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Desperados at Sea
(2023)
Pirates are fortune-seeking fighters at sea. Their exploits fire the imaginations of their victims and admirers, drawing a veil over individuals who rarely bear a real name and pursue their adventurous occupations as buccaneers, filibusters, freebooters, privateers, pirates, or corsairs. Piracy, corsairing, and contraband trade were epidemic among the Egyptians and the Phoenicians, the Greeks and the Vikings, the Spaniards and the Ottomans, the Muslims, and the Christians. And the Jews.
Jacob Brandon Maduro’s Memoirs and Related Observations (Havana, 1953) speak to the lasting yet malleable legacy of Jewish Caribbean/Atlantic mercantile communities that defined early modern settlement in the Americas. A close reading of the Memoirs, alongside relevant archival records and community narratives, lends new perspectives to scholarship on Port Jewries and the Atlantic Diaspora. Specifically concerned with Jacob’s adoption of such leading intellectual and political tropes as the Monroe doctrine, José Martí’s Nuestra America, and a Zionism that evolved from an ideology to a reality, the Memoirs reveal a narrative at once defined by the tremendous upheavals of the first half of the 20th century, and an enduring sense of Jewish diasporic peoplehood defined through a Port Jew paradigm whereby the preservation of Jewish ethnicity is understood as synonymous with the championing of modernity.
“Creating a Maritime Future”
(2023)
This article explores the importance of the port city of Hamburg in the evolving discourses on the creation of a maritime future, a vision which became influential in the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s. While some Jewish representatives in the city aimed at preserving and intertwining Hanseatic and Jewish traditions in order to secure a Jewish presence in the port city under the pressure of the Nazi regime and thereafter, others wanted to create new emigration opportunities, especially to Mandatory Palestine, and create a Jewish maritime future in Eretz Israel. Different Zionist organizations supported the newly evolving maritime ideas, such as the “conquest of the sea”, and promoted the image of a Jewish seafaring nation. Despite the difficulties in the 1940s, these concepts gained influence post-1945 and led to the foundation of the fishery kibbutz “Zerubavel” in Blankenese/Hamburg. However, the idea of a Hanseatic Jewish future also remained influential and illustrates how differently a “Jewish maritime future” was imagined and used to link past, present and future.
Mothers of Seafaring
(2023)
The article aims to trace the contribution of Jewish women in the Yishuv’s maritime history. Taking the example of Henrietta Diamond, a founding member and chairperson of the Zebulun Seafaring Society, the article seeks to explore the representation and role of women in a growing Jewish maritime domain from the 1930s to the 1950s. It examines Zionist narratives on the ‘New Jew’ and the Jewish body and studies their relevance for the emerging field of maritime activities in the Yishuv. By contextualizing the work and depiction of Henrietta Diamond, the article sheds new light on the gendered notions that underlay the emergence of the Jewish maritime domain and illustrates the patterns of inclusion and exclusion in it.
The birth of the Yishuv’s national shipping company, ZIM was preceded by private enterprise; the sea had not traditionally been a focus of the Zionist movement. In the 1930s, a five-year span of private commercial shipping saw three companies in the Jewish community in Palestine – Palestine Shipping Company, Palestine Maritime Lloyd, and Atid – before shipping was cut short by the outbreak of the Second World War. Despite their brief lifespans and their negligible contribution to general shipping, these companies constituted an important milestone. Their existence helped shift the Yishuv leadership’s attitudes about shipping’s importance for the community and the need for it to be supported by national institutions.
“Israel am Meere”
(2023)
For Jews in Germany, the period following the Nazis’ rise to power in January 1933 was a period of decision-making on many levels: How should they respond to the persecution? If they decided to emigrate, many more decisions had to be made: How does one leave a country, and where should one go? A key moment in the process and in the cultural practice of emigration is the beginning of the sea voyage – when the need for departure and the hope for a new arrival jointly create a period of liminality. Looking at reports from sea voyages of exploration and emigration from the 1930s, this contribution discusses the question whether, and in what ways, such reflections can be read in the context of religious experiences and in the search for Jewish identities in times of turmoil.
