Czechoslovak, with related published sources, contemporary memoirs and press articles as well as scholarly literature. The presented dissertation, which is the result of the four-year...

In the nineteenth century and the first half of the twentieth century, political and economic power was concentrated in just a few countries. Having eclipsed the most mighty early modern empires—those of Spain and Portugal, the Ottoman Empire, The Netherlands, and the Scandinavian countries— Britain, France, the Russian, and the Austro-Hungarian Empires became the major European powers. Later, these were joined by the newly formed countries of Germany and Italy, together with the United States of America and Japan. In these countries elites drew their might not only from the industrial revolution but also from the economic exploitation of their ever-increasing colonies. Colonialism, a policy by which a state claims sovereignty over territory and people outside its own boundaries, often to facilitate economic domination over their resources, labour, and markets, was not new. In fact, colonialism was an old phenomenon, in existence for several millennia (Gosden 2004). However, in the nineteenth century capitalism changed the character of colonialism in its search for new markets and cheap labour, and the imperial expansion of the European powers prompted the control and subjugation of increasingly large areas of the world. From 1815 to 1914 the overseas territories held by the European powers expanded from 35 per cent to about 85 per cent of the earth’s surface (Said 1978: 41; 1993: 6). To this enlarged region areas of informal imperialism (see Part II of this book) could be added. However, colonialism and informal colonialism were not only about economic exploitation. The appropriation of the ‘Other’ in the colonies went much further, and included the imposition of an ideological and cultural hegemony throughout each of the empires. The zenith of this process of colonization was reached between the 1860s and the First World War, in the context of an increasingly exultant nationalism. In a process referred to as ‘New Imperialism’, European colonies were established in all the other four continents, mainly in areas not inhabited by populations with political forms cognate to the Western powers. In the case of Africa, its partition would be formally decided at an international meeting—the Berlin Conference of 1884–5.

Mexico and the United States share a long history of political, military, social, immigration, cultural and economic relations. Mexico has been among the three main trading partners of the US in recent decades, while the US has been the top trading partner of Mexico since statistics have been available. This chapter examines the “new triangular relationship” between the US, Mexico, and China, particularly from a Mexican perspective. With the global reemergence of China since the last decade of the 20th century, the relationship between Mexico and the US has substantially shifted in a variety of ways. The analysis first focuses on the general socioeconomic triangular relationship of Mexico with the US and China, based on a literature review; issues involving Chinese trade and foreign direct investment (FDI), are highlighted, as well as the overall relationship of Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) with China. The next section discusses topics concerning this triangular relationship that are currently being analyzed in Mexico, particularly regarding China. The final part of the analysis concentrates on the main characteristics of this “new triangular relationship,” policy questions, and future research issues.