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This editorial presents a brief review of pandemics from antiquity to COVID-19. Although all large-scale epidemic diseases ("pandemics") can be considered ecological "checks" on human population size, and although COVID-19 is the biggest such pandemic since HIV/AIDS emerged it is not likely to approach the deathtoll of earlier pandemics, such as the plague. There are two major hypotheses to explain the origin of COVID-19. One is the "natural origin" hypothesis, the other is that it might have escaped from a laboratory, with its origin subsequently hidden. Although most scientists support the natural origin idea the other cannot yet be dismissed. Evidence for each hypothesis is presented. If the first theory is correct then it is a powerful warning, from nature, that our species is running a great risk. If the second theory is proven then it should be considered an equally powerful, indeed frightening, signal that we are in danger, from hubris as much as from ignorance. More pandemics are inevitable, but their severity can be reduced by greater transparency, international co-operation, and retreat from planetary boundaries.

The Russian cities are connected by many telecommunication lines. The information flow between any two cities can be sent via multiple routes, including those running through the networks of other countries. Cross-border transitions are created to connect the Russian lines with the international networks. The effect of these transitions on the connectivity of the cities has not been analysed earlier, either for Russia or for any other country. Using my own database on the Russian telecommunication lines, the Rosstat data on the cities’ population, and the results of the scanning of the Internet topology, I attempt to assess the effect of these transitions on the connectivity of the Russian cities. The assessment is carried out at the physical, economic, and digital levels of connectivity. For each level, I calculate the proportion of cities and their residents interacting directly with international telecommunication networks. Of the three categories of physical connectivity, the system of the Russian cities is associated with the worst option — the exogenous connectivity. This is explained by the impossibility of connecting the Kaliningrad region with mainland Russia without using international networks. An analysis of the traffic redistribution between the core cities of the autonomous systems shows that closed flows and internal economic connectivity are predominant in Russia. The calculation of information flow delays between all the Russian cities and the cores of the national and international digital agglomerations makes it possible to establish what cities are affected by the international cores. I conclude that the cross-border transitions have little effect on the information and communication connectivity of the Russian cities.

Starting at the very end of the seventies a wave of criticism against quantitative studies can be observed. This, however, is not really directed against the quantitative methods, but part of a larger change of focus in History, which emphasizes an alleged contradiction between historical (as part of the Humanities) and the hard sciences. The paper refutes this position along two lines. Many of the alleged shortcomings of studies based on quantitative methods – as well as other methods requiring information technology – can be observed also in traditional historical research. Studies applying information technology find it much harder, though, to hide these shortcomings. More positive is another perspective: the kind of critique appearing now can be traced to difficulties in handling new types of historical sources, which became accessible recently – and can be handled only, if information technology is employed properly. This goes together with a decrease of the interest in general methodological reflection of historical sources as an intellectual domain. The historical disciplines should react to this do in this situation by a change of perspective. Historical methods emphasized so far the need to extract historical knowledge in situations where a lack of sources existed. Nowadays we need a methodology for deriving secured historical knowledge in situations where the problem is orientation within confusing and overwhelming masses of such sources.

Attempts to apply the computer to historical research go back much longer than publicly perceived, a history of them is provided. At the moment the introduction of personal computers has brought the topic into the limelight. While the general interest of historians in the PC as a replacement for the typewriter is enormous, this does, however, not imply that the methodological possibilities inherent in information technology are embraced equally widely. Not the least reason for that is the almost complete lack of knowledge about the huge amount of relevant literature existing already; other reasons, rooted in the organization of historical research, are discussed. If the full potential of information technology for the historical disciplines shall be activated, systematic research in these possibilities and a more intimate type of interdisciplinary work with Computer Science will be needed.

The distrust many historians show when confronted with the results of quantitative studies is partially related to the experience, that many decisions which go into the preparation of historical sources for quantitative analysis are much more definite and final than the many uncertainties surrounding the meaning of terminology and statements in such sources actually justify. This is correct, but it is directed at the current stage of statistical studies, not at the nature of quantitative or formal reasoning as such. Fuzzy logic and fuzzy systems provide approaches, which could be harnessed to adapt statistical reasoning to the inherent uncertainties of historical data. The paper outlines the way in which this could be implemented with the help of examples drawn from the applications of statistics to social history.

