Articles de revues sur le sujet « Prussia (Germany) – History, Military – 19th century »

In the end of the 19th century, five Lithuanian folklore pieces describing the so-called Wild Hunt were recorded. In these narratives, the images of the hunt and the sounds made by the ranging souls are described. These texts, having been recorded in the territory inhabited by the so-called lietuvininkai (the Lithuania Minor) are truly unique. This land belonged to the Eastern Prussia at the time and having been for the long period separated from the major Lithuania and experiencing considerable German cultural influence, it acquired singular features.So far the Lithuanian folklorists tended to interpret the legends in question as results of the German cultural influence. Yet the available folklore data only partly supports such opinion. The Lithuanian legends of the Wild Hunt are analyzed in the article by using the contextual information from the Baltic mythology, folklore, history and archeology. The motifs of the Wild Hunt are popular in the oral tradition of the European peoples, comprising specific imagery depicting a ghostlike hunting party ranging across the sky. Connections of this image with the cult of the deceased and the visions of the afterlife have been repeatedly established by the researchers.The current analysis reveals that Lithuanian legends of the Wild Hunt are related to the German narratives of the Wilde Jagd not only in the name of this phenomenon. The Germanic influence can also be traced in the fact that the Wild Hunt is observed on high, since similar images are hard to find in the Lithuanian material. Other aspects of the phenomenon in question have parallels in the traditional Lithuanian worldview and can be deciphered on the grounds of the local folklore. Yet the origins of this image should perhaps be sought in the earlier layers of the Baltic culture.The territory of the Lithuania Minor has for a long time been the native land of the western Baltic tribes – Prussians. Because of the assimilation processes and in result of a large number of the local population perishing in the plague, the ancient Prussian language became extinct as early as the beginning of the 18th century. Still the persistence of the Wild Hunt image in the worldview of the local Lithuanians of the 19th century can well be related to this cultural layer.In striking correlation with the historical cultural facts recorded in the chronicles, the Prussian archeological data allows for assuming that local inhabitants used to imagine the afterlife journey of the deceased as a ride on a horseback, while endowed with all the military attributes. Yet this is valid only for the society members of the highest rank or the militants. Nevertheless in case of the Prussians, who used to live under the circumstances of almost ceaseless military campaigns, quite a number of mythical images could have incorporated the military thematic, thus forming distinct manifestations of the warriors’ mythology: the journey of the deceased to the afterworld on a horseback and with military equipment, the ghostlike army seen in the sky as an omen of the imminent war, etc. In L ithuanian mythology, such manifestations of the military worldview used to be best discerned in the 13th–14th centuries, when tensions caused by the threats to the safety and integrity of the land were most acutely experienced and the retaliatory military raids were frequently organized. This was also revealed in the contemporary pattern of the state gods, which reflected the ideology of the military layer of the society, while considerably lacking in representation of the lower rank of the deities (e. g. those in charge of the economic sphere). Such reflections of the military mythology could have well survived among the Lithuanian-speaking inhabitants of in the Lithuania Minor in the 19th century, when folklore collector Vilius Kalvaitis recorded the five legends in question there. It is reasonable to assume that such images used to become more prominent whenever fear and foreboding of the imminent war were felt, while persistence of such imagery was likewise supported by the existing similar Germanic notion of the Wilde Jagd.

Chauvinist reactions were rife in late 19th-century France, following the 1870 defeat to Prussia, the unification of Germany and the annexation of Alsace and part of Lorraine to the new empire. Besides their political manifestations, as in the creation of the Ligue des patriotes in 1882, these reactions also received intellectual expression. For most of the cultivated elites, the revelation of Prussian militarism came to negate the prevailing image of Germany as the cosmopolitan heartland of philosophy and of amodel university system. The French military defeat was interpreted as a sign of the political and moral weakness of the regime of Napoleon I11 (Renan 18711, but also as a wider symptom of intellectual inferiority, itself due to the inadequacies of the French educational and university structure. There ensued in intellectual circles a veritable ‘German crisis of French thought’ (Digeon 1959).

For centuries, the House of Austria (the Habsburgs) maintained its leadership in the Holy Roman Empire, and later in the German Union. But in the middle of the 19th century the situation changed, Austria lost its position in Germany, lost to Prussia in the struggle for hegemony. The article examines what factors influenced such an outcome of the German question, what policy Austria pursued in the 50—60s of the 19th century, what tasks it set for itself. The paper traces the relationship between the domestic and foreign policy of Austria. Economic weakness and political instability prevented the monarchy from pursuing a successful foreign policy. The multinational empire could not resist the challenge of nationalism and prevent the unification of Italy and Germany. Difficult relations with France and Russia, inconsistent policy towards the Middle German states largely determined this outcome. The personal factor was also important. None of the Austrian statesmen could resist such an outstanding politician as Bismarck.

Review of the collection of works prepared by Gottfried Kratz (Gottfried Kratz. Russische Biblioteken in Deutschland. – Berlin : Peter Lang, 2020. – 231 s. (Arbeiten und Bibliographen zum Buch – und Bibliothekswesen. 17).The book in German comprises the papers by German and Russian researchers on public, academic, military and church libraries in the mid-19th century and up to present. The reviewer focuses on the works matching the profile of the “Scientific and Technical Libraries” journal. The presented works are based on vast archival materials and expand the knowledge of Russian-German library relationships within the mentioned historical period. The researchers of Russian diaspora abroad, book and library historians will make the readership of the book.

