Thèses sur le sujet « Mythology of Germany »

In this thesis, I examine the relationship between folklore and nationalism in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Germany. More specifically, I focus on how the Nazis used folklore and the work of folklorists in their propaganda. The first chapter documents the development of nationalism and the creation of the discipline of folklore based on the theories of Johann Gottfried Herder (1744-1803) and Wilhelm Riehl (1823-1897). Herder wanted the Germans to rediscover their national heritage through folklore materials, and Riehl argued that folklore and folklorists should serve the Fatherland. In the 1930s, the Nazi Party used the discipline of folklore as a tool for their cultural policies and ideological education because the discipline had such close associations with nationalism and anti-Semitism. In Chapter Two, I trace the development of the National Socialist ideology from the conservative revolution and the Volkisch movements of the nineteenth century. National Socialism was akin to a religion and in Chapter Three, I document the careers of two of its "priests": Alfred Rosenberg, the philosopher of the NSDAP, and Heinrich Himmler, head of the SS. Both men created folklore organizations and employed folklorists to support the Nazi ideology. In Chapter Four, I analyze the festival theory of two folklorists employed by Rosenberg and then examine the Nazi festival calendar, which was based on both traditional holidays and the new celebrations of the Nazi Party. The annual Reichsparteitag (Reich Party Day), held in 1923, 1926, 1927, 1929, and then from 1933 to 1938, was the most important holiday on the Nazi calendar and I analyze it as a folk festival in Chapter Five, using the theories of Victor Turner, Alessandro Falassi, and Barbara Myerhoff. In addition, I use the theories of John Dorst concerning ethnography in a postmodern society and performance folkloristics to analyze the verbal art and performances at the rallies. Finally, I conclude with an overview of how German Volkskunde has changed after the Nazi era and discuss how the issue of folklore and ideology in Germany relates to the American discipline of folklore with a brief look at American festivals like the White Top Music Festival in Virginia (1931-1939) and the current Festival of American Folklife in Washington D.C. Three themes inform this analysis: 1.) Both folklore studies and National Socialism have a common background in the issues of the nineteenth century: nationalism, irrationalism, and the notion that Germany was a nation with a special destiny; 2.) The Nazi Party was unique in comparison with other political organizations because it made such conscious use of folklore materials. The Nazis' active use of folklore in all of its forms attracted ordinary Germans who had suffered great losses in the First World War, felt threatened by the radical modernity of the Weimar Republic, suffered through the Depression, and wanted to feel good about their nation again; and 3.) By examining specific issues like folklore and festivals, we can gain a deeper understanding of why Germans accepted Adolf Hitler and National Socialism.

This thesis examines the emergence, and then development, of what I call 'monetary mythology', a historical narrative, or version of history, concerning the inter-war period of Germany. Following the Second World War, it was left to West German elites to establish a new federal central bank, the Deutsche Bundesbank. A three-way power struggle emerged between the existing West German central bank - the Bank deutscher Länder - the federal government and the various state governments, all vying to influence the institutions and structure of this new monetary authority. In justifying their arguments, West German elites used various lessons derived from the turbulent experiences of the inter-war era. Monetary mythology, for its part, emphasised the lessons of Germany's two inflations; and the Bank deutscher Länder, and its allies, explicitly tied these lessons to the need for an independent central bank. And though it was once challenged by other competing historical narratives in the period 1949-51, monetary mythology emerged by 1956 triumphant in the public sphere in terms of framing the parameters through which West Germans viewed their monetary history. The doctoral project at hand approaches economic history from a cultural angle. In doing so, it offers an alternative history of the Bundesbank, as well as an alternative explanation for the cultural preoccupation surrounding inflation in West Germany. The thesis explains this cultural preoccupation in institutional terms. In providing for a central bank that was independent of political instruction, the Bundesbank Law of 1957 allowed for conflicts between the federal government and central bank to emerge. These conflicts often became 'dramatised' in the public sphere, creating controversies surrounding the Bundesbank's independence, and, in turn, giving rise to circumstances in which the lessons of the two inflations continued to remain relevant, geared in support of central bank independence.