‚Maise Jeschurun‘
(2023)
Abgelegte Musik
(2023)
Schutz und Schaden
(2023)
Einleitung
(2023)
Under Brazil's ex-president Bolsonaro, deforestation of the Amazon increased dramatically. An Austrian NGO filed a complaint to the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) against Bolsonaro in October 2021, accusing him of crimes against humanity against the backdrop of his involvement in environmental destruction. This paper deals with the question of whether this initi-ative constitutes a promising means of juridification to mitigate conflicts revolving around mass deforestation in Brazil. It thematizes attempts to juridify environmental destruction in international criminal law and examines the Climate Fund Case at the Brazilian Supreme Court. Finally, emerging problems and arguments in favour of starting preliminary examinations at the ICC against Bolsonaro are illuminated. This paper provides arguments as to why the initiative might be a promising undertaking, even though it is unlikely that Bolsonaro will be arrested.
Das Modell Friedland
(2022)
Mit dem Band 14 „Das Modell Friedland: Vom Zusammenleben deutscher, jüdischer und wendischer Bewohner in einer Niederlausitzer Kleinstadt“ haben die Herausgeber den Autoren Alfred Roggan und Tobias Preßler die Erweiterung ihrer Forschungen ermöglicht: Widmete sich deren Band 12 „Sorbische/Wendische Spuren in der nördlichen Niederlausitz“ (2019) noch Befunden einer binationalen, weil deutsch-wendischen Geschichte, so wird mit dem Band 14 erstmalig für Ostdeutschland die Dokumentation einer ‚trinationalen‘, also deutsch-jüdisch-wendischen Lebenswelt vorgenommen.
Die Untersuchungen verdeutlichen, wie sich drei, im 18. Jahrhundert annähernd gleich große Einwohner-Gruppen, mit ihren Gotteshäusern, ihren Sprachen und einem differenzierten Einwohnerstatus etablierten bzw. arrangiert haben. Es zeigten sich Alleinstellungsmerkmale in Lebens- sowie Kultorganisation, Wirtschaftstätigkeiten und der Kommunikation zwischen den Beheimateten. Mit der Amts-Verwaltung des Johanniter-Ritterordens und dem Stadtrat befanden sie sich in berechenbaren (deutschdominierten) Strukturen. Aus diesem Gefüge und der territorialen Grenzlage zum Kurfürstentum Brandenburg begründeten sich Bedingungen, ohne die es wohl zu keinem „Modell Friedland“ gekommen wäre.
Die Autoren sind dankbar, dass sich mit Friedland die gnädige Chance bot, einen Bereich zu untersuchen, in dem Prozesse der wendisch-deutschen Assimilierung in einer eigenen Stetigkeit abliefen, jedoch das Ende jüdischen Lebens auf die Abwanderungen infolge der preußischen Emanzipations-Gesetze des 19. Jahrhunderts und nicht auf die Demütigungen, Verfolgungen sowie dem Völkermord des faschistischen deutschen Staates, zurückzuführen sind.
National Action Plans (NAPs) have been increas-ingly adopted world-wide after the Vienna Dec-laration in 1993, where it was urged to consider the improvement and promotion of Human Rights. In this paper, we discuss their usefulness and success by analysing the challenges present-ed during NAP processes as well as the benefits this set of actions entails: The challenges for their implementation outweigh its actual benefits. Nevertheless, NAPs have great potential. Based on new research, we elaborate a set of recom-mendations for improving the design and imple-mentation of national action planning. In order to effectively bring NAP into practice, we consider it crucial to plan and analyse every state local circumstances in detail. The latter is important, since the implementation of a concrete set of actions is intended to directly transform and improve the local living conditions of the people. In a long-term perspective, we defend the benefit of NAP’s implementation for complying obliga-tions set up by HR treaties.
Gruppierung von Daten
(2022)
Dieser Beitrag beinhaltet einen Vergleich zwischen den Methoden der Topologischen Datenanalyse (TDA) und statistischen Clusterverfahren bei der Gruppierung von Daten. Es werden Gemeinsamkeiten und Unterschiede bei der Bildung der Cluster und Zuordnung der statistischen Einheiten identifiziert. Hierzu werden zwei empirische Datensätze aus der Biologie und Medizin herangezogen.