The history of Germany of the second half of the 19th century and the activities of Otto von Bismarck form an integral unit, provided we bear in mind the process of Germany becoming a centralized state. The author argues that the attainment of German unity could only be achieved on the paths of war with Austria and France. This implies why military reform in Germany has been given so much attention.This study is focused on the second stage of military reform — the strengthening of the German army after the establishment of a centralized state. The author poses the question: if the “German issue” was resolved, what was the need for further armament? The Bismarck Government in 1874 and 1881 successfully sought from Parliament the adoption of septennat laws (seven years of funding for the army). But in 1887 the Parliament refused to extend the septennat. The author uses Bismarck’s collection of political speeches in the Reichstag as the main source of research. It is an important source of official origin, reflecting the approaches of not only of the subject of Bismarck’s legislative initiative, but also of Germany’s ruling elite.A point of view about Bismarck as vehicle of Germanic militarism prevails in historical literature. As a result of the analysis of the debate on the draft law, the author concludes that Bismarck’s military policy was dictated not so much by the militaristic nature of his personality, but by the necessity of strengthening the military potential of Germany, surrounded by strong adversaries, to defend its sovereignty. For the further development of events, the Chancellor who had been removed from his office, cannot be held responsible. The tragedy of Bismarck-era Germany is expressed in the fact that he failed to prepare a successor capable of leading the country during a period of crisis.

This study aims to analyze and provide a historical and legal assessment of administrative, economic, and social transformations in Prussia in the first half of the 19th century to study the circumstances and conditions of the formation of a new political, legal, and economic reality of the country. Moreover, the role of specific personalities who made a mark in history during this period is explored to obtain an idea of what administrative, legal, and economic patterns they reshaped in the management system. The author focuses not on the transformations but on the personalities whose hands have produced those transformations (an objective series of events) in Prussian Germany. Reformers-researchers (first, Stein, Gardenberg, V. Humboldt) realized their own private interest, but the totality of personal interests was already of public interest, and they themselves acted as its subjects. The success of the reformation was also determined by the prevailing atmosphere in the country, which was filled with great philosophers, historians, and writers with their ideas and deeds. The author concludes that science in Germany was more than science. She actively participated in the process of transformation in the country. The author proves that the Prussian reformation, despite the different ideas of the participants about its goals, objectively contributed to the creation of the foundations of the bourgeois state on the basis of the monarchical form of government. As a legacy of the reformation stage, the Prussian statehood created in the second half of the 19th century was passed into the hands of Otto von Bismarck. Thus, it was not Bismarck who paved the way for Hitler. The reformers handed him a state building almost built according to their schemes which even the iron chancellor could not rebuild. In addition, we must consider that the modernization of Prussia developed in opposition to the counter-reformation, its legal expression was the so-called Carlsbad resolutions, which decelerated the dynamics of reforms.

As conventional thinking once had it, Vormärz Prussia and the antebellum United States mapped out opposite ends of a “strong-state, weak-state” spectrum. But several decades of research have rendered both images increasingly untenable. Revisions began on the American side in the 1940s when a group of scholars set out to re-evaluate the state governments' role in antebellum American industrialization. These studies of state legislation and political rhetoric—the first to take federalism seriously, one might say—collectively laid to rest the myth of laissez-faire during the antebellum period. Since then scholars of the antebellum political economy have examined the American state from another angle, shifting attention to the role of the state and federal courts in economic growth. Others, mean-while, have taken a closer look at the federal government's role before the Civil War and discerned interventionist tendencies in the federal legislature and executive as well. The cumulative effect is clear: it has become impossible to speak of laissez-faire in the antebellum American context. On the Prussian side, too, historians have begun to rethink the state's role in industrialization as mounting evidence has undermined the conventional image. Initially, few historians questioned the extent of the state's involvement in economic activity during the first half of the 19th century; instead, they debated its consequences—beneficial or not, intended or not. On balance the first round of revisions judged Vormdrz Prussian policies to have been rather contradictory in nature, some encouraging industrialization but others either hampering economic change or proving irrelevant.5 Historian Clive Trebilcock has gone a step further, however, debunking what he labels “myths of the directed economy” in nineteenth-century Germany.

Supply of military weapons, equipment, spare parts and ammunition had always been of a crucial importance for the Ottoman Empire. This issue came to be a part of an international diplomacy from 19th century onwards when the Ottoman governments were forced into a position to choose allies from European Powers who were in rivalry in providing military materials. Many companies from France, England and Germany competed with each other in order to have the greatest share from the military supplies market in the Ottoman Empire. Such German companies as Krupp, and Rheinische Metallwaren und Maschinefabrik in Düsseldorf; French company Sxneider/Le Creusot; and British Armstrong/Vickers Company were among them. However, German weapon companies stood out in meeting the needs of the Ottoman military. In the reign of Abdulhamid II, the German company of Krupp came forward in selling artillery weapons in particular after the 1880's, and turned out to be the dominant power in the end of the century, while the other German companies dealt in the various other military materials such as rifles, ammunitions, spare parts, wagons, factory workbenches. Levazımat-ı Umumiye Dairesi (General Supplies Department) which functioned as attached to the Harbiye Nezareti (Ministry of War) during the early years of the 20th century was in charge of the supply and distribution of primary materials which were necessary for the provisioning of the army. This department was not only involved in the provisioning and equipment of the army during the WWI, but played an important role in procuring the technical equipment for the setting up and development of military factories as well as establishing connections and cooperation with Germany to this end, through its branches. It is possible to reach many correspondences about these cases in ATESE Archives which is attached to the General Staff. This study aims to provide some examples concerning the activities of the above-mentioned department and military factories and procuring the wartime equipment in particular, based on the primary sources.

The article is focused on Prussian attempts to separate the North German territories from the rest of the Holy Roman Empire during the summer months of 1806 with the aim of creating a North German Imperial Confederation under the Prussian protection. The reasons behind the possible foundation of the North German Imperial Confederation as well as the journalistic activities around this Prussian project are also in the centre of attention. The structure of the supposed North German Confederation are analyzed on the basis of plans and projects elaborated by the Prussian politicians and diplomats in July and August 1806. The deliberations over the joining to the Confederation were conducted by the Prussian government with the Electors of Hesse and Saxony as well as with the Hanseatic cities of Hamburg, Lübeck and Bremen which were supposed to become the major members of the Prussian-dominated North German state. The analysis has shown that the Prussian government considered the possible North German Imperial Confederation as thelegal successor of the Holy Roman Empire, with Habsburgs being replaced by the Hohenzollern dynasty. The Prussian claims on the inheritance of the Holy Roman Empire and on the hegemony in the Northern Germany were met with discontent on the part of Hesse and especially Saxony, which impelled the Prussian politicians to repeatedly modify their projects, adding more elements of federalism to them. Despite all the concessions, Prussia eventually failed to unite the Northern Germany under its protection. The reasons for this lie both in the separatism of the North German principalities and cities, and in inner inconsistency and crudity of the Prussian projects. France and Great Britain also impeded the Prussian plans since neither of them was interested in a separate North German state under Prussian control. Napoleon's refusal to support Prussia's attempts to unify the Northern Germany was used by the Prussian government as a pretext to declare war on France in October 1806 which ended with dramatic Prussian defeat. Despite the fact that the Prussian plans to create a North German Imperial Confederation in the summer of 1806 were never realized, this was one of the many possible ways of the evolution of the German statehood in the early 19th century. It was finally put into practice half a century later, in the form of the North German Confederation in 1866.

