Germanistik, Deutsche Sprache und Literatur
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The stories about the Vaser Valley in the northern Romanian Forest Carpathians have not only fascinated the population of the region, but also famous writers who have always tried to collect the stories and tales from the historical region of the Vaser Valley. The best-known author of this region, who turned his lifelong work into this spectacular project, is the German-speaking ethnologist and writer, of Romanian origin, Anton-Joseph Ilk. His book Die mythische Welt des Wassertales includes a remarkable collection of legends and tales from this region, presented in their orally transmitted stories. The main themes of the stories naturally include customs and traditions, whereby certain values and principles were passed on not only to he children and grandchildren, but also to all succeeding generations.
Briefnormen
(1994)
Richard Wagner hatte ein gebrochenes Verhältnis zum Geld: Er benötigte viel, hatte aber meist so wenig, dass er auf Pump leben musste. Nicht selten war er auf der Flucht vor seinen Gläubigern. Die Erfindung des Geldes hielt er für einen Sündenfall, das Eigentum für die Wurzel allen Übels. Im »Ring des Nibelungen « spiegelt er im Mythos vom Fluch des Goldes die moderne Erfahrung der Macht des Geldes.
The writer Otto Fritz Jickeli (1888-1960) turned to events of the 19th century in his unpublished story Die Kosakenbraut. The revolution of 1848 /49 forms the chronological axis for the events in the description, with their befor and after. The episodes do not lack the unusual moments that occur in times of revolutionary upheaval. As is well known, the Imperial Austrian troops were supported in their fight against Hungarian revolutionaries by the Tsarist Russian army, and the armies of the insurgents finally succumbed to this military alliance of the great powers. The changing fortunes of war, the events effecting private life are vividly presented, also with the help of a spontaneous love affair between a Cossack commander of the Russian army and a Transylvanian woman who, under problematic circumstances, becomes the „Cossack bride” and mother of a half-Cossack. It is both fluent and stimulating reading about the customs and moral concepts of the time, aprose work that testifies to the author’s expertise and also to this sense of humour.
The research reported in this thesis examines two main questions: firstly, which dictionary type, bilingual or monolingual, is most effective for intermediate learners of German for reading comprehension, and secondly, which features make monolingual dictionary definitions effective for these learners. These questions divide the thesis into two parts. The first part compares the effectiveness of the bilingual versus the monolingual dictionary, and the second part compares two different monolingual definition styles.
The research was originally motivated by the observation that Hong Kong Chinese intermediate learners of German prefer to use a German-English bilingual dictionary. Since the translations are presented in the learners' second language, the effectiveness of this bilingual dictionary is doubtful. On the other hand, the learners are reluctant to use the monolingual dictionary, recommended to them by their language teachers. Three investigations were conducted in order to gain more detailed knowledge about the learners' dictionary preference, and the effectiveness of the two dictionary types. The learners' dictionary preference was investigated by means of a survey of ninety-eight foreign language students. The effectiveness of the bilingual and monolingual dictionary for reading comprehension and incidental vocabulary learning was first measured experimentally. The think-aloud method was then used in order to discover factors which determine the effectiveness of the two dictionary types.
The results of the experiment revealed that the German-English bilingual dictionary was not significantly more effective for the learners than the monolingual dictionary. The only monolingual dictionary available for German at that time, however, is linguistically too difficult for this proficiency level. Because of these findings, the research turned to monolingual dictionary definitions with the aim of identifying features that make them accessible to intermediate learners. Based on findings from the first think-aloud study, and principles promoted as user-friendly in the lexicographic literature, new definitions were developed for the target words in the research. These new definitions were compared with those in the existing dictionary. A second think-aloud study was conducted in order to generate hypotheses about individual definition features. These hypotheses were then tested in the second experiment, which was conducted with eighty-six learners of German in Shanghai.
The investigations reveal several features that determine the effectiveness of monolingual definitions for intermediate learners. The findings have theoretical and pedagogical implications. In the theoretical field, some lexicographic principles were recommended that are, unlike previous principles, based on empirical insights into user needs. In the pedagogical field, the research findings provide an empirical basis for the evaluation and recommendation of suitable dictionaries to intermediate learners.