Zusammengefasst haben sich die Verfahren der TDA als ein praktikables Werkzeug bei der Gruppierung von Objekten erwiesen. Vor allem mit dem Mapper-Algorithmus konnten adäquate Cluster erkannt werden. Beim Iris Flower-Datensatz hat die TDA ähnliche Ergebnisse wie die Clusteranalyse erzielt. Der Heart Disease-Datensatz war schwieriger zu behandeln. Die genutzten clusteranalytischen Verfahren waren nicht geeignet, die beiden Gruppen von Patienten korrekt zu identifizieren. Im Vergleich zu den Standardverfahren der Clusteranalyse zeigte sich eine leichte Überlegenheit der topologischen Verfahren.
Untersucht werden die von BulwienGesa erhobenen und aufbereiteten jahresdurchschnittlichen Mieten von Wohnungen und die Relation des Wiederverkaufswertes von Eigentumswohnungen zu den Wohnungsmieten (Preis-Miet-Relation) in 401 kreisfreien Städten und Landkreisen für die Jahre 2004–2017. Dabei zeigt sich bei den Wohnungsmieten eine Zunahme der regionalen Streuung im Zeitverlauf vor allem in der auf die Finanzkrise 2007–2009 folgenden Zeit. Bei der Preis-Miet-Relation nimmt die Streuung im Zeitverlauf ab 2010 ebenfalls zu. Im Durchschnitt der Regionen (Landkreise und kreisfreie Städte) steigen über den gesamten Zeitabschnitt die Mieten und in der überwiegenden Zahl der Regionen auch die Preis-Miet-Relation (allerdings erst ab 2010); sie entwickeln sich aber regional stark unterschiedlich. Dies führt auch zur Zunahme der Variationskoeffizienten, also der relativen Streuung der regionalen Mieten und – ab 2010 – auch der regionalen Preis-Miet-Relationen.
Dies deutet auf eine Zunahme der regionalen Disparitäten in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland hin. Besondere Divergenzen zeigen sich zwischen den alten und den neuen Bundesländern, wie auch zwischen prosperierenden kreisfreien Städten und deren Umland und ökonomisch schwächeren Städten und Landkreisen.
»Ich hab eine Idee!«
(2022)
Indigene Rechte und COVID-19 (Brasilien) – indigenes Land und Gesundheit unter ernster Bedrohung
(2022)
Kollektiv zum Recht
(2022)
At different times and places, civic engagement in nonviolent resistance (NVR) has repeatedly shown to be an effective tool in times of conflict to initiate societal change from below. History teaches us that there have been successes (Mahatma Gandhi in India) and failures (the Tiananmen Square protests in China).
Along with the recognition of the duality between transformative potential and stark consequences, the historical development of NVR was accompanied by the emergence of scholarly debate, fractured along disputes around purpose, character and effectivity of nonviolent actions taken by civil society stakeholders engaged in making their voices heard. One of the field’s current points of interest is the examination of the long-term effects of NVR movements resulting in societal transformation on the stability and adequacy of a subsequently altered or emerging democracy, suggesting that NVR contributes positively to the sustainable and representative design of an egalitarian governing system.
The conclusion of the Nepalese civil war in 2006 should pose as an unambiguous example for the illustration of this phenomenon, but simultaneously raises the question why there was no successful implementation of a transitional process focusing on the needs of the victims.
Transitional justice is conventionally theorized as how a society deals with past injustices after regime change and alongside democratization. Nonetheless, scholars have not reached a consensus on what is to be included or excluded. Recent ideas of transformative justice seek to expand the understanding of transitional justice to include systemic restructuring and socioeconomic considerations. In the context of Nicaragua — where two transitions occurred within an 11-year span — very little transitional justice took place, in terms of the conventional concept of top-down legalistic mechanisms; however, distinct structural changes and socioeconomic policies can be found with each regime change. By analyzing the transformative justice elements of Nicaragua’s dual transition, this chapter seeks to expand the understanding of transitional justice to include how these factors influence goals of transitions such as sustainable peace and reconciliation for past injustices. The results argue for increased attention to transformative justice theories and a more nuanced conception of justice.
