Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Regionalism – Germany'

The aim of this thesis is to explore how the Oktoberfest impacts on regional identity in Bavaria, with particular focus on its capital, Munich. Over the last decade, a conscious revival of Bavarian traditions at the event has become noticeable. This thesis investigates why there has been a revival of Bavarian characteristics at the Oktoberfest and seeks also to explain why this revival is occurring at this particular point in time. My investigation of the revival of regional Bavarian identity was conducted with a qualitative approach and placed in the wider context of Germany and Europe. Using theories around 'imagined communities' (Anderson, 1991), 'communities' boundaries' (Cohen, 1985) and 'invented traditions' (Hobsbawm, 1983), I show that, alongside the historical and political background of Bavaria, wider trends and developments in the course of Europeanisation and globalisation have played a significant role in the increasing interest in and emphasis on Bavarian identity in Munich. The research showed that the Oktoberfest offers the most prominent occasion for the Munich locals to display Bavarian traditions. Moreover, it serves as a 'celebratory stage' for the locals to reassert their identity, which is stressed as being distinct from the German nation. Also, the celebration of Bavarian tradition can be interpreted as people's 'return' to their regional roots in their search for stability in a rapidly globalising world.

This thesis demonstrates how two literary works ? Arnold Stadler's Ein hinreissender Schrotthändler (1999) and Andreas Maier's Klausen (2002) ? can be read as part of the globalization discourse. As a theoretical basis for the textual analysis the thesis first develops an understanding of the concept of globalization which forms a background against which the two literary works can be read. By embedding literature into the sociological theories of globalization it is possible to examine to what extent the two novels reflect and/or generate particular aspects of globalization.

Both texts are set largely in provincial towns, and the regions themselves play commanding roles in the stories being told. This focus on the provincial takes on an ironic appearance in the era of globalization where one would assume that localities have lost meaning. It is therefore useful to look at theories that broach the issue of the tense relation between globality and locality. Since no universally accepted definition of globalization exists, it is necessary to establish the crucial aspects of the phenomenon to be applied in the analysis of the novels by examining the work of various theorists on the topic.

The prominent model of 'glocalization,' originated by the sociologist Roland Robertson to refer to 'global localization,' offers useful categories for the analysis of the provincial in the era of globalization. In this model the simultaneity of global and local processes is assumed and with it the alleged antagonism of the 'global' and the 'local' is overcome. Claiming those dynamics Robertson's model can serve as a confirmation of the arguments put forward in this thesis which looks at literature about the 'local' through the prism of globalization. Other theories relating to explicit local dynamics are presented to round out the model of 'glocalization. ' In addition, the thesis takes into account normative ideas regarding the province in the global era.

The textual analysis that follows the delineation of the model of 'glocalization' demonstrates how the novels illustrate the global and local processes postulated by the model. The investigation also explains how the literary texts themselves evaluate the provinces portrayed. The results of the examination show that selected aspects of the globalization discourse have found their way into two contemporary German-language novels and therefore into German literary discourse. Even though the two novels deal with different ideas from the discourse, and even reject to a certain extent some of these concepts, they each reveal a particular literary manner of echoing the processes of globalization. Finally, the thesis demonstrates that the globalization discourse is of use for the interpretation of literary texts.

This thesis demonstrates how two literary works ? Arnold Stadler's Ein hinreissender Schrotth??ndler (1999) and Andreas Maier's Klausen (2002) ? can be read as part of the globalization discourse. As a theoretical basis for the textual analysis the thesis first develops an understanding of the concept of globalization which forms a background against which the two literary works can be read. By embedding literature into the sociological theories of globalization it is possible to examine to what extent the two novels reflect and/or generate particular aspects of globalization.

Both texts are set largely in provincial towns, and the regions themselves play commanding roles in the stories being told. This focus on the provincial takes on an ironic appearance in the era of globalization where one would assume that localities have lost meaning. It is therefore useful to look at theories that broach the issue of the tense relation between globality and locality. Since no universally accepted definition of globalization exists, it is necessary to establish the crucial aspects of the phenomenon to be applied in the analysis of the novels by examining the work of various theorists on the topic.