A model of dictionary effectiveness is proposed. This model could help to assess the effectiveness of different information categories in dictionaries for different proficiency levels and different activity contexts. It could also provide lexicographic principles for the design of dictionaries. This research contributes one component to the proposed model: criteria for the effectiveness of definition features for intermediate learners in the activity context of reading.
Lange Zeit gab es in der deutschsprachigen Kinder- und Jugendliteraturkritik keine Unterscheidung zwischen phantastischen Erzählungen und Fantasy. Diese Gattungsdifferenzierung beginnt sich erst ab der Jahrtausendwende durchzusetzen. Betrachtet man das deutsche Textkorpus, das bis dahin global als Phantastik bezeichnet wurde, so lässt sich feststellen, dass der mittlerweile herausgearbeitete Unterschied zwischen phantastischen Erzählungen und Fantasy schon in den 1950er und 1960er Jahren zu erkennen ist. Sowohl die gattungstheoretischen Unterscheidungen als auch die Gattungsbegriffe haben jedoch erst um die Jahrtausendwende eine gewisse Festigkeit gewonnen.
Ein zentrales Anliegen dieser Arbeit ist es, die nicht-realistischen kinder- und jugendliterarischen Werke der Nachkriegsjahrzehnte im Lichte der jüngeren gattungstheoretischen Differenzierungen neu zu bewerten und ggf. zuzuordnen. Gefragt wird, ob in der deutschen Kinder- und Jugendliteratur der 1950er bis 1980er Jahre bereits Werke existieren, welche nach aktuellem Begriffsgebrauch als Fantasy zu bezeichnen sind. Ein dabei zu berücksichtigender Aspekt betrifft die Gattungsgeschichte, welche nicht mit der der englischer bzw. amerikanischer Kinder- und Jugendliteratur vergleichbar ist. Laut einer Definition von Ewers (2013) versuchte die deutsche Kinder- und Jugendliteraturwissenschaft lange Zeit, dem Genre Fantasy „beizukommen“, indem sie diese als ein Sub-Genre der Phantastik ansah. Hierin sieht er einen Irrweg. Sicherlich gibt es Parallelen zwischen phantastischer Erzählung und Fantasy, doch seien diese rein äußerlicher Natur.
Anhand der Definition von Ewers untersucht diese Arbeit, ab wann von Texten gesprochen werden kann, die dem jüngeren Verständnis von Fantasy entsprechen und welche kinder- und jugendliterarischen Werke nach diesem Erkenntnisstand hinzuzuzählen sind. Dabei liegt das Augenmerk auf der Bedeutung und Vorgeschichte von Fantasy-Literatur für den westlichen deutschsprachigen Raum. Methodisch wurde wie folgt vorgegangen: Ein Korpus aus kinder- und jugendliterarischen Texten wurde gebildet. Anschließend wurde dieser im Hinblick auf die in Ewers‘ Definitionsansatz genannten Charakteristika untersucht. Hieraus entwickelte sich der Gedanke, eine für die weiterführende Forschung hilfreichen Klassifizierung der phantastischen Kinder- und Jugendliteratur der Nachkriegszeit zu entwickeln, um den Stellenwert zeitgenössischer Fantasy verdeutlichen zu können.
Schottel
(1908)
Die Verdienste des Justus Georg Schottelius um die deutsche Sprache zu einer Zeit, wo die Fremdländersucht sie in die allerschlimmste Gefahr brachte, daran fast zu Grunde zu gehen und zum Gespötte des Auslandes zu werden, können gar nicht hoch genug angeschlagen werden, und nicht mit Unrecht hat man ihn den grössten Germanisten der Deutschen vor dem Erscheinen des Altmeisters Jacob Grimm genannt. Seine Verdienste um die deutsche Grammatik haben ihre Würdigung gefunden in einer Monographie von F. L. Koldewey unter dem Titel : Justus Georg Schottelius. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der Germanistik. Wolfenbüttel 1899. Seine Totenklage, die hier aufs neue zum Abdruck kommt, ist einer der vielen Stossseufzer, durch die er als wahrer Patriot seinem bedrängten Herzen Luft zu machen suchte. Seine Verse mögen uns abgeschmackt vorkommen und hie und da ein Lächeln abgewinnen, aber wie man sich auch zu dem Ganzen stellen mag, der heilige Ernst, der aus jeder Zeile spricht, ist unverkennbar. Schottels Name verdient mit Recht in einem Zuge mit Wimpfeling und Lauremberg genannt zu werden, deren Namen aus jenen traurigen Tagen glänzend hervorleuchten und deren Begeisterung für alles Vaterländische nicht umhin konnte Anhänger zu werben und Nachfolge zu wecken. Das Original der Lamentatio befindet sich auf der Bibliothek in Wolfenbüttel.