While the concept of transitional justice and its range of measures have gained importance on an international level to come to terms with major crimes of the past, colonial crimes and mass violence committed by Western actors have not been addressed by transitional justice so far. In this chapter, the Herero’s and Nama’s struggle for justice for the genocide on their ancestors by Germany from 1904 – 1908 and the arising challenges are set in relation to conceptual debates in the field of transitional justice. Building on current debates in the field, suggesting more structural and transformative conceptualizations of transitional justice and an approach ‘from below’, it is argued that decolonial activism of formerly colonized communities and transitional justice debates can inform each other in a dialogic and fruitful form to formulate suggestions for a process towards post-colonial justice.
This paper aims to contribute a different approach to transitional justice, one in which political decisions are rocketed to the forefront of the research. Theory asserts that, after a transition to democracy, it is the constituency who defines the direction a country will take. Therefore, pleasing them should be at the fore of the responses taken by those in power. However, reality distances itself from theory. History provides us with many examples of the contrary, which indicates that the politicization of transitional justice is an ever-present event. The first section will outline current definitions and obstacles faced by transitional justice, focusing on the implicit ties between them and the aforementioned politicization. An original categorization of Transitional Justice as a method of analysis will also be introduced, which I denominate Political Opportunism. The case of Argentina, a country that is usually described as a model to export but that after 35 years is still dealing with the consequences brought by the contradictions of using several methods of justice, will then be reinterpreted through this perspective. At the end of the paper, the inevitable question will be posed: can this new angle be exported and implemented in every transition?
This chapter deals with the problem that theories of peace building, conflict resolution and reconciliation were predominately created in the West and, therefore, do not necessarily fit the understanding of peace, conflict, and resolution in non-Western societies and cultures. Within these societies, the acceptance of suffering may also be higher, which leads to different priorities of conflict resolution approaches. Furthermore, this chapter deals with the question of whether the current understanding of wars and the nature of conflict change the basis of established conflict theories. These theoretical approaches are then applied in Sierra Leone as a non-Western negotiation scenario.
Beim Resonanzenergietransfer werden Fotonen von einem angeregten Donator über einen Wechselwirkungsabstand auf einen Akzeptor übertragen. Nach der quantenmechanischen Theorie von FÖRSTER kann dieser Abstand mit Hilfe des Überlappungsintegrals von Fluoreszenzspektrum des Donators und Absorp-tionsspektrum des Akzeptors berechnet werden.
Eine andere Möglichkeit der Bestimmung erhält man mit Hilfe von statistischen Modellen, die in einem Überblick zusammengestellt sind. Dabei kann der Abstand durch Auswertung der Löschkurve bestimmt werden.
In dieser Arbeit wird dazu eine weitere statistische Variante der Bestimmung des Wechselwirkungsradius hinzugefügt und an einem Beispiel ausführlich demonstriert.
Legolas in Troy
(2022)
The Lord of the Rings movies were a cinematic phenomenon, extremely popular. They are not often considered as works of Classical Reception. These films’ influence on subsequent ancient world movies has been understudied, and undervalued. A common model of cinematic Greece and Rome in the twenty-first century looks solely back to Gladiator. Undoubtedly Gladiator, and its commercial success, is important to how ancient world movies developed; but focussing solely on Gladiator does not explain a move away from Roman history towards Greek mythology, culminating in a flurry of movies about Greek mythological heroes. Lord of the Rings is an overlooked factor. Already in Troy two LOTR stars are in key roles, and the battle scenes seek to imitate those of Jackson’s trilogy. 300 mythologizes far beyond Frank Miller’s graphic novel, adding several monsters; LOTR’s influence is at play here. LOTR’s influence was one factor in a complex process that saw ancient world movies change in the twentyfirst century. LOTR fed into an atmosphere that moved ancient world movies towards Greece, away from Rome, through promoting the appeal of a combination of epic and the fantastic.