Anselm Kiefer was born in Germany, 1945—the year of Adolf Hitler’s suicide, and subsequently, the end of World War II. His own beginnings were shrouded by a national “repression” of history. This repression was at odds with Kiefer’s needs to establish his own origin. For this reason, the spirituality in his earlier work is often overshadowed by its subject—Nazi Germany. This thesis will look back on Kiefer’s work through the lens of mythology in an effort to re-evaluate his earlier art within the context of his works since 1990. From the 1970s to the present, Kiefer has drawn from mythology to find links between personal and universal human experience. We begin by examining Kiefer’s controversial Attic Paintings of 1973. In the Attic Paintings, German and Christian mythology helped Kiefer understand his origin as a post-war German artist. Kiefer then turned his attention to myths from outside cultures throughout the 1980s. We will look closely at three paintings from the 1980s that incorporate Greek, Judaic, and Egyptian mythology in an effort to understand Kiefer’s larger goals in broadening his mythological base. Following this discussion, we will examine two paintings from the 1990s and his 2007 permanent installation at the Louvre Museum. These selected works serve to illustrate how Kiefer presented his own cultivated, personal mythology under the stars in his still ongoing cosmic series. The 1990s mark Kiefer’s broadest expansion yet; in a sense, he went from “the attic to the universe” over the course of three decades.

Richard Wagner, in writing the text which would become the libretto of his four operas comprising the Ring was influenced greatly by German Mythology as well as old Norse writings. His main sources are the Volsungensaga, the Thidreksaga and the Nibelungenlied. Certain portions of the Ring follow closely the events described in some of the sagas, other portions have been changed and elaborated to achieve theatrical effect. I have endeavoured to explain the differences between the sources and the finished masterpiece. Whether his version of the tales was to ensure good theatre or whether he felt that he was improving on the originals is a moot point. The similarities are sufficient to prove that he had totally immersed himself in the literature available and no doubt felt himself to be a worthy protagonist of this culture. There is no doubt that his music is a masterpiece which may be enjoyed with or without any depth of knowledge of its origins.

This thesis argues that the corpus of Old Norse-Icelandic literature which pertains to Iceland contains an intertextual narrative of the formation of Icelandic identity. An analysis of this narrative provides an opportunity to examine the relationship between literature and identity, as well as the potency of the artistic use of the idea of the past. The thesis identifies three salient narratives of communal action which inform the development of a discrete Icelandic identity, and which are examined in turn in the first three chapters of the thesis. The first is the landnám, the process of settlement itself; the second, the origin and evolution of the law; and the third, the assimilation and adaptation of Christianity. Although the roots of these narratives are doubtless historical, the thesis argues that their primary roles in the literature are as social myths, narratives whose literal truth- value is immaterial, but whose cultural symbolism is of overriding importance. The fourth chapter examines the depiction of the Icelander abroad, and uses the idiom of the relationship between þáttr (‘tale’) and surrounding text in the compilation of sagas of Norwegian kings Morkinskinna to consider the wider implications of the relationship between Icelandic and Norwegian identities. Finally, the thesis concludes with an analysis of the role of Sturlunga saga within this intertextual narrative, and its function as a set of narratives mediating between an identity grounded in social autonomy and one grounded in literature. The Íslendingasögur or ‘family sagas’ constitute the core of the thesis’s primary sources, for their subject-matter is focussed on the literary depiction of the Icelandic society under scrutiny. In order to demonstrate a continuity of engagement with ideas of identity across genres, a sample of other Icelandic texts are examined which depict Iceland or Icelanders, especially when in interaction with non-Icelandic characters or polities.

