Universitätspublikationen
51 search hits
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Identität zwischen Selbstverständnis und Fremdzuschreibung : auf Spurensuche in Biografie und Werk jüdischer Sozialwissenschaftler ; [Rezension]
(2007)
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Thorsten Benkel
- Rezension zu: Amalia Barboza, Christoph Henning : Deutsch-jüdische Wissenschaftsschicksale – Studien über Identitätskonstruktionen in der Sozialwissenschaft. Transcript Verlag, Bielefeld 2006, ISBN 3899425022, 288 Seiten, 28,80 Euro.
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Wie weit Anekdoten wandern : Stolleis spürt mit philologisch-historischem Scharfsinn den Quellen von Hebels Geschichten nach ; [Rezension]
(2007)
- Rezension zu: Michael Stolleis: Brotlose Kunst. Vier Studien zu Johann Peter Hebel (Sitzungsberichte der wissenschaftlichen Gesellschaft an der Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main, Bd. XLIV, Nr. 2), Stuttgart 2006, ISBN 13: 978-3-515-08916-6, Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart 2006, 19 Euro.
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Woher kommen wir? : Neue Bücher zur Evolutionsbiologie ; [Rezension]
(2007)
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Stephan M. Hübner
- Rezensionen zu: Thomas Junker : Die Evolution des Menschen. Verlag C. H. Beck, München 2006 ISBN 978-3-406-53609-0, 127 Seiten, 7,90 Euro. Guillaume Lecointre, Hervé Le Guyader : Biosystematik. Verlag Springer, Heidelberg 2006. ISBN 978-3-540-24037-2. 696 Seiten, 39,95 Euro. Ulrich Kutschera : Evolutionsbiologie. 2. Auflage, Verlag Eugen Ulmer, Stuttgart 2006. ISBN 978-3-8252-8318-6 303 Seiten, 39,90 Euro. Volker Knoop, Kai Müller : Gene und Stammbäume. Verlag Elsevier/Spektrum, München 2006 ISBN 978-3-8274-1642-1. 310 Seiten, 29,50 Euro.
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Das Auge als Richter : zu Unrecht in Vergessenheit geraten, von Claus Zittel neu übersetzt und kommentiert: Descartes’ "Die Meteore" ; [Rezension]
(2007)
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Alexander Bagattini
- Rezension zu: Descartes: Die Meteore (Les Météores), übersetzt und kommentiert von Claus Zittel, Verlag Vittorio Klostermann, Frankfurt 2006, erschienen in der Reihe »Zeitsprünge«, Forschungen zur Frühen Neuzeit, Band 10 (2006), ISBN-10: 3465034511, 339 Seiten, 32 Euro.
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Rettet unser Klima! : Preisgekröntes Sachbuch erläutert den Klimawandel ; [Rezension]
(2007)
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Jessica Kuch
- Rezension zu: Tim Flannery: Wir Wettermacher – Wie die Menschen das Klima verändern und was das für unser Leben auf der Erde bedeutet. S. Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2006, ISBN 3-10-021109-5, 397 Seiten, 19,90 Euro.
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Vom Ursprung und Zweck des Universums : eine Reise an den Nullpunkt der Zeit ; [Rezension]
(2007)
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Alexander Ulfig
- Rezension zu: Peter Eisenhardt : Der Webstuhl der Zeit – Warum es die Welt gibt. Rowohlt Taschenbuch Verlag, Reinbek bei Hamburg 2006, ISBN-13: 978-3-499-60884-1, 380 Seiten, 12,90 Euro.