G. B. Smith’s “Elzevir Cicero” and the Construction of Queer Immortality in Tolkien’s Mythopoeia
(2022)
Following the death of J. R. R. Tolkien in 1973, an obituary appeared in The Times quoting Tolkien as having said that his “love for the classics took ten years to recover from lectures on Cicero and Demosthenes.” This contentious relationship between Tolkien and the Greco-Roman past contrasts with the work of unabashedly classicizing poet Geoffrey Bache Smith, a school friend of Tolkien’s who was killed in the Great War. When Tolkien collected Smith’s poems for posthumous publication, this paper shows, Smith’s engagements with the ancient world became part of Tolkien’s own philosophy of immortality through literary composition. Within his 1931 poem “Mythopoeia,” and his 1939 speech “On Fairy-Stories,” Tolkien articulated a unified method of mythmaking by looking back to his lost friend’s understanding of mythology as a type of ancient story-craft that enabled poets to preserve the dead against the ravages of time. By tracing a triangular path through the relationships between Tolkien, Smith, and the classical past inhabited by figures like Cicero, this paper argues that Tolkien not only recovered a “love for the classics,” but used classical texts to “recover” his lost friend, granting Smith a queer, classical immortality in return.
The Throne of the King
(2022)
A conspicuous feature of Tolkien’s description of the city of Minas Tirith in The Return of The King is the depiction of two thrones in the Great Hall; one empty throne reserved for the king, and one seat for the steward of Gondor. This paper aims to ascertain the late antique and mediaeval sources of inspiration behind Tolkien’s creation of the throne room in Minas Tirith. As a starting point, we shall compare the setting of the two thrones in Minas Tirith with a motive in Christian iconography, the hetoimasia, and its architectural expression in the Chrysotriklinos, the throne room in the Byzantine Great Palace in Constantinople. Next, we shall show that Tolkien intentionally obscured his appropriation of the Byzantine throne room to create a multi-layered image of rulership, in accordance with his aesthetics of applicability and allegory. In conclusion, we shall formulate some remarks on the interpretation of the association between the Byzantine Chrysotriklinos and the Gondorian Great Hall. As a form of Tolkien’s literary process of sub-creation, the description of the throne room in Minas Tirith serves to emphasise the significance of The Return of the King as a retelling of Christ’s restoration of the fallen world, placing the work of Tolkien in the context of a strong personal Catholic piety.
Seneca the Younger, in his Letters, describes a sacred grove as a “thick grove of ancient trees which rise far above the usual height and block the view of the sky with their umbrella of intertwining branches” (Seneca the Younger, Letters 41.3). Fangorn Forest is clearly a sacred site as defined by Seneca, made even more sacred by the presence of the Ents. Thus, to violate it would be a terrible act of desecration, not unlike Lucan’s narrator’s shock at Caesar’s desecration of the sacred grove at Massilia (Lucan BC 3.447 – 8, quoted in the title of this paper). After exploring the relationship between Ents and sacred groves, the paper will compare the fate of Caesar to that of Saruman, who violated Fangorn Forest. Just as Augoustakis (2006) argues that the violation of the grove foreshadows Caesar’s death, so too Saruman’s death at the hands of Wormtongue becomes a fitting punishment for his violation of Fangorn.
This paper examines the intertext between Tolkien’s Ithilien episode in Two Towers and artistic presentations of plants in the art and literature of Augustan Rome. We argue that the evident ‘superbloom’ depicted in the ekphrasis of the flora of Ithilien recalls both Vergilian botanical adynata (especially in the Georgics) and Roman wall paintings of the Augustan period.
Roman Heroes at Helm’s Deep?
(2022)
This article analyzes Tolkien’s narrative of the Battle of Helm’s Deep as a retelling of the Horatius Cocles episode from Livy’s AUC, which contains descriptions of the defenses and the bridge, a rally encouraged by Horatius, his bold stand both with his companions and alone, and the honors paid to him after the battle. Tolkien’s Battle of Helm’s Deep contains the same elements split across two narratives: the defense of the causeway leading to the gates of the Deep by Aragorn, Éomer, and Gimli; and, after the fall of the Deeping wall, Aragorn’s defiant stand alone on the stairway leading to the inner doors of the Hornburg. Aragorn’s double action demonstrates a fulfillment of Livy’s exemplary arc. Tolkien’s knowledge of Macaulay’s “Horatius” provides a possible intermediary that accounts for various additions to the story. However, the larger structure of Tolkien’s narrative as well as the imagery that resonates throughout the text distinctly evoke the vivid descriptions of Livy. While both sets of heroes make brave stands against their enemies, Tolkien’s warriors represent a civilizing force in their efforts to build and restore their defenses while Livy’s Roman heroes destroy the bridge to save their state.