Eine der wichtigsten Aufgaben der Kunst ist es, unser kulturelles Gedächtnis zu aktivieren, zu errinnern was ist vergessen oder absichtlich in die Vergessenheit gezwungen wurde, selbst wenn das alte Wunde bluten lasst und traumatisch erscheint. Jedes Mal ist das Element der Kritik die ausschlaggebende Komponente der künstlerischen Arbeit, sie charakterisiert nicht nur den Künstler, und die Zeit in der er/sie lebt, sondern auch den Zuschauer, genauer: wie weit ist der Künstler bereit zu gehen und wie weit sind die Zuschauer bereit ihm zu folgen, im Rückblick manchmal mehr ersteres als letzteres. In meiner Arbeit analysiere ich die Aspekte von Mythologie, Geschichte und deren sozio-politische Relevanz in den Arbeiten von Anselm Kiefer, der Künstler der mit seinen Werken unsere Wahrnehmung der Geschichte, vor allem der deutschen Geschichte, beeinflust und in Frage gestellt hat.
It is one of the major tasks of art to revive our cultural memory and to sharpen our senses, to remind whatever has been forgotten or is being purposefully given to oblivion and to predict whatever the future might have in store even if it causes old wounds bleed anew. Each time the element of critique, being one of the crucial components of artistic work, characterises not only the artist, the time he/she lives in, but also the spectator: precisely, how far the artist is prepared to go and how much the spectator is prepared to accept, in retrospect more the latter than the former. My work analyses the problems of mythology, history and their socio-political relevance on the examples of works by Anselm Kiefer, the artist whose work is irrevocably related to history, German history in the first place, the artistic means of remembrance as well as the role of mythology in our collective memory.

Le but de notre étude était d'identifier des structures « analogues au mythe » dans des textes en prose du préromantisme allemand. La théorie sur laquelle nous nous appuyons est la théorie du « mythe formel » selon Clemens Lugowski. Notre hypothèse était qu'il y avait très souvent, dans les romans et contes du préromantisme allemand, des structures et qualités « mythiques » (au sens de mythe formel) qui sont liées de façon équivoque à des structures narratives modernes. Ces structures mythiques et prémodernes se manifestent particulièrement dans la motivation de l'action et dans l‘accumulation des motifs fatidiques et généalogiques. Notre étude a été réalisée en trois étapes. Dans un premier temps, nous avons analysé, discuté et adapté les théories de la motivation narrative et du mythe formel. Puis, nous avons élargi le sujet d’un point de vue de l’histoire culturelle, en expliquant le rôle du mythe, de la mythologie et du concept romantique de la « nouvelle mythologie » ainsi que l’idée de généalogie à la fin du 18ème siècle en Allemagne. Nous avons conclu la partie historico-culturelle par un chapitre sur la situation des éditions, des auteurs et de la littérature populaire vers 1800. Ensuite, nous avons concentré les analyses des textes sur des structures mythiques qui apparaissaient dans les motifs, dans la forme et dans les péritextes des contes et romans du préromantisme allemand. Notre corpus de textes se composa de romans et contes de Ludwig Tieck, Friedrich Schiller, Johann Wolfgang Goethe, Clemens Brentano, Dorothea Veit et Novalis
The aim of our study was to identify "myth-like" structures in prose texts of German early Romanticism. The theory on which we rely is the theory of the "formal myth" according to Clemens Lugowski. Our hypothesis was that in the novels and tales of German early Romanticism there were very often "mythical" structures and qualities (in the sense of a formal myth) that are linked equivocally to modern narrative structures. These mythical and premodern structures are particularly evident in the motivation of action and in the accumulation of fateful and genealogical motives. Our study was carried out in three steps. In a first step, we analyzed, discussed and adapted the theories of narrative motivation and formal myth. Then we broadened the subject from a historico-cultural perspective, explaining the contemporary role of myth, mythology and the romantic concept of the "new mythology" as well as the idea of genealogy at the end of the 18th century in Germany. We concluded the historico-cultural part with a chapter about the situation of editions, authors and popular literature around 1800. We then concentrated the analyzes of the texts on mythical structures that appeared in the motifs, in the form and in the peritexts of the tales and novels of German early Romanticism. Our corpus of texts consisted of tales and novels by Ludwig Tieck, Friedrich Schiller, Johann Wolfgang Goethe, Clemens Brentano, Dorothea Veit and Novalis