AbstractOriginally a charitable monastic institution devoted to the care of Christian pilgrims in the Holy Land, the Hospitallers of St. John became a military order during the twelfth century. The arrival of the Order of St. John in Malta in 1530 brought this island to the attention of European leaders and their subjects; indeed, the number of visitors who wrote about their sojourns on the island in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries is remarkable. At this time private military tours to Malta came to be integrated into what was called the Cavalier's Tour. The famous caravans of the fleet of the Order of St. John played a special role in this development, since participation in the caravans-usually involving naval engagements against the infidel-was considered an integral part of a gentleman's education. The survival of the chivalric Order of St. John seems to testify to the spiritual and cultural continuity of the Crusades up through the period of the Counter Reformation. But closer examination of individual European travelers suggests a rather pragmatic and quite "tolerant" approach to the foreign world. This essay concentratcs on Northern European sources, as it was mainly the Northerners who made the Cavalier's Tour a regular ritual, often entailing the compilation of a detailed travel diary. The accounts of the travelers from Prussia, the Scandinavian countries and central and south Germany show that both Catholics and Protestants alike came to Malta, mainly for reasons of fame, career and the acquisition of military and nautical experience. By the middle of the eighteenth century the Order and its fleet had degenerated to an ornamental show. This decline coincided with the end of the phenomenon dealt with here. In the so-called "Grand Tour" of the second half of the eighteenth century-mostly undertaken by rich Englishmen-there was no space for a trip "adversus infideles." This new type of tour was meant for private pleasure and cultural education. The Ottoman empire was no longer seen as a threat. In contrast to the old emnity, there was a new vogue for things "oriental." The island of Malta and the state of the Knights became an object of curiosity and romantic chivalry.

The article is devoted to the analysis of the origins and content of the kulturkampf policy initiated by the German Reich Chancellor in the 1870s. The Struggle for Culture played a decisive role not only in the formation of the Center party as one of the most influential political parties of the Reichstag in the second half of the 19th century, but also in the history of Germany as a whole. The political orientation of the first German Reich Chancellor towards the strong secular state controlling and limiting church structures was initially in favor of the empire united in 1871 and in line with the trends of the times. But the Reich Chancellors harsh, restrictive laws led to police arbitrariness and infringement on the Catholic population of the German Empire. The author identifies the main reasons that led to the persecution and repression of the Catholic minority of the German Empire. The problems of the unification of the German Empire, particularism, federalism, ultramontanism and confessional conflicts are considered in close connection with the topic under study. The research is based on the works of Russian and German researchers and on the legislative acts of Prussia and the German Empire. In addition, the materials of parliamentary debates presented in the verbatim records of the Reichstag and extracts from the memoirs of contemporaries of the event were used.

What about science, society and education in the history? In the 19th century Europe the figure of the scientific engineer is emerging. In Paris the Grandes Écoles were founded, where the most distinguished mathematicians of the time taught to students and drew up treaties. and Joseph–Louis Lagrange (1736–1813) and Gaspard Monge (1746–1818) were among the first professors of mathematics at École Polytechnique (1794), a military school for the training of engineers. In 1794 the École Normal of Paris was also born, in 1808, the École normale supérieure Paris was founded, a school that had as its goal the training of teachers of both science and humanities. On this model, with a Napoleonic decree of 1813, it was established the first foundation of the Scuola Normale in Pisa. The attention of the French mathematicians toward applications was therefore, at least in part, due to the need of educational institutions to train technicians for the new state. Such an attitude is not found in Germany, the country that in the nineteenth century was with France at the forefront of European mathematics. On the one hand, great importance was attributed to purely theoretical disciplines, such as number theory and abstract algebra, on the other hand the natural philosophy aim to frame in the same theory at all the physical disciplines. In Germany a great engineering school eventually developed which become dominant in Europe. But interaction between scientists and engineers has existed since ancient times: e.g., for the study of prototypes and machines for the society. Questions might be: when, why and how the tension between mathematics, physics, astronomy, gave rise to a new scientific discipline, the modern engineering? What is the conceptual bridge between sciences researches and the organization of technological researches in the development of the industry?

This article studies one of the components of the history of modernization processes in the countries of South-Eastern Europe in the latter half of the 19th century – the early 20th century – military modernization. The purpose of research is to analyze the role of foreign military assistance in formation of military forces of Romania, Serbia, Bulgaria, Montenegro, Albania and Greece. Separate directions of military assistance provided to the countries of South-Eastern Europe in the form of military missions, training of officers in Europe, arms export and other aspects are disclosed. One of the markers of military development during the period in question was the military instructor activity of the developed European countries in the framework of military modernization of possible military allies in these countries. The lower limit of research is the Bosnian crisis in 1908 caused by annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina by Austria-Hungary. The conflict was the reason of rapid militarization of the region. Military missions from the countries of Europe began their activity in Greece, Montenegro, Turkey. Thousands of officers from Balkan army studied in military establishments of Europe. The top limit of the research is the First world war І 1914-1918. The obvious success was attained with modernization of the armed forces of allies by military missions from Germany in Turkey and from France in Romania in that time. The work deals with the process of military modernization, i.e. the activities of military instructor missions of the leading European countries during the interwar period. The time interval of the study ranges within 1908-1918. This was the period marked by modernization of new national armies in Eastern Europe. Military missions played an important role in this complex process. The comparison of the results of transformations provides for better understanding of the regional specifics and concrete results of this form of military modernization of armed forces during the twenty-year interwar period. The method for comparing variations of military modernization of armies of Oriental countries occurring at the turn of the 20th centuries and reorganization of military forces of the countries of South-Eastern Europe is used. This method instantiates results, consequences, failures and success of military modernization. The research is relevant for studying modern processes of military modernization.