The prominent model of 'glocalization,' originated by the sociologist Roland Robertson to refer to 'global localization,' offers useful categories for the analysis of the provincial in the era of globalization. In this model the simultaneity of global and local processes is assumed and with it the alleged antagonism of the 'global' and the 'local' is overcome. Claiming those dynamics Robertson's model can serve as a confirmation of the arguments put forward in this thesis which looks at literature about the 'local' through the prism of globalization. Other theories relating to explicit local dynamics are presented to round out the model of 'glocalization. ' In addition, the thesis takes into account normative ideas regarding the province in the global era.

The textual analysis that follows the delineation of the model of 'glocalization' demonstrates how the novels illustrate the global and local processes postulated by the model. The investigation also explains how the literary texts themselves evaluate the provinces portrayed. The results of the examination show that selected aspects of the globalization discourse have found their way into two contemporary German-language novels and therefore into German literary discourse. Even though the two novels deal with different ideas from the discourse, and even reject to a certain extent some of these concepts, they each reveal a particular literary manner of echoing the processes of globalization. Finally, the thesis demonstrates that the globalization discourse is of use for the interpretation of literary texts.

This thesis examines the ideological nexus of nationalism and heritage under the social conditions of neoliberalism. The investigation aims to demonstrate how neoliberal economics stimulate the irrationalism manifest in nationalist idealisation of the past. The institutionalisation of national heritage was originally a rational function of the modern state, symbolic of its political and cultural authority. With neoliberal erosion of the productive economy and public institutions, heritage and nostalgia proliferate today in all areas of social life. It is argued that this represents a social pathology linked to the neoliberal state's inability to construct a future-orientated national project. These conditions enhance the appeal of irrational nationalist and regionalist ideologies idealising the past as a source of cultural purity. Unable to achieve social cohesion, the neoliberal state promotes multiculturalism, encouraging minorities to embrace essentialist identity politics that parallel the nativism of right-wing nationalists and regionalists. This phenomenon is contextualised within the general crisis of progressive modernisation in Western societies that has accompanied neoliberalisation and globalisation. A new theory of activist heritage is advanced to describe autonomous, politicised heritage that appropriates forms and practices from the state heritage sector. Using this concept, the politics of irrational nationalism and regionalism are explored through fieldwork, including participant observation, interviews and photography. The interaction of state and activist heritage is considered at the Wewelsburg 1933-1945 Memorial Museum in Germany wherein neofascists have re-signified Nazi material culture, reactivating it within contemporary political narratives. The activist heritage of Israeli Zionism, Irish Republicanism and Ulster Loyalism is analysed through studies of museums, heritage centres, archaeological sites, exhibitions, monuments and historical re-enactments. These illustrate how activist heritage represents a political strategy within irrational ideologies that interpret the past as the ethical model for the future. This work contends that irrational nationalism fundamentally challenges the Enlightenment's assertion of reason over faith, and culture over nature, by superimposing pre-modern ideas upon the structure of modernity. An ideological product of the Enlightenment, the nation state remains the only political unit within which a rational command of time and space is possible, and thus the only viable basis for progressive modernity.