The article deals with the educational language German at German schools abroad and DSD schools in Romania. Schools in regions with autochthonous German minorities are given special consideration, as these contribute to the preservation of the minority‘s cultural identity. Existing empirical studies on language use and language retention at DSD schools are discussed and it is proposed that analyzes should not only be devoted to the norm-orientation in the language use of pupils, but to interactive processes in subject teaching.
The article deals with the promotion of the German language abroad through Germany’s foreign cultural and educational policy. An important concern of the German intermediary organizations abroad is access to culture and education across geographic, political and social borders, but scientific and economic policy. interests, which benefit the needs of the German market, also play a major role. Regarding the fact that more and more skilled workers who are ultimately lacking in their countries of origin are migrating to Germany, the article questions whether it is always a so-called triple-win model.
The story of Hansel and Gretel, published by the German Brothers Grimm, has been translated from German to Turkish many times by many translators. In this context, our study aimed to examine the translation approaches, processes and strategies of translation works produced by different translators and in different years. The sentences forming the source text were selected at random and their equivalents were searched for in three different translation texts. Our research evaluated general translation strategies and included the similarities/differences found in the source and target translation works. As a result, it can be seen that translation strategies such as addition, rearrangement, enlargement and reduction are applied. Our study was examined according to Gideon Toury‘s goal-directed translation theory and tried to determine within the framework of adequacy and acceptability using examples.
Stellenanzeigen in Zeitungen: eine vergleichende Studie anhand deutscher
und kamerunischer Texte
(2023)
Across different cultures in the world, companies recruit new workers by publishing job announcement in newspapers. This contribution examines job announcement in German and Cameroonians newspapers in order to bring out theirs similarities and differences. The analysis reveals that job announcements in both countries are quite similar as far as the communication situation is concerned. Differences and similarities appear in text structure and in the usage of linguistic items.
The Chess Story, written at the end of 1941, is considered internationally to be Stefan Zweig‘s greatest success. At the center of the novella is undoubtedly Dr. B. He comes from a distinguished Austrian family, was the head of a law firm in Vienna, which advised monasteries and part of the imperial family in property matters. When the Nazi occupation of Austria was imminent, the activity became dangerous. A day before Hitler invaded Austria, he was arrested by the Gestapo and imprisoned in the Hotel Metropole. The isolation and monotony wore him down. Shortly before a new interrogation is scheduled, Dr. B. discovers a book with a collection of one hundred and fifty chess games. To escape the threat of nothingness, he plays chess games blind. Playing chess is not understood by Dr. B. as a mere pastime, but as meaning; it has an existential significance.
In his tale „Der Wortmann“, the Transylvanian-German author Traugott Teutsch tells the story of Peter Emerich, an influent man in his community, who is keen on getting rich and climbing up the social ladder, while preserving the image of an honest person. The article follows through different stages the evolution of his mindset up to the point where he repents of his past actions, tries to make amends for some of his mistakes and decides to lead an unselfish life of faithful service to the community. Guilt, repentance and redemption are some of the main topics followed in this article, which constituted also some of the founding stones of the Transylvanian-German collective mentality.