The article explores contemporary historiography of the history of Königsberg University (Albertina), which had existed in East Prussia since 1544 until 1944. Over the course of four centuries there was an official narrative on the history of the university as a stronghold of German culture in the east of the country. After World War II the university history was mainly investigated by German historians, but after the end of the Cold War the interest in this topic increased not only in Germany, but also in other countries. The researchers are primarily focused on two periods – the early modern one (mid-16th – 17th centuries) and the end of the 19th – the first half of the 20th century. A considerable number of topics on the history of Königsberg University, which earlier were taboo or ignored for other reasons, have become a subject of academic interest in recent decades. Discussions arose about the degree of responsibility of university intellectuals for the Nazis’ crimes. New biographies of historians such as Hans Rothfels or Werner Conze force a reader to form a more realistic image of Albertina in the 1930s. The material ofthe university history makes it possible to reconsider the contradictory relations between the German state and Jewish communities as well as to expand understanding of the circumstances of the Jews’ persecution at the beginning of the National Socialistera. The analysis of contemporary historiography shows that, with all its achievements, it retains some stereotypes dating back to the traditional narrative, primarily a lack of attention to the role of women in the university history and the importance of the university as an institution strengtheninga gender order. The paper introduces a number of examples of women scholars that are not fully represented in the history of the university (Frieda Fromm-Reichmann, Sophie Brutzer, Elise Jenny Baumgartel). Moreover, the article gives a brief description of Russian historiography. Taking into account the development trends of contemporary historiography, the author considers the prospects of the research devoted to Königsberg University history.

Oswald Spengler belongs to the trend in the so-called “conservative revolution” which was entitled “young conservatism” (Jungkonservative) in times of Weimar Republic and was close to the political position of German business and military elites. The projects of those elites before and during the First World War and their development up to the seizer of power by the Nazis and the Second World War apply to the geopolitics, and Spengler was one of the most talented representatives and creators of those plans in world politics. His views on the world politics are determined by the Lebensphilosophie (philosophy of life) described in the fragments of his main “metaphysical” work Urfragen and his philosophy of history stated in the book “Decline of Europe”. Particular attention in the article is paid to his views on Russia, both in the second volume of “Decline of Europe” and in his last work “The Years of Decision”. The transition from culture to civilization that started in the 19th century, lead to the epoch of world wars and revolutions in the 20th century. According to Spengler, two types of revolution threatened the West, - the “white revolution” in western countries themselves, that Spengler termed “Bolshevism”, and the “colour revolution’ in the colonies. The military power of new Caesars would put the end to those revolutions, as well as liberalism and parliamentarism. According to Spengler, Germany was the only land, that preserved the main features of the “Nordic race”; and that’s why could unite Western countries in the struggle for self-preservation. Spengler’s heroic pessimism affirmed the readiness to resist the history course: the time of the “Faust” culture was nearly over, but for two more centuries it would be necessary to fight hard from the losing positions.

In the period surrounding the 150th anniversary of the German Empire, the debates among historians concerning its role and meaning for the process of modern society in Germany, have recently increased in intensity and sharpness. No matter how the interpretations were positioned between the gloomy shadow of the Pickelhaube (spiked German military helmets) and the radiant birth of modernity, physical exercise and physical culture remained unconsidered. This is surprising, since gymnastics and sports had grown into a mass movement throughout Europe since 1900 at the latest. Accordingly, this essay expands the current discussion on modernity of the German Empire from the specific perspective of sport history. The three areas of (gymnastics) instruction, club (Verein) and Olympic movement are used to discuss the extent to which physical education and physical culture became part of the developing mass society during the period of the Empire. They marked a “transition into modernity”, according to Hedwig Richter. What potential for the development of modern civil societies, including structures of participation, liberality, and democracy, did physical exercises – gymnastics, games and sports – contribute to the development of the German Empire from the 19th century until its termination after World War I? This may well be the leading question and indeed challenge of the paper.

Because certain movements in the Arab world of the 1930s and 1940s showed similarities to Mussolini’s and Hitler’s regimes, historians have drawn comparisons with the fascist and National Socialist dictatorships. But not even those arguing for the concept of a “generic fascism” are able to wholeheartedly subsume these movements under their fascist rubric. Fascism and National Socialism evolved in Europe, were shaped by the mood at the fin de siècle, became effective after the First World War in a unique political, social, economic and cultural atmosphere, and only lost their appeal in 1945 at the conclusion of the Second World War. They flourished in industrialized societies and aimed—in novel and twisted ways—at reversing the liberalization of 19th-century Europe. They emphasized power, national rebirth, military order and efficiency; and they were, in the case of Germany, driven by anti-Semitism and racism, resulting in totalitarian rule with genocidal consequences. National-socialist and fascist movements and regimes required the atmosphere and culture of liberal democracy as a foil—and liberal democracy was virtually nonexistent in the Near and Middle East. The preconditions for fascism were thus lacking. Colonial rule was still in place, traditional culture still prevailed in these mainly rural societies, and their small bourgeois parties showed greater allegiance to their clans than to liberal and secular ideologies.