Fondé à Munich en octobre 1946 suite à la réorganisation d’un proto-parti mariant rejet de l’unitarisme autoritaire et provincialisme anti-prussien, le Bayernpartei (BP) se fit après la guerre le courtier des revendications autonomistes bavaroises et le médiateur de l’hostilité populaire à l’égard des réfugiés allemands originaires d’Europe centrale et orientale. Couronné de succès lors des élections fédérales post-dictatoriales de 1949 – à l’occasion desquelles il recueillit 20,9% des voix en Bavière –, il présente la particularité d’avoir subi pendant vingt ans un déclin électoral régulier, et d’avoir totalement cessé d’être « relevant » au sens de Sartori au moment même où l’on assistait à l’échelle européenne, et même occidentale, à un nouvel essor des partis et formations régionalistes procédant du clivage centre/périphérie.Quels sont les déterminants causaux du progressif déclin du Bayernpartei ? Quels facteurs explicatifs apparaissent susceptibles de rendre compte de sa graduelle transformation en ce que Manfred Rowold estime être une simple association folklorique sans importance ? Tel est le questionnement sous-tendant le présent travail de thèse, et auquel l’auteur propose de répondre en se dégageant du rétrospectivisme monocausal, linéariste et exogénéisant dont firent preuve les (rares) politistes ayant tenté de rendre compte de l’étiolement politique passé du parti régionaliste bavarois
Founded in Munich in October 1946 after the reorganisation of a proto-party combining rejection of authoritarian unitarism and anti-Prussian provincialism, the Bavaria Party (Bayernpartei) appeared after the Second World War as the spreader of the Bavarian claims for autonomy, and as the echo box of popular hostility against German refugees from Central and Eastern Europe. After having been crowned with success at the German federal election of 1949 – on which it collected 20,9% of the votes in Bavaria –, he was affected during two decades by a steady electoral decline, so much so that it completely ceased to be “relevant” in the sense of Sartori at the very time when political scientists were witnessing at European (and even Western) level a new upsurge of regionalist parties and organisations.What are the causal determinants of the progressive decline of the Bavaria Party? What explanatory factors can be advanced to account for its gradual transformation into what Manfred Rowold considers to be a simple and irrelevant folk association? This is the question underlying the present work and to which the author proposes to respond by working on the assumption that it is necessary to break with the monocausal, linearist and exogenousing retrospectivism characterizing the analyses of the (rare) political scientists who have already attempted to explain the withering away of the Bavarian regionalist party

The main objective of this thesis is to evaluate the circumstances and transition of the socio-economic system of the Russian Federation. It is also focused on the regional economy of Sverdlovsk region as a socio-economic subsystem. Uralmash plant is presented here as an example of an economic player in a process of transition. The thesis is based on several specific theories: socio-economic system and its transition, evolution of the economic systems by J. Schumpeter, social choice between chaos and dictatorship based on the new comparative economics, regionalist theory and corporate finance. It is chosen comparative-historical and empirical-statistical methodology. The main finding of the thesis is the inability of the socio-economic system of the USSR to continue in development as a result of dictatorship. However, the new Russian economy fell into a structural shift. The contribution of the thesis is a comprehensive view on transition process in Russia both at national and at regional and local level. Both theoretical and practical sites of transition are reflected. Not only macroeconomic but also microeconomic point of view is taken into account.

