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This essay deals with the intertextuality of the 21st century novel Zaira by the Swiss-Romanian writer Cătălin Dorian Florescu and the 21th century tragedy Zaire by Voltaire. It is analysed whether the name of the female protagonist Zaira is used by Florescu by accident or whether he refers to Voltaire. Furthermore, the differences between East and West brought up in the novel and the tragedy are examined. There are some similarities to be found as to the topoi of the selling respectively buying of women or fate deciding about the life of the protagonists. However, in the author’s opinion they don`t justify the assumption that Florescu knows the text by Voltaire or even uses it in his own novel.

The present article concentrates on the activity of Hermine Pilder-Klein as theoretician and translation critic. (Hermine Pilder-Klein: translator from Romanian to German of the second half of the 20th century carried out 80 translations from this cultural space in the period 1933-1972. Horst Schuller makes reference to 2 articles that are kept in the archive of the Museum of Gundelsheim: 1. a review of the volume Siebenbürgisch Sächsisches Wörterbuch (Transylvanian Saxon Dictionary) published in Bucharest. The review was published in the No. 4/1972 of the periodical Vierteljahresblätter in München; 2. a critical presentation of the volume Rumänische Volksmärchen (Romanian Folk Tales) edited by Ovidiu Bârlea and Felix Karlinger (the volume was published in 1969 in Düsseldorf/Köln: Eugen Diederichs Verlag), the work bearing the title Übersetzung-Schlüssel und Brücke (Translation – Key and Bridge) (1977), remained unpublished and was taken over by Horst Schuller in the present article.

The adequate assessment of lexicographical approaches to phraseologisms requires certain evaluation criteria. Among the aspects to be assessed are, besides the arrangement of the front, middle and back matter and the selection of material, the macrostructural organization and the quality of the microstructural components. The present article focuses on the lexicographical standards set for phraseological dictionaries by metalexicographical researchers in the field of German Studies, while it critically examines the macro- and microstructural profile of special phraseological dictionaries developed in Romania with German as a target and source language. This examination has revealed serious shortcomings regarding both the conceptual orientation and the construction of dictionary entries. These shortcomings may influence the use of dictionaries by translators and non-native speakers as well, who represent the actual target group.

Dieter Schlesak’s novel VLAD. Die DraculaKorrektur tries to deconstruct in an original manner the myth of Dracula by proposing a new approach of the subject: instead of the homonymous literary motif, the author deals with the literary figure Vlad Ţepeş. The originality of this approach lies in the fact that Schlesak does not present the reader with a classical heroic figure, instead he deliberately prefers fiction to the attributes of the classic historic novel. Thus he operates not only with a polyphonic text, but also with intertextualism, creating a novel of impressing complexity. This way of dealing with the subject is sustained by the main character, conceived as a decadent Renaissance prince and a prisoner between two antagonic universes, as well as by the whole constellation of real and fictional characters that define his contradictory personality. Dieter Schlesak has accepted the risk of being criticised by his countrymen as well as by historians, deliberately trying to change the Western readers’ perception of this legendary Romanian figure. By creating a literary character that rejects the Western stereotypes and the Romanian prejudices, he manages to prove the potential of the literary figure of Dracula.

Uwe Timm and Robert Schiff have both written an autobiographical text dealing with the premature death of an elder brother who was a combattant in the Waffen-SS in their childhood. Despite the frappantly similar biographical constellation, there are differences in narrative technique and thematical focus that stem from their respective sociocultural context. The analysis shows that Timm is in many ways a representative author of the German ‘68 generation that critically reevaluates the attitude of their parents during the national socialist period and points to omissions and falsifications in the oral family history, while the narration of Schiff, an emigrated author born in the pre-war milieu of the German minority of Southwest Romania, is mainly a reconstruction of the impact of big history on his childhood and thus also the effort to conserve the memory of a world that has passed away and to reconcile himself with the experience of loss.