The First World War, putting at risk the existence of many states, led to a controversial reaction from the scientific community. On the one hand, the war suspended many studies requiring a peaceful course of life and contradicted the very humanistic content of science, on the other hand, gave a powerful impetus to the development of many branches of chemistry, physics, agriculture etc. Scientists of all countries, including Germany and Russia, were called upon to actively participate not only in the implementation of military defense projects, but also in the creation of new technologies and weapons. At the same time, the war became the main reason for the break with the practice and ethical norms of scientific internationalism that existed in the 19th and early 20th centuries.During the First World War, it became clear that a new super-powerful weapon – oil had appeared. İn the war years, Azerbaijani oil was the only energy sourse in Russia, not counting firewood, since coal exports to Russia were stopped and Ukrainian coal mines were seized by the Germans. The First World War turned out to be a watershed in human history: for the first time, an internal combustion engine working on petroleum products was opposed to the muscular strength of horses and people — and they could not resist. The article highlights the development of science, especially the oil industry in Azerbaijan during the First World War and the two revolutions in Russia that followed in 1917. The role of the world famous scientists D.I. Mendeleev, I.M. Gubkin, D.I. Golubyatnikov, the Polish engineers P.Pototsky, V.Zglenitsky in the development of new technologies in the oil business, the construction of the first oil pipelines in Russia is shown.The article discusses the activities of the Baku Branch of the Imperial Russian Technical Society (BO IRTO), as well as features of its work during the war. In this society was carried out the work on the practical production of benzene and toluene from oil and coal in wartime. In addition, even before the war, the BO IRTO established the Emmanuel L. Nobel (the brother of Alfred Nobel) Prize,, whose main activity took place in Baku. The third brother Ludwig Nobel Prize was established in St. Petersburg and was awarded for outstanding achievements in the oil business. The article highlights the activities of the laureates of the Baku and St. Petersburg Nobel Prizes.

Although the living tradition of making mead and partaking of it has become extinct in Latvia and Lithuania in the course of the recent centuries, its traces can still be found in the historical, ethnographic and folklore sources. This tradition is particularly prominent in two cases: in the nobility feasts of the 15th–16th centuries and in the parties held by beekeepers in the 19th–20th centuries.Mead used to play a significant social and political role in the life of nobility in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania: not only the ruler and the court, but also foreign leaders and diplomats arriving to make political and commercial contracts enjoyed it. The mead consumption indicated the social prestige of the nobles. Although following Christianization of Lithuania, wine grew increasingly frequent in the nobility’s feasts, mead nevertheless preserved its firm position until the 16th century; even until the 17th century, it was still popular among the nobles.Because of its social and political importance in the nobility’s life, mead also entered the legendary tradition. The 16th century Renaissance historians (Erasmus Stella, Simon Grunau, Lucas David and others) describing the origins of the Prussians and Lithuanians, depict mead as the drink of the noble warriors. According to the legends, mead was an invention and the favored drink of the Cymbrian (Gotland) nobles arriving to Prussia and subsequently sharing it with the local Prussian nobility, thus legitimizing its equal status. The legendary Prussian king Widewuto established his Prussian kingdom following the pattern of the beehive and grouping the members of the society according to their occupation (fieldworkers, beekeepers, stockbreeders, etc.) To ensure the lasting peace in his kingdom, Widewuto introduced the public mead-drinking feasts. However, not only the nobility, but also the commoners enjoyed drinking mead. Since procuring its main ingredient – honey – depends on the activity of the beekeepers, the author devotes special attention to their life style, social communication and festivities.Until the 16th century, the hollow-tree beehives in the woods were much more common in Lithuania than the artificial ones kept in the homesteads; therefore, the trade of procuring honey had much in common with hunting, since both activities took place in the forest. Because of the wild nature and unpredictable behavior of bees, the beekeepers much as the hunters depended on luck and the deities in charge of good fortune, differing in this respect from husbandmen. On the other hand, beekeeping in the Baltic lands was more than just part of economy: it was a social phenomenon, binding the beekeepers together as friends. The beekeepers believed that keeping the bees single-handedly caused bad luck; therefore, one had to share both the beekeeping tasks and the procured honey with one or several partners in trade. The friendship ties established by the beekeepers united them into beekeeping communities (bičiuolija), the members of which tended to the bees together and at least twice a year (during the honey harvesting and in spring, when tending to the tree-hollows) arranged parties for their members (literally – friends, bičiuliai in Lithuanian). During these parties, the beekeepers and their families enjoyed eating and offering honey and drinking mead together. These parties of beekeepers provided an alternative to those held by husbandmen, called sambariai, during which the whole village community drank beer made of the grain collected from all the farms.The phenomenon of bičiulystė (literally, friendship by means of beekeeping) is characteristic exclusively to the Balts, therefore it must have formed as early as the Baltic tribal period. In the 12th – the beginning of the 13th century, when the process of political integration gained momentum, the political leadership formed in the Baltic tribes, and the military nobility emerged. It is quite likely, that the social pattern of bičiulystė was rather handy in this process. The communities of beekeepers, binding inhabitants of different villages by mutual trust, loyalty and cooperation, provided an ideal media to form the soldiery, i.e. friends in arms (amicia). The masculine character of these communities, their association with hunting and rituals of good fortune, the reinforcement of mutual connections by means of marriage, and the mead-drinking parties may serve as additional arguments in favor of this assumption.The analysis allows us assuming that mead-drinking festivities arranged in Lithuania by members of different social layers have common roots in the ancient communities of beekeepers characteristic to the Balts. In the process of social differentiation and stratification, the social pattern of bičiulystė found different use among the nobles and the peasants. Among the nobles, the mead-drinking feasts disappeared in the 17th century, while beekeeping peasants arranged their parties until the beginning of the 20th century.