In der vorliegenden Arbeit wird die Bedeutung der Landschafts- und Marinemalerei für die nationale Einheit und bürgerliche Identifikation im Kaiserreich und in der Weimarer Republik beispielhaft am Werk des Berliner Secessionskünstlers Ulrich Hübner (1872-1932) untersucht. Zu Beginn wird die Rolle der Landschaft für die Konstitution von Staatswesen und nationaler Identität allgemein erläutert, um deutlich zu machen, vor welchem Hintergrund die Landschaftsmalerei Ulrich Hübners einen Beitrag zur bürgerlich-nationalen Identitätsfindung im (neugegründeten) Nationalstaat leisten konnte. Im Hauptteil werden dazu anhand Hübners biographischer Stationen unterschiedliche Gesichtspunkte, wie die pluralistischen Einflüsse auf Hübners Landschaftsmalerei, seine Rolle in der Berliner Secession, seine Positionierung auf dem Kunstmarkt, seine Rezeption durch die Kunstkritik und seine Funktion an der Akademie der Künste, untersucht. Hübners Konzentration auf Küstendarstellungen, Seestücke und Stadtansichten führte in Abgrenzung zur Marinemalerei zu dem neuen Typus der Stadt- und Wasserlandschaft, zwischen klassischer Veduten- und Landschaftsmalerei und impressionistischen Stimmungsbildern. Auf Grundlage des erstellten Werkverzeichnisses wird durch die Betrachtung Hübners Werks im Gesamtzusammenhang des Berliner Kunstgeschehens unter dem Aspekt des wirtschaftlichen und gesellschaftlichen Erfolges und der Entwicklung des privatwirtschaftlichen Kunstmarktes deutlich, wie ein Künstler in diesem System agierte. Hübners Erfolg mit dem neuen Typus der Stadtlandschaft und der Konzentration auf bestimmte Vertriebswege und erfolgreiche Motive steht exemplarisch für den deutschen Impressionismus in Zeiten des Stilpluralismus. Als Vertreter einer moderaten Moderne wurden seine Gemälde heimatlicher Landschaften Identifikationsbilder des aufgeschlossenen Bürgertums und somit eine Versicherung von Kontinuität in den politisch bewegten Zeiten vom Kaiserreich bis zum Ende der Weimarer Republik.
This doctoral thesis examines the significance of landscape and maritime painting for the national unity and civil identification in Imperial Germany and the Weimar Republic through the case study of the oeuvre of the Berlin Secession artist Ulrich Hübner (1872-1932). In the first instance, we will outline the effect that landscape painting in general had on the constitution of the political system and national identity in order to assess the extent of which Hübner’s landscape painting contributed towards the shaping of a civil-national identity in the newly founded nation state. To this effect we will then study key events in his biography, focusing on the following aspects: the pluralist influences that shape Hübner’s landscape painting, his role in the Berlin Secession, his place in the art market, art criticism’s response to his work and his position at the Berlin Academy of Arts. Hübner’s focus on coastal views, sea- and cityscapes, as opposed to maritime painting, lead to the new type of Urban Landscape and Waterscape which is situated between classical Veduta and landscape painting on one hand and impressionist “Stimmungsbilder” on the other. The catalogue raisonné will form the basis on which we examine his oeuvre in the context of the greater Berlin art scene with particular emphasis on his commercial and social success on one hand as well as seen within the more specific framework which is the development of the commercial art market on the other. The success Hübner had with his new type of Urban Landscape and his focus on specific commercial channels and successful subject matters is exemplary for the German Impressionism in times of stylistic pluralism. Representing a moderate Modernism, his paintings of “Heimat”-landscapes became symbols that the liberal bourgeoisie could identify with and thereby a guarantee of continuity during the politically agitated times from the beginning of the German Empire to the end of the Weimar Republic.

Defence date: 15 April 1993
Examining board: Prof. Roger Morgan (Supervisor, Europäisches Hochschulinstitut) ; Prof. Jean Blondel (Co-supervisor, Europäisches Hochschulinstitut) ; Prof. Rudolf Hrbek (Universität Tübingen; Europa-Kolleg Brügge) ; Prof. Anton Pelinka (External supervisor, Universität Innsbruck)
First made available online: 3 June 2016

Thema des ersten Potsdamer Textbuches sind Regionen als Subjekte der internationalen Politik, speziell innerhalb der EU. Die Bandbreite reicht von den österreichischen Bundesländern über Schottland und Katalonien bis zu den belgischen communautés. Der "Europäisierung" der deutschen Länder wird besonderes Augenmerk geschenkt. Namhafte Autorinnen und Autoren des In- und Auslandes beteiligen sich an der Diskussion. Theoretische Überlegungen zur Erklärung des Phänomens der transföderalen Beziehungen werden durch anschauliche und detaillierte Fallstudien ergänzt.

There was considerable focus on local culture and heritage in the last quarter of the 19th century in the regions with a predominantly German Bohemians population. Regional identity was shaped to a significant extent by publications on local culture and heritage ("Heimatkunde"), often designed for teaching in schools. With the German-speaking population spread out around the periphery of Bohemia, Moravia and Czech Silesia, there was no obvious centre for formation of German Bohemians identity and for a long time there was no uniform character to that identity. It was then manifested most strongly in the various regions. This dissertation is based on analysis and comparison of Heimatkunde publications. I have defined categories for examination of Heimatkunde: landscape (geography), heritage (history), progress (modernity) and people (ethnography), which correspond to the original breakdown of Heimatkunde and are also considered relevant by authors looking at the development of national movements. Definition of group identity is dominated by nationalism, especially as regards the second half of the 19th century and the first third of the 20th century. The focus of this dissertation is comparison of Heimatkunde publications from three neighbouring areas in the Upper Neisse region, differing primarily...

