Search

The classicist scholar Gottfried Ernst Groddeck (1762-1825) came into literary history thanks to his students, mainly Adam Mickiewicz. Although a gifted pupil of Christian Gottlieb Heyne, he gained only local fame; neither he nor any of his works was broadly known. Groddeck's professional career, however, deserves careful attention, for it is a conspicuous example of increasing academic mobility in Central Europe at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries. The paper looks at the biography and work of Groddeck from the network perspective in order to examine the various mechanisms characteristic of networks of savants. In the first part, an analysis of some structuring features of scientific networks is provided. In the second part, the author presents the different roles and spheres in which Groddeck acted, for between 1782 and 1786 he was a student of Heyne in Göttingen, then a librarian and private teacher at the Court of the Prince Czartoryski in Puławy, and eventually Professor for Greek and Latin Languages and Literature at the Imperial University of Vilnius (1803-1825). In all these positions he stayed in contact with other men of letters in Göttingen, Berlin, Leipzig, Wien as well as in Puławy, Vilnius, Dorpat, Moscow and Paris. Among them, there were personal friends, employers as well as pen partners personally unknown to him. Groddeck's correspondence enables us to reconstruct the various dimensions of the international and local networks in which he participated. What is at stake are rules regulating relations, obligations and hierarchies within both informal and more formalized scientific coalitions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Savings banks succeeded in a breakthrough across many parts of North, Central and Western Europe at the beginning of the 19th century. This wave of foundations was based on the imitation of the first savings banks from the continent, and in particular, the early British savings banks. Nevertheless, different patterns in terms of organisation and investment of deposits were rapidly formed due to local conditions. This paper explores the experiences that were gained with the concepts of private and public management as well as with central and local investment schemes in a short and a long term perspective. The international comparison shows that in the long run major disadvantages emerged for savings banks with central deposit management but without loan services. Furthermore, the fate of savings banks during the 19th and 20th century can be explained with path dependencies that derive from the policy decisions that were made during the wave of foundations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Information about several papers discussed at a symposium "Die Entwicklung der Hofmusik von der kurfürstlichen Kapelle von Brandenburg zum Hoforchester des ersten Königs in Preußen" held October 16-18, 2015 at Berlin, Germany is presented. Topics discussed include popularity of early modern court chapels in musicological studies, development and the repertoire of the Prussian court orchestra during the reign of King Frederick II and diversity of modern princely courts of Europe.