Hauptsacht. 1.1867[21 u. 23/24]: Frankfurter Pechfackel, die man in die Hand nehmen kann, ohne sich zu besudeln, aber nicht angreifen 1.1867,[22] nicht erschienen. Zusatz zum Hauptsachtitel : Nr. 6 [=21] : Ein Gedenkblatt an den Brand des Kaiserdoms und Pfarrthurms zu Frankfurt am 15 August 1867 Nr. 23 & 24 : Ein Erinnerungs-Blatt für rückständige Dombau-Beitragende und solche, die es werden wollen Die anderen Hefte erschienen unter dem Titel: Der wahre Jacob : ein gemüthliches Mainlinienblatt ohne Wasserzeichen, zum Gradausschreiben, auf beiden Seiten zu gebrauchen. s.a. http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/12306
Zeuge schauerlicher Tragik : Erhard von Mutius im Briefwechsel mit Gerhart Hauptmann 1933-1944
(2007)
This article traces patterns of engaging with Budapest‘s topographies in the auto-fictional works by Richard Wagner, Cătălin Dorian Florescu und Peter Rosenthal. Through a dialogical reading of their novels, the article highlights the links and overlaps between the genre of autofiction and space. The article argues that through mapping fictional settings and routes on a real map of Budapest, one may explore the intersection of literature and geography and the ways in which space influences the movement and behavior of the characters.
Using the example of Herta Müller‘s novels written after her emigration into the Federal Republic of Germany, the article shows how digital tools can be used to classify the fragmented space that unfolds in the writings of the Nobel Prize winner into a clear model structure. Quantitative research methods are combined with a database-driven GIS analysis toolkit to illustrate the weighting of the fictionalized locations given their gravity centers and polarities. The series of maps show both the density and spread of the action places, as well as the meanings which are attached to the literary space.
Towards a German grammar programme for post-leaving certificate students at Dublin City University
(1999)
With the introduction of the communicative method of language learning, overall standards of grammatical competence and performance among Irish second level students would appear to have been significantly reduced. As a consequence, learners who continue to study a given language at third level apparently no longer possess the knowledge which, under the grammar-translation methodology, further education institutions were able to build upon. This thesis examines the basis for the above perceptions, investigates the role of formal grammar instruction in the second language acquisition process and reports on a programme which was developed at Dublin City University (DCU) in order to ease, for Irish university students of German, the transition from a primarily memory-based approach to language acquisition to the analytical approach which is still being considered crucial to a university student's linguistic education. While the research was undertaken in response to locally existing difficulties, it may also be considered as a case study of more general interest, and as such serve as an exemplar to German departments in other universities as well as to other foreign language departments both within DCU or outside. The aim of the programme under investigation was to ease the transition on a socio-affective, cognitive and metacognitive level without lowering overall proficiency expectations and standards. Primary research was conducted among secondary school teachers, post-Leaving Certificate students on entry into DCU and among third level lecturers. The purpose of this research was to identify and define the programme’s content and progression. To this effect, the German junior and senior cycle syllabi at second level were also taken into consideration. The subsequent German grammar programme was implemented at DCU in the academic year 1996/7. While the programme would appear to have been judged favourably regarding some affective and cognitive-motivational aspects, results show mixed success rates for the other two factors under investigation, cognitive-analytical and metacognitive skills. Thus, some degree courses and some language combinations clearly benefited more from the programme than others. One of the conclusions drawn from this research suggests that unless certain changes are introduced prior to students’ entry into third level, university graduates are likely to remain well below the standards of accuracy and overall proficiency which were previously achieved.
Textbuch. Einheitssachtitel: Dafne : Libretto <dt.> Bibliogr. Nachweis: Thiel, Libretti Nr. 513; Dünnhaupt, Opitz Nr. 89. Vorlageform des Erscheinungsvermerks: In Verlegung David Müllers/ Buchführers in Breßlaw . Anmerkung: Sekundärausg Binder's title: Martini Opitii Deutsche Poemata Based on Ottavio Rinuccini's opera of the same name Lacks music Faber du Faur ; no.210 OCLC: 18-05-87
Wikipedia (28.02.2008): Kolonial-Deutsch ist eine von dem Kolonialbeamten Emil Schwörer im Jahr 1916 veröffentlichte Plansprache. Schwörer entwarf dieses Pidgin für die Kommunikation in Deutsch-Südwestafrika und publizierte eine 62-Seiten umfassende Broschüre mit dem Titel "Vorschläge einer künftigen deutschen Kolonialsprache in systematisch grammatikalischer Darstellung und Begründung". Schwörer verarbeitete dabei Erkenntnisse über das Pidgin-Englisch sowie über die Bantu-Sprachen und Suaheli. Seine Kolonialsprache war eine vereinfachte Version des Deutschen, die beeinflusst war von den afrikanischen Kontaktsprachen. Seine Vorschläge wurden nie in die Praxis umgesetzt.