The 10th century is very important for the vision of the past of Germany. For a long time German historians assumed that in that time, or to be specifi c, in the year of Henry the Fowler‘s coronation in 919, the German kingdom was created. This thesis is about Liudprand of Cremona’s Antapodosis, one of the most important chronicles of that age, and the way it presented history of the Saxon dynasty, known also as either the Ottonians, or the Ludolfi ngians. This is explained and presented by showing stories from the chronicle and comparing them with other sources of that time. Among them, Widukind of Corvey’s Res Gestae Saxoniae and continuation of Regino of Prüm’s chronicle have to be noted. This comparative study is not only limited to texts written by the authors close to the Ottonian court, as the similarities to the works from diff erent kingdoms and diff erent times of the Middle Ages are also discussed. These are as diff erent as the lives of saints from the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, or panegyrics of the rulers of the Kingdom of Italy. By the comparative approach with the use of mentioned sources, it is explained, how Liudprand wrote his text and how it should be interpreted. This is compared with how Frutolf of Michelsberg, a very important chronicler living at the cross of 11th and 12th century, read Liudprand’s and Widukind’s texts. He used them to create his own vision of the Saxon dynasty’s reign. Finally, in the thesis it is shown how, since the Unifi cation in the 19th century till today, German historians present the happenings described by Liudprand of Cremona in their works. By this comparison, it is possible to show what really was written in the 10th century sources, how much they were important for later Middle Ages and how historians approach them while writing their own narrations about the past. Wiek X jest bardzo ważny dla wyobrażenia o przeszłości Niemiec. Przez dłuższy czas to właśnie w tym okresie historycy niemieccy umieszczali i umieszczają początek państwa niemieckiego. Wskazując konkretnie na 919 rok, czyli rok koronacji Henryka I Ptasznika na króla. Poniższa rozprawa poświęcona jest sposobowi, w jaki jedna z najważniejszych kronik tego wieku – Antapodosis Liudpranda z Cremony - prezentuje historię dynastii Saskiej, zwanej także Ottonami, czy też Liudolfingami. Osiągnięte jest to poprzez pokazanie poszczególnych opowieści, zawartych w kronice i porównanie z innymi źródłami z epoki. Wśród nich należy wymienić Res Gestae Saxoniae Widukinda z Korbei, jak i kontynuację kroniki Reginona z Prüm. Komparatystyka nie ogranicza się jednak tylko do tekstów autorów związanych z dworem Ottonów, a sięga dalej. Wskazywane są podobieństwa do utworów pochodzących z innych królestw, czy innych okresów w historii średniowiecza. Chodzi tu tak o żywoty świętych z królestw Anglosaskich, jaki i panegiryki na cześć władców królestwa Italii. Dzięki metodzie komparatystycznej, z wykorzystaniem wspomnianych źródeł, pokazany jest sposób, w jaki Liudprand konstruował swój tekst, oraz jak należy go rozumieć. Następnie owe ustalenia są porównane z tym, jak Frutolf z Michelsberga, bardzo ważny kronikarz przełomu XI i XII wieku, odczytywał dzieła Liudpranda i Widukinda, które stanowiły podstawę jego interpretacji panowania dynastii Saskiej. Na końcu zaś omówione jest, jak te same wydarzenia są opisywane przez historyków niemieckich od czasu zjednoczenia w XIX wieku, aż po dzień dzisiejszy. Poprzez zderzenie tych trzech poziomów badań można z jeden strony pokazać, co w rzeczywistości mówią nam źródła X wieczne, dlaczego były one ważne w późniejszym średniowieczu, jak i w jaki sposób historycy do nich podchodzą tworząc swoje wielkie narracje o przeszłości.