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Rezension zu: Ingemar König, Die Spätantike (2007)
(2007)
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Alexander Heising
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Rezension zu: Gregor Maurach, Interpretation lateinischer Texte. Ein Lehrbuch zum Selbstunterricht (2007)
(2007)
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Peter Probst
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[Rezension zu:] Jonathan Wagner. A History of Migration from Germany to Canada, 1850-1939. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 2006. 281 pp. Notes, bibliography, index. $29.95 (paper), ISBN 9780774812153
(2007)
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Andreas Fahrmeir
- Jonathan Wagner has written a monograph on a migration movement that was in many ways a peripheral one. From a Canadian perspective, Germans accounted for a relatively minor share of immigrants, compared to former residents of the British Isles, of eastern or southern Europe. Seen from Germany, Canada was one of many destinations for migrants who wished to leave the country and were prepared to travel over long distances, but were, for whatever reason, not attracted by the United States, the destination for the overwhelming majority of transcontinental emigrants. Nevertheless, the movement from Germany to Canada was significant in absolute and often symbolic terms. The way Wagner tells it, the story of German-Canadian migration was a tale of parallel experiences: both Germany and Canada experienced federation and increasing international autonomy from the 1860s; both were ruled by domineering conservative figures presiding over de facto liberalization in the 1870s; both participated in the First World War, and both went through traumatic economic crises in the interwar period. The book is organized chronologically in four chapters, covering 1850-70, 1870-90, 1890-1914 and 1919-39, which treat four main topics. The first thread linking the chapters is the development of Canadian immigration policy, which refers both to restrictions on or incentives for certain classes of immigrants, and the measures Canadian governments took to attract German would-be emigrants to Canada. The second theme, linked to the first one, is the German view of emigration to Canada and political steps taken to encourage or, more frequently, hinder it. The third issue concerns what one might call classical migration history: an analysis of the quantitative aspects of migration flows and of push and pull factors which influenced migration decisions. Finally, every chapter discusses the experience of the journey. These four argumentative threads produce different impressions. Canadian immigration policy emerges as a missed opportunity. Canadian governments were slow to seize chances in Germany either by establishing official representatives, agreeing to activists' initiatives, or developing a realistic and yet attractive image of Canada that moved beyond the focus on the cold and nature in its romanticized or threatening variants. Part of the problem appears to have been the need to adapt Canadian activities to U.S. ones, which all too often appears to have resulted in the description of Canada as a version, whether inferior or superior, of the United States. The initial failure to attract German settlers had long-term consequences, because it meant that Canada lacked the basis for the chain migration that proved to be the most effective way of attracting immigrants. Immigration policy inclined to general openness in the beginning of the period, but turned increasingly selective as the federal government introduced and refined regulations that allowed immigration officials to bar entrants or deport alien residents on the grounds of poverty, ill health, or poor moral character. German emigration policy was equally ambivalent. In principle, emigration was possible and permissible, despite various bureaucratic and financial hurdles. Some local governments encouraged and assisted the emigration of paupers to alleviate financial burdens and ease social tensions, but such programs had largely ended by the 1860s. By contrast, the imperial and state governments looked askance at emigration agents, because they were suspected of distributing false or misleading information in order to separate emigrants from their money. Several Canadian agents came into conflict with these emigration restrictions in the imperial period, sometimes spending time in prison as a result. Wagner's assessment of the quantities of migration focuses on global figures and the economic situation in both countries; less information is offered on settlement patterns or patterns of regional origin. The history of the journey, by contrast, is one of progress: travel became safer, swifter and more comfortable with the introduction of new types of ships and regular, more reliable railway connections. Covering a broad topic in very limited space is always a particular challenge. Wagner's approach of combining the political, economic, cultural, and technological history of two countries for almost a century in just over 200 pages of text presents a clear picture and a cogent argument, but obviously involves sacrifices. The book is based on a broad reading of archival records as well as printed, secondary works on emigration and emigration policy in Germany. The primary focus remains, however, on the Canadian side of the equation. The description of the German political and economic context is sometimes very brief, and this is reflected in the bibliography, which lacks the type of general works on German history which are found for Canada. What is more regrettable is the lack of quantitative information on the travel experience, such as length of journeys, common routes, ticket prices, or the distribution of classes in which emigrants traveled. The narrative is also framed in a particular way. Frequent references to missed opportunities suggests that it would have been possible to imagine a more fruitful cooperation between Canada and Germany, countries with sometimes similar experiences and complementary needs, that would have led to more extensive emigration or immigration. Yet, the author never explains how Canada could have been made more attractive than the United States in the nineteenth century (when, after all, quite a number of Canadians and immigrants from Britain decided to move south of the border after experiencing life in Canada as well), given that earnings prospects tended to be higher, the United States had more German communities, and emigration to Canada did not meet German policy goals, which by the later nineteenth century, included directing emigrants to ethnic German communities that might form the core of future political dependencies or close allies of the German Empire.[1] Aside from the fact that it would always have been possible to write a book differently, however, the strength of Wagner's account stand out far more than the potentially controversial choices of emphasis and interpretation. Wagner has written a concise, yet comprehensive survey which covers the main themes of German emigration history to Canada and combines approaches from economic, political, and cultural history in an innovative and convincing way.