The early phases of computer supported research in history have been characterized by enthusiasm about the many possibilities opened. Possibilities, which go beyond just one methodological paradigm as the recent discussions about the relative importance of quantitative studies within computer applications in history show. A deeper discussion about these developments is necessary, necessary for pure intellectual reasons as well as for ones within the politics of academia. This requires a theory of historical computing, which starts from an analysis of the differences between computing in history and computers' applications to other disciplines. To illustrate that, a number of examples are given, which show that the information presented by historical sources is inherently different from the one processed by information systems directed at current times.

The article provides an overview of military, commercial and research ships used by Germany for the exploration of oceanographic conditions in the Baltic Sea at the end of the nineteenth and start of the twentieth century. The transition from warships for oceanographic research to the first research steamer represents an important step in the history of German Baltic Sea research. This article traces the development of German research into the hydrographical conditions in the Baltic Sea in the second half of the nine-teenth century with examples of navy ships (gunboat Comet, S.M. Aviso Pommerania, S.M.S. Rhein, lightship Adlergrund, S.M.S. Niobe, S.M.S. Nautilus, S.M.S. Pelikan), chartered merchant ships (Kiel harbour steamer, freighter Holsatia) up to the first German research steamer (the imperial research steamer Poseidon). The ships are described briefly, the measurement instruments used on them are explained, and the results achieved are assessed in terms of their contribution to the advancement of knowledge in Baltic Sea oceanography. A major contribution to research in hydrography was made by the chemist Oscar Jacobsen (1840-1889) and the geographer Otto Krümmel (1854-1912). Jacobsen was responsible for the hydrographic and chemical observations during the Pommerania expedition, whose measurements were the first ever to provide an overview of the thermohaline conditions in the open Baltic Sea between the Kattegat and the central Baltic Sea, and of the currents in the Danish straits and the Baltic Sea. Krümmel made important contributions towards international collaboration in the Baltic Sea, coordinated the hydro-graphic research projects on the imperial research steamer Poseidon, and was director of the hydrographic laboratory of the "Kommission zur wissenschaftlichen Untersuchung der deutschen Meere" (Commission for Scientific Research of the German Seas) in Kiel from 1902 to 1911. His special interest lay in the field of physical oceanography. Here he devoted himself mainly to the evaluation of all measurements available at the time to investigate the fundamental mechanism of saltwater flows into the Baltic Sea.

In this Paper we Consider a Teaching Educational Introduction to Ideas and Concepts of Algebra. we Follow a Historical Path, Starting by the Egyptians and the Babylonians, Passing through the Greeks, the Arabs, and the Figure of Omar Khayyām, for Coming to the Middle Age, the Renaissance, and the Nineteenth Century. Interesting and Peculiar Characteristics Related to the Different Geographical Areas in which Algebra has Developed are Taken into Account. the Scientific Rigorous Followed Treatment Allows the Use of the Paper Also as a Pedagogical Introduction to this Fundamental Branch of Current Mathematics.

The development and management of planted spaces in Northwestern Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries depended on the possibilities for circulation in the republic of letters of the Dutch golden age. Circulation was accompanied by questions of managing space, information and "epistemic things" (Rheinberger) for botanists. Against the conceptual backdrop of "circulation" (Raj), "circulatory regimes" (Saunier) and "ensembles of things" (Hahn), this paper analyses, first, flowerbeds as a script for managing information that shaped botanical gardens across Europe in Leiden, Uppsala, Coimbra, and as far as Batavia according to Linnaean principles. Second, it investigates hothouses as spaces for managing things, and with it the role of knowledge in things handled by professional and amateur gardeners, not least the stove for pineapple cultivation. The paper concludes with reflections on the community of the material and the social around epistemic things, and the differing influences of description and narration in garden spaces." (author's abstract)

"This article seeks to open a so-called black box. It asks how the information that Roald Amundsen reached the South Pole in December 1911 became accepted as a 'matter of fact' that found its way into most overviews of the 19th century. To open this black box, the article examines the techniques and strategies that the Norwegian Antarctic expedition of 1910 to 1912 applied to produce its data. It argues that the Norwegian expedition applied at least three different techniques: optical instruments were used to come as close to the pole as possible and encir-cle it; landmarks were left around the pole to turn the British expedition that followed the Norwegians at the pole into eye-witnesses; in Europe, the tables of geographical data that Amundsen had noted in his journal were recalculated to affirm its accuracy. Two observations follow from the focus on the expedition’s practices: firstly, the Antarctic landscape and its climate were vital actors in the production of geographical data in the Antarctic. Secondly, the Norwegian strategy was markedly more defensive than the black-boxed sentence about its presence at the pole suggests: It relied on a combination of techniques to ascertain, and aimed at proximity rather than a claim to have been at the pole." (author's abstract)

