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From 1917 to 1924, groups of German children were sent on Erholungsreisen (vacation journeys) to German-speaking villages in Transylvania. These trips were organized jointly by nationalist associations in Germany and their partners in Transylvania, who hoped to reinforce bonds between Germans abroad and the Mutterland. The success of the 1917 trip contrasts with the failure of later campaigns. Empathy between Reichsdeutsche and Ausländsdeutsche was immediately intelligible in the context of a common war effort, but later trips foundered a divergence of opinion about where charity was needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The introductory essay engages with recent work on the myriad groups of German speakers that flourished outside the borders of the German nation-state between the 1880s and the 1930s. Since the end of the Second World War, scholars have treated the notion of the Ausländsdeutsche (German expatriates) with considerable ideological suspicion. This essay, however, argues that a German history that moves beyond those prejudices and integrates these communities of German-speakers into a more inclusive historiography offers us the chance to create a dialog between German national history and the histories of the nations and regions in which German cultures took hold and, to use the language of the times, where German colonies were founded. The integration of these German spaces and their diverse communities into our historical narratives offers us the chance to fashion a more inclusive notion of German history, one that effectively decenters the role of the German nation-state by recognizing the inherently polycentric character of German nationhood during this period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article introduces the topics of the January 2015 issue of the social history periodical "Geschichte und Gesellschaft" with a focus on the use of counterworlds as a research tool with case studies including the Kurt and Erna Kretschmann environmental protection center in East Germany, encounters between clergy and liberals in late 19th-century Poland, and the influence of idealized Native American values on the Protestant church in West Germany during the 1960s and 1970s.

The article presents an obituary for German historian Hans-Ulrich Wehler.

The article examines the social function of the private acquisition of state-controlled rural property in late 19th-century Prussia by Germans. Attempts by immigrating German colonist landholders to "civilize" Prussia are described, nationalist and racist elements of the desire to "Germanize" the eastern regions of the country against the perceived threat of Polish ethnic overrun are analyzed, and the reinforcement of the existing social hierarchy through the actions of the German state is analyzed. The use of the Prussian colonies as test cases for chemical fertilizers and other soil amendment techniques as well as for German governance is examined.