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[Rezension zu:] Jochen Oltmer. Migration und Politik in der Weimarer Republik. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2005. 564 pp. Illustrations, tables, notes, bibliography, index. EUR 49.90 (cloth), ISBN 978-3-525-36-282-x
(2007)
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Andreas Fahrmeir
- The history of German migration policies was a growth industry during the 1990s. The political battles of the present, such as asylum legislation, integration, and citizenship reform, created growing interest in the German historical experience of migration, migration controls and citizenship law. At the time, the only major work to tackle the subject was Klaus Bade's pioneering study of Prussian migration policies before the First World War, recently republished in an updated edition.[1] Initially, interest in German migration policies was guided largely by two leading questions. Histories of citizenship in Germany tended to adopt a long or a comparative perspective, which sought to test the hypothesis that German citizenship law and its implementation in practice reflected a particularly ethnic German conception of nationhood.[2] Histories of migration policy, by contrast, tended to focus on particular episodes in which a German tendency to view migrants primarily with regard to their usefulness, and not as potential immigrants and future citizens, clearly emerged, especially with regards to histories of the German Empire, the First World War, National Socialism, the Second World War and the post-war treatment of Gastarbeiter. The Weimar Republic, in contrast, was usually passed over in a few pages that highlighted the continuity of labor market control.[3] This state of affairs was remarkable because research on other countries highlighted the interwar period as an epoch of massive change in international migration policies. Race and ethnicity loomed larger than they had before, as indicated by the implementation of a quota system and barred zones in the United States. Moreover, with the First World War came the introduction of documentation requirements and the creation of labor-management bureaucracies that facilitated the distinction between citizens and aliens, as well as attempts to match labor supply to labor demand. Gérard Noiriel had even gone so far as to argue, largely with a view to migration and documentation policies, that the practices of Vichy had their roots in republican reforms of the late 1920s and 1930s.[4] Jochen Oltmer's magisterialHabilitationsschrift closes this gap all but completely. Based on a thorough reading of the archival record and contemporary public debate, his book shows that the transition from the politics of the First World War to the politics of National Socialism in the years of a labor shortage was more complicated previously assumed. He also highlights that migration policy was a field in which the Weimar Republic's problems emerged with particular poignancy. Oltmer's account is organized thematically rather than chronologically, though his subjects are arranged in the order in which they emerged as the main foci of internal administrative and public political debate. In the Weimar Republic's early years, these topics concerned ethnic Germans left outside the Empire's post-Versailles borders, prisoners of war and political refugees. In the later years, the position of migrant workers gained more prominence. While publicly committed to aiding fellow Germans, the republic's practice was ambivalent. The arrival of former residents of Alsace--mostly skilled workers in industries where labor was in demand, from a territory unlikely to be re-conquered soon--was welcome, but emigration of ethnic Germans from areas under Polish control was actively discouraged. The official view of these potential emigrants was less positive, their numbers were larger by several orders of magnitude and maintaining a visible German minority outside Germany's eastern borders seemed a good way to bolster the German case for a revision of the Treaty of Versailles. Migrants from Poland who could not prove they had been persecuted could therefore only expect accommodation in forbidding refugee camps in remote locations. As Oltmer's third chapter shows, this attitude also shaped the Weimar Republic's response to ethnic German emigration from Russia, which peaked during the famine years of the 1920s. Individual ethnicity was, therefore, not a dominant factor in the treatment of refugees; aliens of all ethnic backgrounds remained in a precarious position in the Weimar Republic, regardless of whether they were former prisoners of war who had opted to stay, or Jewish refugees from eastern and southeastern Europe who loomed relatively large in public debates or refugees from Soviet Russia. Ethnicity and race also loomed large in debates on the desirability of labor immigration. In general, the attitudes of state governments had more or less come full circle since the days of the empire. Whereas Prussia had been most concerned about the impact of Polish immigrants on national homogeneity before 1914, Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg proved most rigid after 1919. However, the majority of migrant workers were interested in jobs in Prussia, in the industrial areas of the Ruhr and, more prominently, in the agricultural east, which continued to rely on the access to Polish labor markets, particularly for potato planting and harvesting. In theory, the states and the empire had a powerful new tool to control labor migration: the obligatory work permit, issued only if no German applicants could be found for a job. Things were, however, not so simple in practice. Political interest in ethnic homogeneity was equal to interest in increasing the supply of food, a goal that could only be achieved, East Elbian landowners claimed, if Polish seasonal workers remained available to German employers. Immigration was, however, regarded with distaste by the völkisch right, Prussia's conservative bureaucracy and the Social Democrats, who viewed Polish laborers as an obstacle to the long-overdue modernization of rural Prussia through mechanization and unionization. The solution, fixed quotas for migrant laborers set to decline every year, proved unworkable, as rural employers turned to undocumented laborers. Moreover, the German government did its bit to undermine respect for legality in immigration matters. Seeking to reimpose a de facto policy forcing Polish migrants to return home for part of the year to prevent their settlement in Poland, German officials came into conflict with Polish determination to cut the state's ties to long-term emigrants, and were frequently forced to aid migrants in clandestinely crossing the border, before an unequal agreement could be concluded with Poland in 1927 that confirmed the status of Polish workers as second-class migrants excluded from social insurance and subject to a forced return for part of the year. Oltmer's comprehensively documented study does more than simply fill a gap in existing research. He unearths a striking pattern to Weimar policies, which could be found in many other fields of policy and may contribute to explaining why successive Weimar governments had such a difficult time in gaining the population's respect. Public pronouncements frequently contradicted secret or semi-secret policies. Official quotas for foreign workers, for example, were unofficially raised and little attempt was made to sanction employers of undocumented workers. Such actions exposed the Republic to criticism from the right and created a climate in which even more restrictive National Socialist policies could acquire broad popular support. Oltmer's book thus treats a question at the center, not the periphery, of the Weimar years.