The issue of the journal opens with an article dedicated to the formation of metrology as government regulated activity in France. The article has discussed the historical process of development of metrological activity in France. It was revealed that the history of metrology is considered as an auxiliary historical and ethnographic discipline from a social and philosophical point of view as the evolution of scientific approaches to the definition of individual units of physical quantities and branches of metrology. However, in the scientific literature, the little attention is paid to the process of a development of a centralized institutional metrology system that is the organizational basis for ensuring the uniformity of measurements. The article by Irena Grebtsova and Maryna Kovalska is devoted to the of the development of the source criticism’s knowledge in the Imperial Novorossiya University which was founded in the second half of the XIX century in Odesa. Grounding on a large complex of general scientific methods, and a historical method and source criticism, the authors identified the stages of the formation of source criticism in the process of teaching historical disciplines at the university, what they based on an analysis of the teaching activities of professors and associate professors of the Faculty of History and Philology. In the article, the development of the foundations of source criticism is considered as a complex process, which in Western European and Russian science was the result of the development of the theory and practice of everyday dialogue between scientists and historical sources. This process had a great influence on the advancement of a historical education in university, which was one of the important factors in the formation of source studies as a scientific discipline. The article by Tetiana Malovichko is devoted to the study of what changes the course of the probability theory has undergone from the end of the 19th century to our time based on the analysis of The Theory of Probabilities textbook by Vasyl P. Ermakov published in 1878. The paper contains a comparative analysis of The Probability Theory textbook and modern educational literature. The birth of children after infertility treatment of married couples with the help of assisted reproductive technologies has become a reality after many years of basic research on the physiology of reproductive system, development of oocyte’s in vitro fertilization methods and cultivation of embryos at pre-implantation stages. Given the widespread use of assisted reproductive technologies in modern medical practice and the great interest of society to this problem, the aim of the study authors from the Institute for Problems of Cryobiology and Cryomedicine of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine was to trace the main stages and key events of assisted reproductive technologies in the world and in Ukraine, as well as to highlight the activities of outstanding scientists of domestic and world science who were at the origins of the development of this area. As a result of the work, it has been shown that despite certain ethical and social biases, the discovery of individual predecessor scientists became the basis for the efforts of Robert Edwards and Patrick Steptoe to ensure birth of the world's first child, whose conception occurred outside the mother's body. There are also historical facts and unique photos from our own archive, which confirm the fact of the first successful oocyte in vitro fertilization and the birth of a child after the use of assisted reproductive technologies in Ukraine. In the next article, the authors tried to consider and structure the stages of development and creation of the “Yermak”, the world's first Arctic icebreaker, and analyzed the stages of preparation and the results of its first expeditions to explore the Arctic. Systematic analysis of historical sources and biographical material allowed to separate and comprehensively consider the conditions and prehistory for the development and creation of “Yermak” icebreaker. Also, the authors gave an assessment to the role of Vice Admiral Stepan Osypovych Makarov in those events, and analyzed the role of Sergei Yulyevich Witte, Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev and Pyotr Petrovich Semenov-Tian-Shansky in the preparation and implementation of the first Arctic expeditions of the “Yermak”icebreaker. The authors of the following article considered the historical aspects of construction and operation of train ferry routes. The article deals with the analysis and systematization of the data on the historical development of train ferry routes and describes the background for the construction of train ferry routes and their advantages over other combined transport types. It also deals with the basic features of the train ferries operating on the main international train ferry routes. The study is concerned with both sea routes and routes across rivers and lakes. The article shows the role of train ferry routes in the improvement of a national economy, and in the provision of the military defense. An analysis of numerous artefacts of the first third of the 20th century suggests that the production of many varieties of art-and-industrial ceramics developed in Halychyna, in particular architectural ceramic plastics, a variety of functional ceramics, decorative tiles, ceramic tiles, facing tiles, etc. The artistic features of Halychyna art ceramics, the richness of methods for decorating and shaping it, stylistic features, as well as numerous art societies, scientific and professional associations, groups, plants and factories specializing in the production of ceramics reflect the general development of this industry in the first half of the century and represent the prerequisites the emergence of the school of professional ceramics in Halychyna at the beginning of the 20th century. The purpose of the next paper is to analyze the formation and development of scientific and professional schools of art-and-industrial ceramics of Halychyna in the late 19th – early 20th centuries. During the environmental crisis, electric transport (e-transport) is becoming a matter for scientific inquiry, a subject of discussion in politics and among public figures. In the program for developing the municipal services of Ukraine, priorities are given to the development of the infrastructure of ecological transport: trolleybuses, electric buses, electric cars. The increased attention to e-transport on the part of the scientific community, politicians, and the public actualizes the study of its history, development, features of operation, etc. The aim of the next study is to highlight little-known facts of the history of production and operation of MAN trolleybuses in Ukrainian cities, as well as to introduce their technical characteristics into scientific circulation. The types, specific design solutions of the first MAN trolleybus generation and the prerequisites for their appearance in Chernivtsi have been determined. Particular attention has been paid to trolleybuses that were in operation in Germany and other Western European countries from the first half of the 1930s to the early 1950s. The paper traces the stages of operation of the MAN trolleybuses in Chernivtsi, where they worked during 1939–1944 and after the end of the Second World War, they were transferred to Kyiv. After two years of operation in the Ukrainian capital, the trolleybuses entered the routes in Dnipropetrovsk during 1947–1951. The purpose of the article by authors from the State University of Infrastructure and Technologies of Ukraine is to thoroughly analyze unpaved roads of the late 18th – early 19th century, as well as the project of the first wooden trackway as the forerunner of the Bukovyna railways. To achieve this purpose, the authors first reviewed how railways were constructed in the Austrian Empire during 1830s – 1850s. Then, in contrast with the first railway networks that emerged and developed in the Austrian Empire, the authors made an analysis of the condition and characteristics of unpaved roads in Bukovyna. In addition, the authors considered the first attempt to create a wooden trackway as a prototype and predecessor of the Bukovyna railway.

PurposeThis paper has two purposes. One is to examine the ways mentally disabled children were disciplined and cared for in Berlin, Germany/Prussia, at the end of the 19th century, by considering the way the architecture of the asylum affected the practices within it. The second purpose is to examine the manner in which the practices at the Dalldorf Asylum, especially the administrative paperwork, fabricated and stabilized the medico-pedagogical category of “feeble-mindedness”.Design/methodology/approachThis paper engages with reflections on asylum architecture and its connection to disciplining bodies as shown in Disability History and linking these insights to recent scholarship from the field of Science and Technology Studies on the fabrication of knowledge through observation. Drawing on microhistory as methodology it examines the fabrication of “feeble-mindedness” with and within the Dalldorf Asylum, focusing on architecture and design as well as administrative practices.FindingsThe analysis of the asylum's architecture reveals how certain ideas of hygiene and control derived from 19th century psychiatry, along with personal attentiveness and individualized learning were incorporated into the building, creating the notion of a “feeble-minded child” as being simultaneously dangerous and in danger. The paper further shows how the professionals involved were struggling with diagnosing these children, further showcasing that the space as well as the categorization of children, oscillating between psychiatry and pedagogy, has to be understood as contested.Originality/valueThis paper engages findings on the disciplining structures organizing everyday life within the asylum with concepts of fabricating knowledge as central to science studies. The Dalldorf Asylum, the earliest state-funded asylum for mentally disabled children in Germany and largely understudied, is used as the main research object. A microhistorical approach allows to make visible the intricate yet mundane practices involved in stabilizing the category of “feeble-mindedness”.

