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In February 1943 intermarried Germans gathered in the now famous Rosenstrasse to protest the feared deportation of their Jewish spouses. This book examines the competing representations of the Rosenstrasse protest in contemporary Germany, demonstrating how cultural memories of this event are intertwined with each other and with concepts of identity. It analyses these shifting patterns of memory and what they reveal about the dynamics of the past–present relationship from the earliest post-unification period up to the present day. Interdisciplinary in its approach, the book provides insights into the historical debate surrounding the protest, accounts in popular history and biography, an analysis of von Trotta’s 2003 film Rosenstraße, and an exploration of the multiple memorials to this historical event.

The study reveals that the protest’s remembrance is fraught with competing desires: to have a less encumbered engagement with this past and to retain a critical memory of the events that allows for a recognition of both heroism and accountability. It concludes that we are on the cusp of witnessing a new shift in remembering that reflects contemporary socio-political tensions with the resurgence of the far right, noting how this is already becoming visible in existing representations of the Rosenstrasse protest.

As a result of ongoing political transformation, post-communist countries are opening up to a global world and its influence. This poses new challenges and complicates the socialisation process of young people. In this book, the authors ask what orientation changes can follow, when they are determined by the resources of innovativeness of a young generation and structural limitations of a system. The basis of analyses were different types of national and international sources, collected in reference to nine post-communist countries in Europe and Asia. The comparison leads to a surprising conclusion: It is difficult to perceive representatives of the first generation, whose growing up has taken place only in the new political system, as «the drivers of the change».

Étienne Clémentel (1864-1936) fait partie des oubliés de la Troisième République. La présente biographie, initiée par sa petite fille, est la première qui lui soit consacrée sur une véritable scène éditoriale. Cet ouvrage est le fruit d’un travail collectif. Il explore le parcours d’un élu local, d’un parlementaire, d’un ministre, rendu original par une trajectoire sociale ascendante et une vocation artistique constamment affirmée et exploitée.

Bien qu’il ait été présent à de nombreux tournants de l’histoire(la séparation de l’Église et de l’État, la Grande Guerre et ses conséquences, le cartel des Gauches), son action fut moins politique que structurelle et économique. Aux commandes du front économique en tant que ministre dans tous les gouvernements qui se sont succédé entre 1915 et 1919, il joua un rôle fondamental dans l’organisation de la victoire de 1918, dans la diplomatie économique et dans la structuration nouvelle de l’espace public.

This book comprises a systematic analysis of Karl Marx’s reasoning on ownership. Marx as the author of an original theory of ownership is yet to be discovered. The creator of a theory which was to interpret social reality is quite a different thinker from the creator of a doctrine which was to alter the world. In designing communist society, Marx ignored the threats which social property bears, despite having skillfully identified them in investigations of diverse pre-capitalistic forms of common ownership. The author seeks to break through one-sided interpretations which discern in Marx a decisive critique of private property and an apologia of common ownership. It becomes apparent that Marx treated both the processes of socialization and privatization of ownership with equal consideration.

In the aftermath of the Persian Wars, not only new geopolitical borders were established in the Hellenic world, but there also emerged an intracultural line between the worlds of oral and increasing textual modes of communication. This book seeks to prove that these cultural changes are mirrored in a verbal work of art in the texts of Herodotus. The analysis of his texts, by applying the natural narratology theory, shows a specific and extraordinary mediacy between both approaches to communication. On the one hand, his «Histories» present a general account of the recent Greek history in a rationalizing and personal narrative of the historian who codifies it in a textual framework. On the other hand, they seem to consist of a conglomerate of numerous oral stories, which may assume a conversational narration structure.

Between 1904 and 1907, German soldiers, settlers and mercenaries committed mass murder in Africa. Can this be considered the first genocide of the 20th century? Was it a forecast of the Third Reich’s extermination policy in Central and Eastern Europe? This book provides the answer. Based on extensive archival and library research in Tansania, Namibia, South Africa, Germany and Poland as well as on the most recent and up-to-date jurisprudence of international criminal tribunals, the renowned historian and political scientist Klaus Bachmann paints a new and surprising picture of the events and their legal significance, which many will find disturbing and provocative. It abolishes many well-established interpretations about German colonialism and its alleged links with the Third Reich and provides a new and intriguing contribution to the current post-colonial debate.

Syrien gilt Anfang 2018 als ein Failed State. Der Band erklärt die Hintergründe auf dem Weg zu dieser Entwicklung, beleuchtet dabei die Rolle des Assad-Regimes, die Rolle Russlands und die Chancen für ein Syrisch-Kurdistan sowie die Initialzündung des Zerfalls durch die Arabellionen und die Karriere des so genannten Islamischen Staates. Die Ausführungen münden in den Versuch einer Zukunftsperspektive zum Wiederaufbau.

Humanwissenschaften bilden die Grundlage der kultur-zivilisatorischen Überlieferung der heutigen Welt. Es scheint aber, dass die gesellschaftlich-ökonomische Entwicklung und der techno-wissenschaftliche Fortschritt sie, global betrachtet, an den Rand des gesellschaftlichen Geschehens gerückt und ihre Rolle in Bildung, Kultur und Forschung ins Wanken gebracht hätten.

In der Auseinandersetzung mit den aktuellen gesellschaftlichen Krisen, die unser Verständnis der Freiheit und Gerechtigkeit berühren, setzt sich erneut das Bewusstsein über die Bedeutung der humanistischen Überlieferung für die Akzeptanz und den Aufbau einer gemeinsamen Zukunft durch wie auch für die Anerkennung der Unterschiedlichkeit der Welt und der Würde eines jeden Einzelnen.

Die Bedeutung und die Perspektiven der Humanwissenschaften heute werden von 22 Autorinnen und Autoren in diesem Sammelband des Forums für Humanwissenschaften erörtert.

The humanities represent the foundation of the cultural-civilizatory heritage of contemporary world. However, it seems that the socio-economic development and techno-scientific progress have on a global level forced them to the margins of society, and weakened their role in education, culture, and research.

The confrontation with current social crises, which have affected our understanding of freedom and justice, motivates a renewed awareness of the importance of humanistic tradition for the acceptance and creation of a common future, as well as for the recognition of diversity of the world and dignity of the individual.

Contributions by 22 authors in the collective volume of the Forum for the Humanities discuss the significance and perspectives of the humanities today.

Alcide De Gasperi is universally recognized as a Founding Father of Europe, but his enlightened action in favour of European unification is little known outside of Italy.

At the beginning of the 1950s, he became one of the most steadfast advocates of a European federation as a response to the problems of peace in Europe and Franco-German reconciliation. Foreseeing the limits of functional integration, he strongly supported the creation of a European political community as a framework in which to insert the nascent communities. After retracing the fundamental stages in the Europeanist education of the political leader from Trentino, the book focuses on his determination in fighting to give constituent power to the European Defense Community (EDC) Assembly, to convene the ad hoc Assembly, charged with studying and drawing up a treaty for the European Political Community, and to gain approval for the treaty.

In a Europe that today is questioning its future, reflecting on De Gasperi’s thoughts and Europeanist actions means rediscovering the founding values of the process of European unification, its accompanying ideals, and the historical reasons that have given expression to it.