The article is devoted to a historical German settlement in present-day Slovakia, since the small German minority of the lumberjacks/woodcutters (Slovak. Huncokári) has received little attention. The urgency of the need for research is also pointed out, since there are only very few speakers of this dialect left. The article therefore informs about some background of the settlement history, the present state and about approaches for ethnological field research.
Die Klemenskirche : Erzählung aus der Zeit der Raubritter ; für die deutsche Jugend und das Volk
(1885)
Romane in Zeitungen
(1900)
Die Form von Reinmars Leich
(1995)
The new forms and practices of communication on the Internet open up an interdisciplinary field of research within which social media interaction is a central research area. In the first months after the outbreak of the Corona pandemic (2020), fake news has been spread massively via social media. Social media data allow the extraction of large amounts of data and can be used in a variety of ways, e.g., to detect side effects of drugs or to identify groups of people who are critical of certain treatments. Drawing on comments on the discussion platform Reddit, the article reveals the role of everyday experience in fixing knowledge about the placebo effect.
In the context of the emergence of various online dictionaries and platforms that also address phraseological units, their usefulness is being questioned and their potential examined in order to illustrate new directions in the development of digital phraseography. The article shows special traits in the formation of lexicographical content in two selected online dictionaries, using the lemma “cat” as example.
The present text is dedicated to an anthology of German poetry from Romania, which was collected in 1980 but could not be published during the communist dictatorship and was subsequently published in 2022 to great success on the German book market. The anthology illustrates the fact that a modern movement parallel to the one in Germany emerged within the insular German-language literature in Romania, developing a set of very distinct particularities.
The book Dante und das Gedächtnis [Dante and Memory], published in 2021 by Schwabe Verlag Basel, is a complex interdisciplinary study addressing the issue of memory in the works of the medieval Italian writer and philosopher Dante Alighieri. The study is focused on a “historical approach”, but the investigation of the Commedia and Vita Nova makes use of narratological concepts as well. Monaco sets out to identify and interpret the reflections on memory present in Dante’s work.
The well-documented and systematized study comprises a lot of new information about the poet, politician, and exile Dante Alighieri
The present contribution provides an analysis of Dirk Oschmann’s volume, Freiheit und Fremdheit. Kafkas Romane [Freedom and Foreignness. Kafka’s novels]. The main idea, already announced in the title, is followed throughout the entire volume. A corpus of texts consisting of Kafka’s three novels and some of his best short stories is analyzed (Die Verwandlung, Bericht für eine Akademie, and In der Strafkolonie). The selected texts are considered stories of internal or external displacement that address and depict freedom and foreignness mostly using spatial displacement. The method used is close reading, the author carefully interprets text passages, goes into details, nuances of meaning, and linguistic features of the Kafkaesque texts. The analysis draws on syntagms and statements made by characters who discuss these themes.
Ein straffred diogenis Philosophi, uber das viehische verkerte Leben menschliches geschlechts
(1590)
Während der nationalsozialistischen Zeit und beginnend schon die Jahrzehnte davor, beobachtet man eine auffallende Zunahme von Jugendschriften aller Art, die auf altnordischer Literatur basierten. Es waren Adaptionen von Isländer- und Königssagas sowie der Snorra- und Lieder-Edda. Die Arbeit versucht Ursachen dafür zu finden und beschreibt dazu auch das Umfeld der Jugendlichen und die Strategien und Ziele, die man in der Erziehung im völkischen und nationalsozialistischen Sinn anhand der behandelten Literatur verfolgte.