As a contribution to the United Nation’s “Development Decade” of the 1960s, the UN FAO and UNESCO collaborated to produce a Soil Map of the World. Because of soil’s privileged place in mid-twentieth century conservationist thought and its material characteristics, which were extraordinarily resistant to standardized classification, analysis of this project reveals with particular clarity how scientists made knowledge about the global environment in the international community. Producing credible global environmental knowledge required a worldwide network of disciplined observers, but soil scientists understood the Soil Map of the World as a means to produce this transnational community of experts. At a scale of 1:5 million, the units of the map applied to no place in particular; it was a heuristic device. The legend, which presented a new international classification system, was the critical accomplishment because it promised to unify diverse national soil science communities in a single discipline. The rigorously empirical descriptions of soil categories reveal the interplay of the cosmopolitan values of scientific internationalism with the nationalist tensions of the Cold War and decolonization.

This case study on two Swiss naturalists illustrates some of the ways scientific exploration of planet earth was connected to imperial conquest in the Dutch East Indies at around 1900. Looking for answers for zoogeographical problems on the island of Celebes the Swiss benefited from and enabled Dutch colonial invasion of the island. The case illustrates that the Dutch empire was a site of scientific competition among a transnational community of scholars. Finally, the case illustrates how scientific knowledge on planet earth was shaped by and contributed to colonial culture.

In the span of the first few years after Japan’s defeat in World War II, five of Japan’s leading earth scientists came forward to warn the nation that major earthquakes would soon occur. They (almost) never did. This article focuses on those predictions to highlight the debates that shaped early postwar efforts in Japan to make scientists, and earth scientists in particular, guardians of the public’s safety. It draws on multiple archival collections, participant accounts and popular media coverage to explore the tensions between individual scientists and newly formed, officially sanctioned bodies charged with coordinating earthquake prediction research. These tensions, I argue, reflect both a long-standing ambivalence within the field toward prediction’s legitimacy, and the emergence of a new set of research and policy imperatives for Japan’s earth scientists that privileged it. The legacies of the Occupation-era encounters with prediction include the 1962 publication of Earthquake Prediction: Current Status and a Plan for Development, the formation of the Coordinating Committee for Earthquake Prediction in 1969 and the passage of the Large-Scale Earthquake Countermeasures Act in 1978.

From the 1940s, new technologies, like carbon dating, ice- and sea-core drilling, and pollen analysis not only vastly expanded time horizons in geophysical and climatological research, but also pinpointed past events on a newly historical timescale. Using natural proxy indicators, these studies brought to light a series of globally disruptive events in geological time, for example, volcanic eruptions of previously unknown scale and types that had also an impact on the Earth’s climate. The past became discrete. Knowing more about the past also meant knowing more about possible futures, given that some catastrophic events have occurred repeatedly or have become increasingly predictable with the help of computer modeling. This meant that scientists' claims about the future of the earth increasingly came to interfere with politics and with traditional economic planning. The paper argues that the “new” past has come to weigh in two ways on the present and the future. First, it dwarfed the human time scale, thus in-creasing the challenge of dealing with heterogeneous time scales. Second, prehis-toric past events came to take on political significance. The deep past became part of political history, and thus of politics.

The 1970s was a crucial period of transition in polar science, when Antarctica, as the “continent defined by and for science” (Elzinga 1993), was intrinsically linked with economic interests and global environmental concerns. This shift towards a resource-oriented research agenda will be examined in the case of the Federal Republic of Germany and its GANOVEX (German Antarctic North Victoria Land Expedition) Expeditions. They started in 1979 and aimed to erase the last blank spots on the geological map of Antarctica and thus prove that Germany can attain consultative status in the Antarctic Treaty System (ATS). In this context, scientists played a key role in negotiating the possibilities and limits of resource exploration in the late 1970s. I will discuss the so-called “Gondwana hypothesis” and its role in resource-driven research and argue that global geopolitical interests in new resource potentials motivated the geological mapping of Antarctica.