Research Doctorate - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Braun is one of the world’s most respected and successful consumer product manufacturers. Its design philosophy – developed through its engagement with the Hochschule für Gestaltung Ulm (Ulm School of Design) and renowned industrial designer Dieter Rams – has been linked to the foundations of Modernism, Functionalism and the gute form (good design) movement. As such, many scholars have endeavoured to define Braun’s fundamental essence in terms of its design process, or its aesthetic outcomes. Braun’s design ethos has also been repeatedly linked to social, cultural and economic impacts. In particular, Braun is often credited as being responsible for the revival of German financial and cultural prosperity in the aftermath of the Second World War. Yet, despite such claims, there are many facets of Braun’s alleged role in shaping West German consumer culture that remain overlooked. In particular, the role of Braun’s product advertising has only rarely been noted in the past, and yet it was central to its communication strategies and is possibly the most direct example of its engagement with the cultural and aesthetic values in society. This dissertation seeks to address this gap in our knowledge through an analysis of the way Braun used its print marketing materials (as an expression of its design ethos) to reinforce the dominant political agenda of West Germany in the post-war era. In order to develop new knowledge about Braun’s advertising campaigns and its political or ideological agendas, this dissertation adopts a methodological frame from semiology. The method draws on both Ferdinand de Saussure’s dyadic semiological model and philosopher Roland Barthes’ theories and approaches in Mythologies to identify the overt messages, the subtle communications and the hidden cultural myths in Braun’s advertising. Using archival material, this dissertation examines three advertisements from 1954, 1958 and 1962, along with their contexts. In each case, the study identifies the three layers of meaning – denotative, connotative, myth – promulgated by Braun’s advertising campaigns. Through this process, this dissertation examines three research questions, which can collectively be used to illuminate Braun’s role in post-war West German society. The first research question asks how the denotative (verbal and non-verbal) content of Braun’s print advertising changed between 1954 and 1962. Through the analysis of three case studies, the dissertation finds that the overt or literal messages in Braun’s advertising shifted from a steadfast internal relationship prioritisation of technological empiricism and engineering expertise to one that emphasised the product’s relationship with an evolving and affluent West German consumer. The second research question asks how the connotative content of Braun’s print advertising changed between 1954 and 1962. The dissertation finds that the secondary or implied messages appear to transition along the spectrum of tangibility, moving from an emphasis on the physical unit toward a pronounced appreciation of consumer goods as an expression of a cultural position. The final research question asks if the ‘myths’ presented in Braun’s print advertising change between 1954 and 1962. The myths are the hidden, ideologically-charged or motivated messages in the advertisements. The dissertation finds that, taken together, the myths can be rendered into a narrative that charts the ebb and flow of the two key priorities: the ideological commitment to form, design and a nationalistic idealism; and the corporate imperative to remain a profitable company. The evolving myths, and the implications this progression has for Braun’s relationship to the dominant socio-political discourse in West Germany, is the key finding of this dissertation. By answering these three questions, the dissertation develops the first indicators that Braun’s advertising sought to directly support the creation of a consumer culture, or culture of consumption, in accordance with the larger political imperatives at the time. Braun ceased to be a purely cultural force seeking to promote its approach to design. Instead - leaning on existing cultural codes and socially-endorsed norms - Braun offered a new interpretation of its products, the design process and the unavoidable entry of West Germany into the arena of social and political consumerism. This finding develops new knowledge about the actual connection between Braun and West German consumer culture as well as, more generally, between, design, consumption and ideology.

Summary in English
Romanticism as a broad movement of thought developed as a reaction against rationalism and empiricism in the period of Enlightenment. In his critical evaluation of Getman literature Eichendorff as a historian exammes the excessiveness of esoteric theories in the work of the young intellectuals of the early romantic period in Getmany. The romanticists' idealist celebration of the self, and their tendency to overestimate the power of the imagination and the supreme value of art led to self-adulation and subjectivism which was unacceptable to Eichendorff s understanding of art and religion. The "romantic" attempt at creating a new mythology usmg art as a new kind of religion and thereby making the poet an omnipotent creator could only be rejected by Eichendorff whose moral convictions were strongly based on Christian Catholic beliefs. The young romanticists replaced ethics with aesthetics. Eichendorffs judgement of this development is devastating. He describes the early romantic movement as a "premature abortion".
Classics and Modern European Languages
M.A. (German)

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1991.
Vita. Typescript. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves: 277-291).