Previous studies suggest that the application of Controlled Language (CL) rules can significantly improve the readability, consistency, and machine-translatability of source text. One of the justifications for the application of CL rules is that they can have a similar impact on several target languages by reducing the post-editing effort required to bring Machine Translation (Ml’) output to acceptable quality. In certain situations, however, post-editing services may not always be a viable solution. Web-based information is often expected to be made available in real-time to ensure that its access is not restricted to certain users based on their locale. Uncertainties remain with regard to the actual usefulness of MT output for such users, as no empirical study has examined the impact of CL rules on the usefulness, comprehensibility, and acceptability of MT technical documents from a Web user's perspective. In this study, a two-phase approach is used to determine whether Controlled English rules can have a significant impact on these three variables. First, individual CL rules are evaluated within an experimental environment, which is loosely based on a test suite.Two documents are then published and subject to a randomised evaluation within the framework of an online experiment using a customer satisfaction questionnaire. The findings indicate that a limited number of CL rules have a similar impact on the comprehensibility of French and German output at the segment level. The results of the online experiment show that the application of certain CL rules has the potential to significantly improve the comprehensibility of German MT technical documentation. Our findings also show that the introduction of CL rules did not lead to any significant improvement of the comprehensibility, usefulness, and acceptability of French MT technical documentation.
Thomas Manns "Fiorenza"
(1921)
The article intends to present some facts about the medieval history of the Saxons in the Wallachian town of Câmpulung Muscel/Langenau. German-speaking colonists were settled in Langenau around the 13th century, and their traces can be followed until the middle of the 18th century. A German language document from the 16th century will serve as an illustration, depicting the relations between the Transylvanian Saxons from Râșnov/Rosenau and the population of Câmpulung Muscel/Langenau. The linguistic peculiarities of the document are discussed, as well as the problems of its transcription, which led to different publication variants. This document is also interesting because it contains many Romanian names of persons.
Using the example of the village novel Three Kilometers from the final phase of the Ceaușescu dictatorship, the article follows the discovery of memory, examining the image of the Banat village community, which is dominated by hopelessness, fear and thoughts of flight. The emptiness and the cold motif used at the end point to the dissolution of the Swabian village world. The Banat village is presented at the interface between real life reality and a landscape of memories.
Die Essayistik Herta Müllers
(2022)
The article follows the two volumes of essays The King Bows and Kills (2003) and Always the same snow and always the same uncle (2011) written by Herta Müller. Politics and aesthetics define the Nobel laureate’s writing, with her essays anchored in Romania’s recent history. They are of a political nature, offer retrospectives on their life in Romania beyond the Iron Curtain, insights into the dictatorial past, persecution by the secret service, the betrayal of closest friends, but also contain reflections on the role of the language, the preference for Romanian, on the use of “The King” in their fictional texts, explain their “alien gaze”. Always the same snow and always the same uncle focuses on the deportation of the Romanian Germans to the Ukraine, with the information serving as a companion work to the novel Hunger angel. The betrayal of closest friends is also discussed, whereby the insight into their files and the past of Oskar Pastior/Otto Stein’s files are used.
The present study shed some light on the socalled Türkenbüchlein (The Turks Booklet) by analyzing, in what extent, a literary work on the history, culture, and religion of the Turks a widely disseminated book in the 15th century, belonging to Georg from Hungary (also “Der Ungenannte Mühlbächer,” “Rumeser Student,” Captivus Septemcastrensis, c. 1422–3 July 1502), is still worth reading. Undoubtedly, it would be necessary to investigate what made the book so popular in the past and what could make it a bestseller today. The article reveals the story of the book`s creation and success, as well as, the multifaceted personality of the main character.