Tolkien’s The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings employ traditional races from fairy tales: elves, men and dwarves. These peoples are differentiated principally by their dominant desires, but also by their speech, diet, and realms. I argue that these three races are significantly inspired by the three aspects that characterize the Republic’s tripartite soul—logistikon, thumoeides, and epithumetikon—along with their respective principal desires: desire for truth, greatness, and material goods. For Tolkien, therefore, these races have a corporate or political psychology that explains who they are as peoples in the history of Middle-earth. I offer a comprehensive view of the major races, connecting the dwarves with the appetitive artisans of the Republic, humans with the honour- and glory-seeking auxiliaries, and elves with the ruling guardians. This treatment explains the artisanal dwarves, as well as the battle-loving men (and women) of Rohan and Gondor, and the nostalgic, ‘anamnetic’ condition of exile that distinguishes the elves. Indeed, the condition of elves in many descriptions recalls a Platonic philosopher returned to the Cave, as well as the Neo-Platonic sagacity pictured in the biographies of Plotinus and Proclus.
"Orfeo out of Care"
(2022)
The paper focuses on an example of multiple-step reception: the contribution of the classical story of Orpheus and Eurydice and the mediaeval lay Sir Orfeo to Tolkien’s work.
In the first part, I compare the lay with Virgilian and Ovidian versions of Orpheus’ myth. This comparison shows the anonymous author’s deep knowledge of the ancient texts and complex way of rewriting them through stealing and hybridization.
The lay was highly esteemed by Tolkien, who translated it and took inspiration from it while describing the Elven kingdom in The Hobbit and building the storyline of Beren and Lúthien in The Silmarillion. Through this key tale, Orpheus/Orfeo’s romance has a deep influence also on Aragorn and Arwen’s story in The Lord of the Rings. The most important element that Tolkien takes from the Sir Orfeo figuration of the ancient story is undoubtedly the insertion of political theme: the link established between the recovery of the main character’s beloved and the return to royal responsability.
The second part of the paper is, thus, dedicated to the reception of Sir Orfeo and the classical myth in Tolkien. It shows how in his work the different steps of the tradition of Orpheus’ story are co-present, creating an inextricable substrate of inspiration that nourishes his imagination.
The paper investigates Tolkien’s narratives of decline through the lens of their classical ancestry. Narratives of decline are widespread in ancient culture, in both philosophical and literary discourses. They normally posit a gradual degradation (moral and ontological) from an idealized Golden Age, which went hand-in-hand with increasing detachment of gods from mortal affairs. Narratives of decline are also at the core of Tolkien’s mythology, constituting yet another underresearched aspect of classical influence on Tolkien. Such Classical narratives reverberate e.g. in Tolkien’s division of Arda’s history into ages, from an idealized First Age filled with Joy and Light to a Third Age, described as “Twilight Age (…) the first of the broken and changed world” (Letters 131). More generally, these narratives are related to Tolkien’s notorious perception of history as a “long defeat” (Letters 195) and to that “heart-racking sense of the vanished past” which pervades Tolkien’s works – the emotion which, in his words, moved him “supremely” and which he found “small difficulty in evoking” (Letters 91). The paper analyses the reception of narratives of decline in Tolkien’s legendarium, pointing out similarities but also contrasts and differences, with the aim to discuss some key patterns of (classical) reception in Tolkien’s theory and practice (‘renewal’, ‘accommodation’, ‘focalization’).
Vergil was a fundamental source of inspiration for Tolkien, not only when writing the Lord of the Rings, but also at the beginning of his “world-building”. The Fall of Gondolin, written in 1916, was modeled upon the Aeneid, whose second book shares many similarities with the description of Gondolin’s last day. For instance, the attack that seals the fate of the city takes place during a feast in both works, whereas both protagonists (Aeneas and Tuor) leave wives and sons to fight the enemy and witness deaths of their kings (Priam/Turgon). Other analogies include the topos of the fall of the tallest tower of the city as well as the scenes of Creusa/Idril clasping the knees of her husband and begging him not to go back to the battle. Tolkien chose the Aeneid as his main model because, in his opinion, the Aeneid and The Fall of Gondolin evoked the air of antiquity and melancholy. Vergil’s nostalgia for a “lost world” conveyed in the Aeneid greatly resembles the nostalgia pervading both Tolkien’s writing and life.