Shooting associations represented one of the most popular expressions of sociability in Imperial Germany. Their club houses were to be found in large and medium-sized towns, in villages, and in overseas colonies, too. Middle class men would regularly gather to practice shooting and to organize competitions, activities characterized by clearly gendered rituals of social life. Based on values of loyalty to the Emperor and to fellow members, association life closely reflected the ideological agenda of the protestant Kaiserreich. Their popularity and pervasiveness earned shooting associations a place in George Mosse's groundbreaking work on the nationalization of the masses. Nevertheless, they have been mostly neglected in research on bourgeois sociability and on militarism. This article is the first scholarly attempt to study this form of associationism in Imperial Germany and its colonies. Having developed out of the old tradition of civic militias, shooting societies lost their primary policing and military function during the 19th century. However, community defence remained an essential task, which was viewed then as a moral and civil, rather than military, matter. The article examines the cultural and social aspects of shooting societies and relates this form of associationism to wider issues of military culture in the Kaiserreich.

En skildring af turnbevægelsen, den tyske gymnastikbevægelse, i grænseområdet mellem Danmark og Tyskland i årene 1920-1945.Knivsberg. The “Turn-” and Sports Park for the Pro-German Community in southern Jutland.Not far from Aabenraa lies Knivsberg. This hilltop locality area is situated in Slesvig or southern Jutland, an area whose history is bound up with the unsettled relationship of the twin duchies of Slesvig and Holsten to the Danish and German states respectively. This complicated history is the reason for the presence of Danish and German minorities in this border region ever since the formation of nation states in the 19th century. Briefly stated, until 1864 Slesvig-Holsten was united under the Danish monarchy. In 1848 a liberation movement arose in the wake of The March Uprising against the Danish absolutist monarchy, and caused the Danish state to cede Slesvig-Holsten to Prussia in 1864. After a referendum in 1920, the present border between Denmark and Germany was established and from then on Knivsberg became a locality in Denmark. In the period after 1864, the “Turn”-Movement played an active role in establishing German ideology in Slesvig where Danish culture was strongest. The article examines the Pro-German community in northern Slesvig with special references to the Turn-Movement and to the Knivsbjerg Monument. It shows how the emergence of Nazism in Germany was regarded by the minority as a gratifying and natural development of the former victorious German empire, which, of course, included northern Slesvig

At the beginning of the twentieth century, the South Kazakhstan region, namely Aulieata and Shymkent (Chernyaev) districts, was one of the main German settlements. These areas, which belong to the Syrdarya region of the Turkestan region, have been inhabited by Germans since the last quarter of the 19th century and are considered to be one of the main European ethnic groups. The Germans interacted with the local population and contributed to the development of ethno-demographic processes in the region. However, the development of such processes and the political and social life of the Germans had a negative impact on the First World War. At the beginning of the twentieth century, this war, which was a major international factor, created a great war between the empires, and it also divided the peoples. From the first days of the First World War, 1914-1918, relations between the Russian Empire and Germany were at war. This situation changed the political life of the Germans and the German community living in the Russian Empire. Such changes took place especially in the lives of German settlers in the European part of the empire. His main examples were the military persecution of Germans, the stigmatization of Germans in society, the establishment of chauvinistic attitudes among ethnic groups, and similar factors. In Russia, local Germans have been labeled "internal enemies." The fate of German communities in all regions of the Russian Empire was closely monitored in 1914-1918, and in general, since 1914, the fate of the Germans has been very constructive. At the same time, there is a legitimate question as to whether the situation in the Turkestan region is the same as in other regions of the Russian Empire. Similarly, the article raises questions about the situation of Germans in Shymkent and Aulieata districts of the Syrdarya region, and seeks answers in this regard. The article examines the political situation and social life of Germans in the South Kazakhstan region during the First World War. The main task of the article is to show the life of local Germans and their place in society. In addition, the political and social history of other peoples in the region will be considered.

The present day railway system in West Africa is the result of the transportpolicy developed by the colonial powers (France, Great Britain and Germany) at the end of the 19th century. lt is remarkable that no network of railways, like in Southern Africa, was brought about. The colonial railways in West Africa were built by the State or by a joint-stock company within the borders of one colony to export the raw materials from the production centres to the harbours. Nevertheless railways were built for more than economical grounds only, in West Africa they had to accomplish a strategic and military role by "opening Africa for the European civilization". Hargreaves calls railways the "heralds of new imperialism" and Baumgart speaks of the own dynamics of the railways, to push the European colonial powers further into Africa... The construction of a railway needed a very high capital investment and the European capitalists wouldn't like to take risks in areas that were not yet "pacified". It is remarkable how many projects to build a Transcontinental railway right across the Sahara desert largely remained on paper. Precisely because such plans did not materialize, however, the motive force they provided to such imperialist actions as political-territorial annexations can be traced all the more clearly.The French built the first railway in West Africa, the Dakar - St-Louis line (Senegal), between 1879 and 1885. This line stimulated the production of ground-nuts, although the French colonial-military lobby has had other motives. The real motivation became very clear at the construction of the Kayes - Bamako railway. Great difficulties needed the military occupation of the region and the violent recruitment of thousands of black labourers, all over the region. The same problems transformed the building of the Kayes-Dakar line into a real hell. Afterwards the Sine Saloum region has been through a "agricultural revolution", when the local ground-nuts-producers have been able toproduce forforeign markets. The first British railways were built in Sierra Leone and the Gold Coast-colony (Ghana). In Nigeria railway construction stimulated the growth of Lagos as an harbour and administrative centre. Lugard had plans for the unification of Nigeria by railways. The old Hausa town of Kano flourished after the opening of the Northern Railway, for other towns a period of decline had begun. Harbour cities and interior railwayheads caused an influx of population from periphery regions, the phenomenon is called "port concentration". Also the imperial Germany built a few railwaylines in theirformer colony Togo, to avoid the traffic flow off to the British railways. If s quite remarkable that the harbours at the Gulf of Guinea-coast developed much later than the harbours of Senegal and Sierra Leone.After the First World War only a few new railways were constructed, the revenues remained very low, so the (colonial) state had to take over many lines. The competition between railways and roadtransport demonstrated the first time in Nigeria, it was the beginning of the decline of railways as the most important transportsystems in West Africa. Only multinational companies built specific railways for the export of minerals (iron, ore and bauxite) after the Second World War, and the French completed the Abidjan - Ouaga-dougou railway (1956).The consequences of railway construction in West Africa on economic, demographic and social sphere were not so far-reaching as in Southern Africa, but the labour migration and the first labour unions of railwaymen organized strikes in Senegal and the Ivory Coast mentioned the changing social situation.The bibliography of the West African railways contains very useful studies about the financial policy of the railway companies and the governments, but only afew railways were already studied by economic historians. KEY WORDS : bibliographical survey, colonial history, economic and demographic consequences, railway development, West Africa