Johann Christian Josef Ommerborn wurde 1863 in der preußisch-bergischen Kreisstadt Lennep geboren. Einer seiner Vorfahren war der bekannte Pastor Johann Peter Ommerborn, der 1795 den Widerstand der bergischen Bauern gegen die französischen Revolutionstruppen organisiert hatte. Von seinem Vater erbte Ommerborn nach eigener Aussage die Lust zu fabulieren und die ausgeprägte soziale Anteilnahme, ebenso ein tiefgehende religiöses Bedürfnis. Eine höhere Schulbildung blieb ihm verschlossen. Bis zum 30. Lebensjahre war Ommerborn Fabrikarbeiter und gehörte wechselnden sozialdemokratischen bzw. anarchistischen Bewegungen an. Schon früh schrieb er zahlreiche Kriminal- und Kolportageromane, später Novellen und Erzählungen mit christlichen und sozialen Themen. "Dass ich schreibe, ist lediglich meine Parteinahme für die letzten der Gesellschaft" formulierte er in einem eigenhändigen Lebenslauf, und " seit 1910 gehöre ich der reformierten Kirche an". Ommerborns Lebensweg war unruhig und vagabundenhaft. In fortgeschrittenem Alter gründete er eine Landstraßenmission in Wuppertal-Barmen, war ihr Leiter, ging selbst missionierend und helfend auf die Straße und gab die "Vierteljahreshefte für Landstraßenmission" heraus. Sein Verhältnis zur etablierten Kirche war zwiespältig bis ablehnend. Der Roman Pastor Hans Kroppman spielt überwiegend in Ommerborns Geburtsstadt Lennep, manche Namen legen den Verdacht eines Schlüsselromans nahe. Jedoch ist das eigentliche Thema die Entwicklung des katholisch geborenen Titelhelden, der später evangelischer Pfarrer wird. Dabei werden soziale Zustände und innerkirchliche Kämpfe geschildert. Ommerborn starb 1938 in Wuppertal-Barmen.
German-language literature of the Banat develops under specific historical circumstances amidst a multiethnic Region, in which the multiple social-political, religious and linguistic relations to Romanians, Hungarians, Serbs and Jews find their immediate expression. The beginning of the German-language writings of the Banat Swabians are under the aegis of the Austrian model, especially of the Viennese model. Here one mainly includes the extremely stimulating press and theater tradition of the Banat, which can still be remarked in the interwar period, and which created the conditions for the unfolding of a lively spiritual life. Johann Friedel born in Timișoara, an outstanding representative of Josephine epistolary satire, was considered on account of his novels and letters to be the founder of the local German-language writings by several scholars.
In comparison to the Transsylvanian-Saxon or to the German-speaking Bukowina literature the modernists exerted a more reduced influence on the literature of the Banat Swabians. Franz Xaver Kappus (1883-1966) influenced the literary modernists in the Western part of Romania especially through his expressionistic texts. He became famous thanks to his correspondence with Rainer Maria Rilke. The masterpiece Die lebenden Vierzehn (The Fourteeen Survivors) (1918) is swayed by a collective catastrophe and represents a certain kind of utopia, which anticipates the end of the world. A dread causing image with a peculiar unreality shapes the event. Kappus’ fantasy does not shrink back from images of dread and horror. As in the expressionistic literature any destruction of the harmonious beautiful principle comes about in dread. The grotesque features belong to the expressionistic character of the book. It is interesting that the dreadful and the grotesque show their demonic side and with it they destroy the familiar reality. Such a development demonstrates that Kappus follows a tradition to which also E. T. A. Hoffmann, Frank Wedekind, Franz Kafka or Georg Heym belong. There are also streaks of naturalism in the novel.
A.E. Johann (1901-1996), relying on his experience of over sixty years of travelling around the world, left behind a wealth of literary and journalist material, in which he often addresses topics and issues related to the United States of America. This paper’s objective is to analyze the reflections and observations of this writer and journalist included in the travel report from the period of the Weimar Republic and entitled America. Untergang am Überfluß (1932) as compared with his later creative output of a more autobiographical nature and developed between 1989 to 1992 (Dies wilde Jahrhundert, 1989; Schön war die Welt. Erinnerungen an die großen Reisen, 1992). Thus, continuity and change in his perception and image of America will be investigated; moreover, at attempt will be made to answer the question to what extent this perception and image have evolved throughout six decades (or one should rather ask why this image hardly changes with the passage of time and the emergence of new circumstances). This once very popular writer, whose books were sold in high volume, for many years could not enjoy the attention and focus of literary scholars. Accordingly, this paper aims to expand the knowledge about him and boost the discussion on German (anti-) Americanism.