The following introduction sketches the status questionis of the research on the influence of Greco-Roman antiquity on the works of Tolkien and provides details about the volume’s theoretical impetus and its broad themes. The editors discuss Tolkien’s complicated and indirect relationship with classical models, underscoring certain emergent themes in volume’s contributions, such as decline, multifocal reception and relationship with nature.
Beim Resonanzenergietransfer werden Fotonen von einem angeregten Donator über einen Wechselwirkungsabstand auf einen Akzeptor übertragen. Nach der quantenmechanischen Theorie von FÖRSTER kann dieser Abstand mit Hilfe des Überlappungsintegrals von Fluoreszenzspektrum des Donators und Absorp-tionsspektrum des Akzeptors berechnet werden.
Eine andere Möglichkeit der Bestimmung erhält man mit Hilfe von statistischen Modellen, die in einem Überblick zusammengestellt sind. Dabei kann der Abstand durch Auswertung der Löschkurve bestimmt werden.
In dieser Arbeit wird dazu eine weitere statistische Variante der Bestimmung des Wechselwirkungsradius hinzugefügt und an einem Beispiel ausführlich demonstriert.
From the fluid dresses woven from precious materials evoking the iconic statues of Antiquity to the revival of Spartan shoes, two emblematic fashion trends will help us study the place of Greek Antiquity in contemporary women’s fashion collections. Ordinary as well as extraordinary, what do these reminiscences tell? Can they permit to understand the boundaries that structure and govern the fashion’s worlds? Numerous and diverse, the differences and the similarities of the ways in which classical references are used allow us to study the relations of power in which the specificities of haute couture and ready-to-wear are defined. The values, the entry criteria, the operating hierarchies as well as the very acceptance of the word “fashion” are different from one environment to another. From the catwalks of big fashion houses on Avenue Montaigne such as Chanel to the youngest brands, the differentiated readings and uses of Antiquity raise the question of the symbolic value of classics in fashion.
In March 2021, the IMAGINES Project – an international and interdisciplinary research network for the modern reception of antiquity in the visual and performing arts – held their seventh conference online. The event focused on PLAYFUL CLASSICS, and was hosted from Göttingen University by the organizers Juliette Harrisson, Antje Kuhle and Martin Lindner.
The keynote by Dunstan Lowe on „The Danger of Seriousness: Play and the Future of Classics“ outlined the potential of researching classical reception as a creative process. The following sections brought this to life with in-depth treatments of the underlying mechanics of constructing and deconstructing, playful learning, the „Faces of Antiquity“, forms of interaction and national/nationalistic traditions. The programme combined scholarly contributions with presentations and workshops by various artists and open discussion elements.
The shift to an online format allowed the participation of an unusually international audience, while the interactive elements – including a thematic game as a continuous side event – especially encouraged a large number of students to participate actively. Therefore, this conference report will not just summarize the content of the event, but also provide a student perspective on attending a conference on classical reception – a research area which is mostly neglected in the teaching curriculum.
Demagogen dichten
(2022)
Manipulative rhetoric is a common issue in ancient sources. As the issue of political populism and rhetoric still attracts a high degree of interest among a wide range of people, the author, a singer-songwriter, attempts to ‘revive’ these ancient sources and to adapt them into a lyrical/musical format for modern audiences, in order to test different strategies of manipulation and gauge the reactions of modern audiences. The following article describes the process of adapting and performing two of these experiments, as well as the results and feedback from audiences. The ancient case studies chosen for this are Thucydides’ description of how Alcibiades lead the Athenians into a fatal expedition to Sicily, and Xenophon’s blames of two public orators for executing Athenian generals after the battle of Arginusae through their manipulative speeches.
Given the immense ethnic and cultural diversity as well as the vast geographical dimensions of the Roman Empire, the teaching of Roman antiquity comprises an enormous potential to deal with the increasing heterogeneity in German-speaking classrooms. This article aims to show how the majority of contemporaneous Latin textbooks, however, fail to use this potential by being limited to mono-perspective and Eurocentric approaches to the ancient world.