Abstract: There is no tradition nor genus of historiography within writing on university history in German historical research. In the Middle Ages there was no historiography of the institutionalized schools and the early universities. It began in the early modern period. From the beginning in the 17th century onwards, historiography of university mostly meant to tell about the own university and to underline its academic brilliance and, first of all, its political value for the government. In later 18th century the influence of enlightenment changed the argumentation and the politically enforced difference between academies and universities made the “identity” of universities more evident. Universities from then on did not understand themselves no longer primarily as instruments of government, but as places of scientific liberty and insofar partly of legal independence. There were conflicts and quarrels about in how far universities should just help to create educated officers for the government or open a field of independence for a “Freedom of science”. All conflict parties published their declarations, which can be used for the historiography of universities nowadays but did not intend to be understood as such. In the beginning of the 19th century the innovation of the modern university, founded by the ideas of Wilhelm of Humboldt in Prussia, and the promotion by the government, but as well the dependence from political support, set new conditions for the development of the universities and it made possible the beginning of an official historiography of university history. Until 1900 the discussion on the liberty of science and universities and their newly defined importance for the beginning nation-states as well as on the growing difference between historical and philosophical disciplines on the one hand, natural-scientific and even technical disciplines on the other hand became more and more important. Historiography of universities and their history was created, but from the beginning on focused on controversies. Rectorate-speeches became a new genus of historiography of universities and it was of great influence. It developed a comparative, modern approach on the history of universities, but was in the same time exploited as political argument in national politics and international conflicts and wartimes. Finally, the end of free discussion and academic discourse on the historiography of universities came with the beginning of the Nazi period in Germany. Modern learned and academic historiography of the history of universities from the middle of the 20th century onwards has got the chance to reestablish discussions on the history of universities from the Middle Ages to contemporary times and even in an international context, but did not yet find to a specific genus of historiography. Resumen: No hay tradición ni género de la historiografía dentro de la escritura de la historia de la universidad en la investigación histórica alemana. En la Edad Media no hay ninguna historiografía de los colegios institucionalizados ni de las primeras universidades. Esto comenzó en época moderna. Desde el principio en el siglo XVII en adelante, la historiografía de la universidad en su mayoría significaba relatar la historia de la propia universidad para subrayar su brillantez académica y, sobre todo, su valor político para el gobierno. A finales del siglo XVIII la influencia de la Ilustración cambia la argumentación y la diferencia impuesta políticamente entre academias y universidades hizo la “identidad” de las universidades más evidente. Universidades que, a partir de entonces, no se entienden a sí mismas ya primariamente como instrumentos de gobierno, sino como lugares de libertad científica y, en parte, de independencia legal. Hubo conflictos y disputas sobre si las universidades debían ayudar a crear los oficiales educados para el gobierno o abrir un campo independiente para la “libertad de la ciencia”. Todas las partes en conflicto publicaron sus declaraciones, que pueden ser utilizados por la historiografía de las universidades hoy en día, pero que no tienen la intención de entenderse como tal. En el comienzo del siglo XIX la innovación de la universidad moderna, fundada por las ideas de Guillermo de Humboldt en Prusia, y la promoción por parte del gobierno, pero a su vez, la dependencia del apoyo político, establecen nuevas condiciones para el desarrollo de las universidades que hicieron posible el inicio de una historiografía oficial de la historia de la universidad. Hasta 1900, el debate sobre la libertad de la ciencia y de las universidades y su importancia recientemente definida para el inicio de los Estados-nación, así como la creciente diferencia entre disciplinas históricas y filosóficas por un lado y científico-naturales e incluso técnicas por otro se volvió cada vez más importante. Una historia e historiografía de las universidades que desde el principio se ha centrado en las controversias. Los discursos de los rectores pasaron a ser un nuevo género muy influyente de la historiografía de las universidades. Se desarrolló un enfoque comparativo, versión moderna de la historia de las universidades, pero que fue al mismo tiempo explotado como argumento político en la política nacional y en los conflictos y tiempos de guerras internacionales. Por último, el final de la discusión libre y del discurso académico sobre la historiografía de las universidades vino con el inicio del período Nazi en Alemania. La historiografía sobre las universidades de mediados del siglo 20 en adelante ha tenido la oportunidad de restablecer los debates sobre la historia de las universidades de la Edad Media hasta la época contemporánea e incluso en el contexto internacional, pero aún no ha encontrado un género historiográfico específico.Keywords: scholarship and politics, confessionalization of universities, conflict of disciplines, utility of scholarship, primacy of disciplines.Palabras clave: universidad y políticas, confesionalidad de las universidades, conflicto de disciplinas, utilidad de la universidad, primacía de disciplinas.