Hugo Loetscher (1929-2009) a joué un rôle important dans la littérature suisse alémanique du 20e siècle. On lui accole souvent l’étiquette de « cosmopolite suisse », tant il a réussi le pari de s’intéresser au vaste monde sans jamais renier son milieu et son pays d’origine. L’essai dont il est question ici, äs tischört und plutschins. Über das Unreine in der Sprache, eine helvetische Situierung, adopte une perspective suisse pour proposer une réflexion sur le lien entre langue, littérature et nation, sur la place des langues minoritaires dans le monde globalisé et sur l’idéal – critiquable selon Loetscher – de « pureté » linguistique. Ce mémoire, en plus de présenter une traduction de l’essai de Loetscher, qui était jusqu’à ce jour inédit en français, réfléchit à l’actualité de ce texte dans le contexte québécois et au processus de traduction d’un auteur suisse germanophone pour un public francophone diversifié, en s’appuyant sur les théories de la stylistique comparée d’Alfred Malblanc et du skopos de Katharina Reiß et Hans J. Vermeer. Notre étude se penche d’une part sur le rôle d’éléments péritextuels comme les notes de bas de page qui, dans le processus d’adaptation, permettent au translatum, c’est-à-dire au résultat de l’acte de traduction, au texte cible, de respecter son objectif de départ, son skopos. D’autre part, l’analyse aborde la question d’une possible utilisation de régionalismes (québécois ou suisses) dans un translatum en français standard dont le texte source porte lui-même sur la diversité linguistique et les variantes régionales et dialectales.
Hugo Loetscher (1929-2009) has played an important role in Swiss-German literature of the 20th century. He is often described as a “Swiss cosmopolitan” because of the way he managed to stay interested in what was happening in the whole wide world without ever disowning his social background and his country of origin. This thesis examines an essay, äs tischört und plutschins. Über das Unreine in der Sprache, eine helvetische Situierung, which adopts a Swiss perspective to deal with the relationship between language, literature and nation – the place of minority languages in the globalized world and on the ideal of linguistic “purity” deemed questionable by Loetscher Besides proposing a translation of Loetscher’s essay still unpublished in French, this thesis explores the pertinence of the aforementioned text in the current context in Québec and the translation process of a Swiss German author’s text for a diverse francophone public based on the theories of Alfred Malblanc (comparative stylistics), Katharina Reiß and Hans J. Vermeer (skopos theory). The study addresses on the one hand the role of peritextual elements, such as footnotes, for the adaptation process, allowing the translatum, the target text as a result of the translation act, to meet its initial goal; its skopos. On the other hand, the study reflects on the use of (québécois or Swiss) regionalisms in a translatum that is in standard French, how they relate to the source text’s focus on linguistic diversity, and regional and dialectal variations.
Hugo Loetscher (1929-2009) spielte eine wichtige Rolle in der deutschschweizerischen Literatur des 20. Jh. Oft wird er als „kosmopolitischer Schweizer“ beschrieben, da es ihm so gut gelungen ist, sich für die weite Welt zu interessieren, ohne seine Heimat zu verleugnen. Das in dieser Arbeit behandelte Essay – äs tischört und plutschins. Über das Unreine in der Sprache, eine helvetische Situierung – bietet eine schweizerische Perspektive auf die Beziehung zwischen Sprache, Literatur und Nation, die Stellung von Minderheitensprachen in der globalisierten Welt und das von Loetscher kritisierte Ideal einer „reinen“ Sprache an. Nach einer Übersetzung des im Französischen bisher unveröffentlichten Essays fokussiert diese Arbeit die Relevanz dieses Werkes im quebecischen Kontext und, anhand der Stylistique comparée von Alfred Malblanc und der Skopos-Theorie von Katharina Reiß und Hans J. Vermeer, den Übersetzungsprozess eines Deutschschweizer Autoren für ein vielfältiges französischsprachiges Publikum. Einerseits wird die Rolle peritextueller Elemente, u.a. Fußnoten, im Übersetzungsprozess analysiert, welche die Erfüllung des skopos – der Zweck – vom translatum – der Zieltext – ermöglichen. Andererseits wird eine mögliche Verwendung von (quebecischen oder helvetischen) Regionalismen in einem Standardfranzösischen Translat in Bezug auf sprachliche Vielfalt und regionale und dialektale Variationen behandelt.