In spite of didactical claims to foster students’ intercultural competence, most of the textbooks depict the city of Rome as an ethnically and culturally homogeneous sphere. At the same time, they present the Roman Empire nearly exclusively from the perspective of representatives of Italian-born, powerful upper-class families firmly connected to ‘Roman’ culture. In doing so, the Latin textbooks falsify the ancient historical realities and deprive students of the perspectives of figures like provincials or slaves. Furthermore, the textbooks’ narrative scope clearly focusses on Rome and Greece, still paying noticeable attention to West-European provinces, with the African and Asian ones being remarkably excluded. Only few exceptions among the textbooks apply alternative approaches which allow students to engage with the Roman Empire’s intercultural dynamics in a more differentiated and multi-perspective way.
Within Persona 5’s modern Tokyo setting, imagined worlds are created that represent the cognitive processes of various characters. These ‘palaces’ allow the player to explore locations far removed from the game’s real-world, contemporary backdrop. One episode creates an ancient Egyptian world. This article examines how this world has been produced and the different transmedial tropes and other influences that its developers have drawn upon. Many references are recognisable to a broad audience (pyramids, gods, hieroglyphs), while others reflect Japanese pop-cultural trends (in various manga and anime), including the mention of an obscure Egyptian god, Medjed. The intentionally fictitious nature of these ‘palaces’ means that the Egypt that appears in this game is not bound by the need to replicate an ‘accurate’ landscape. Instead, the developers were free to design a gamescape that combines multiple and diverse receptions of ancient Egypt.
»Plus outre« – immer weiter
(2022)
American occupying forces made the promotion of Jewish-Christian dialogue part of their plans for postwar German reconstruction. They sought to export American models of Jewish-Christian cooperation to Germany, while simultaneously validating and valorizing claims about the connection between democracy and tri-faith religious pluralism in the United States. The small size of the Jewish population in Germany meant that Jews did not set the terms of these discussions, and evidence shows that both German and American Jews expressed skepticism about participating in dialogue in the years immediately following the Holocaust. But opting out would have meant that discussions in Germany about the Judeo-Christian tradition that the American government advanced as the centerpiece of postwar democratic reconstruction would take place without a Jewish contribution. American Jewish leaders, present in Germany and in the US, therefore decided to opt in, not because they supported the project, but because it seemed far riskier to be left out.
Nero – Kaiser und Künstler
(2021)
Der deutsche Mineraloge und Bergingenieur August
Schmidt (1802 – 1832) nahm im Jahr 1829 an einer Etappe der „Russisch-Sibirischen Reise“ Alexander von Humboldts teil. Bisher war über Schmidt so wenig bekannt, dass die Forschungsliteratur nicht einmal seinen richtigen Vornamen verwendete. Dieser Artikel präsentiert neue Erkenntnisse über seine Biografie und verfolgt den Weg, der ihn zu einer Anstellung als Bergwerksdirektor in den Ural und zur Teilnahme an Humboldts Reise führte. Humboldt erwartete ebenso wie die anderen an der Reise teilnehmenden Mineralogen, im Ural Diamanten zu finden. Diese Erwartungshaltung war bereits in den Jahren vor der Reise durch einen internationalen Wissensaustausch zu den geologischen Ähnlichkeiten der Kontinente entstanden, an dem Alexander von Humboldt maßgeblich beteiligt war.
Ausgehend von einem Brief Alexander von Humboldts an die Schriftstellerin Therese von Bacheracht(1804 – 1852) wird die Geschichte der Herausgabe der Briefe seines Bruders Wilhelm an Charlotte Diede im Jahr 1847, nach dem Tod beider Korrespondenten, nachgezeichnet. Besonders wird dabei auf die bisher unveröffentlichten „Tagesblätter“ Karl August Varnhagens von Ense zurückgegriffen, aus denen hervorgeht, dass Alexander von Humboldt seine anfangs ablehnende Haltung aufgibt, Varnhagen mit der Prüfung und Korrektur des Manuskripts betraut, und dass Therese von Bacheracht durch Hartnäckigkeit und Charme ihr Ziel erreicht, die nicht unbeträchtlichen Einnahmen aus der Veröffentlichung zugesprochen zu bekommen.