Il lavoro si propone di indagare la funzione peculiare riconosciuta agli uccelli nella concezione poetica di Jacob Grimm, le eventuali connessioni con i miti che connotano sin dall'antichità questi animali come creature liminari vicine al numinoso e il suo riscontro nelle numerose "Vogelfiguren" delle raccolte dei "Kinder- und Hausmaerchen" (è stata considerata la prima edizione del 1812/15, in cui è ancora fortemente presente l'impronta di Jacob rispetto al fratello) e delle "Deutschen Sagen". Il primo capitolo approfondisce il rapporto di Jacob Grimm con gli altri rappresentanti delle prime due fasi del romanticismo tedesco, focalizzandosi soprattutto sul tema della relazione tra uomo e natura, e degli aspetti più reconditi di quest'ultima, così come messi in luce dalla sensibilità romantica dell'epoca. Nel secondo capitolo è analizzato il ruolo privilegiato che Jacob Grimm assegna alla "Tierfabel" nella storia della poesia, nel cui ambito si colgono affermazioni singolari sugli uccelli, concepiti quali figure portatrici di sinistra inquietudine, staccate dal resto del regno animale. Altri riscontri in merito sono presenti in opere di tipo diverso e pubblicate in periodi anche lontani fra loro: la "Deutsche Mythologie", la "Geschichte der deutschen Sprache", il saggio di tipo naturalistico "Ueber den Schlaf der Voegel". I capitoli terzo e quarto approfondiscono il ruolo dei "Voegel" nelle due sopracitate raccolte grimmiane, attraverso l'analisi e il confronto degli episodi - fiaba o saga - in cui essi compaiono. SYNOPSIS IN ENGLISH: The research investigates on the peculiar role of birds in the poetic conception of Jacob Grimm and its possible connections to the ancient myths, that portray these animals as liminary creatures in frequent contact with the "Numinous", and to the numerous bird-characters of the two well-known Grimm Brothers' collections: "Children's and Household Tales" - the first edition (1812 / 15), to which the contibution of Jacob was still relevant, has been considered - and the "German Sagas" (1816 / 18).

This diploma thesis deals with possibilities of the use of the Nordic mythology in the lower-secondary schools through project teaching. The target of this diploma thesis is to introduce the legends, culture and history of Nordic nations to the 6th form pupils through project teaching. Furthemore, using the legends, the thesis aims at introducing the best known fantasy and science-fiction literature, which might encourage the pupils of this age category to show some interest for reading. The theoretical part of this thesis is divided into two basic sections. The first section introduces a concise history of project teaching, its principles, teacher´s role and pupil´s position in project teaching. The second section of the theoretical part outlines general problems of mythological stories with orientation at the Nordic mythology. Furthemore, the thesis contains an outline of culture and history of Germanic tribes, with which some of the important heroic Nordic sagas are firmly connected, and the following connection with modern literature. The empiric part of the thesis contains designed Art lessons for the project teaching, which also contain a reflection of implemented lessons.

The submitted doctoral thesis examines the function and performance of the motive of a snake in four selected texts about artists of the German romantic period and perceives the snake as an attribute reflecting the problems of the artistic existence and a way to the artistic work, possibly of the artistic work at all. When interpreting the single motives of the snake, three-phase procedure as applied by Erwin Panofsky in description of the motives in the pictures has been chosen by analogy for literary texts. The interpretation is based on the structural position of the motive of the snake in the text and its performance in the text. Subsequently, the principal role is revelation of contexts which updates the given motive of the snake - in particular they are biblical snakes, mythical snakes and a serpentine line as a line of beauty which was the subject of the period aesthetic discourse. The meaning of the motive of the snake in the texts is given primarily by the mutual interaction of theme contexts which is in the single texts realized by various ways. The motive of the snake as formed in the single interpreted texts is a highly complex motive in all the cases. Thanks to the possibility of connotation with the snakes from the sphere of the Bible and mythology the literary motive of the snake becomes a...