Historical Social Research, 40 (2), ISSN:0172-6404

"As mineral collecting and classifying various rock types constituted an important cultural and scientific practice of enlightened societies in Europe in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, the paper analyses the sometimes extremely different spatial dimensions the mineral collections embodied, amongst which the exhibits mediated. It shows how the development of scientific mineralogy at the end of the eighteenth century not only accentuated universally-scientific claims and classifications, but was simultaneously associated with the utilitarian goals of economic development of the individual states and territories. In this context, mineral collections became an important tool of state knowledge through which mining officials as well as private collectors tried to exhibit their “patriotic” vision of economic development and deliver a public picture of the natural resources of their respective country. However, these scientific and political orders present in most contemporary collections did not destroy a classical vision which highlighted in the tradition of the older Wunderkammer the most spectacular and the valuable objects of the exhibitions." (author's abstract)

"During the early Cold War, outer space became a politically contested space, and changes in its spatial perception were related to political and ideological controversies. The article highlights the specific relevance of Euclidean geometry in representations of outer space. Focusing on illustrations and expositions in both postwar German States, it argues that shifts within the spatial imagination and representation of space corresponded with the first satellite missions and condensed debates about the future of technology and the moral legacies of the Second World War. In October 1957, Sputnik I, the first artificial satellite to orbit the Earth and a Soviet construction, urged engineers, scientists, and illustrators to find new ways of depicting and communicating the spaces of outer space to the public and to each other. For decades, space fiction had implicitly stifled theories on the relativity of space and time by hinting at traditional motifs of conquest through machines. Early spaceflight, however, was not about immediate flights to other planets, but about the orbit, a space without a traditional place, yet imagined as being of paramount importance for strategic superiority. Driven by political tensions and drawing on representations established in physics and astronomy, the first satellite projects were designed and explained as missions to places that needed to be defined and controlled because they were strange and new." (author's abstract)

"In literary texts which address the disintegration of Yugoslavia, (alternative) narratives of history are very important. Moreover, in David Albahari's Snezni covek/ Snow Man (1995) and Mamac/ Bait (1996) the map as medium has a strong presence. In Mamac the protagonist spreads out a map of Europe to explain his country's history. In Snezni covek the protagonist believes that he lives in the house of a cartographer. An historical atlas dominates the talks between the protagonist and a professor of political science. The article connects the literary approaches to the map as medium in the texts of Albahari with theoretical discourses on cartography and practices of mapping (Sybille Krämer, Denis Cosgrove, Franco Farinelli, Frank Lestringant, Michel de Certeau). The map as medium is connected with the practice of mapping (in) time and space. This is important because the disintegration of Yugoslavia is central in both texts: The process of disintegration demonstrates disorientation in relation to time and space. The map freezes a certain spatial and temporal configuration - and represents a position from which the past, present and future can be defined, but also whether and how borders have shifted." (author's abstract)

"Die forstliche Arbeitswelt präsentiert sich als Männerdomäne. Das Fach der Forstlichen Arbeitswissenschaft war seit den 1920er Jahren an der Gestaltung der forstlichen Arbeitswelt beteiligt. In einer Inhaltsanalyse 'klassischer' Texte dieser forstwissenschaftlichen Disziplin wird das in mehreren Dimensionen auf Differenz basierende Geschlechterbild rekonstruiert. Demnach werden Frauen und Männer hier fast wie zwei separate 'Arten' behandelt. Differenz wird vor allem durch den Bezug auf körperliche Leistungsfähigkeit und 'geschlechtsspezifische' Fähigkeiten hergestellt. Frauen werden als schutzbedürftig dargestellt. Damit wird die geschlechtsspezifische Arbeitsteilung in männlich besetzte Erwerbsarbeit und weiblich besetzte Familienarbeit für den Mann zur Selbstverständlichkeit. Abschließend fragt der Beitrag, inwiefern diese Differenzsetzung heute noch wirksam ist und worin die Vor- und Nachteile einer Umorientierung in Richtung Diversität als Leitkategorie der (forstlichen) Arbeitswissenschaft liegen könnten." (Autorenreferat) "Forestry presents itself as a male domain. As a discipline, Forest Work Science (Forstliche Arbeitswissenschaft) has helped to shape this sphere of work since the 1920s. Content analysis of 'classic' texts from this sub-discipline of Forest Science allow the dominant gender image to be reconstructed as being based on differences in several dimensions. Women and men are described almost as different 'species'. That difference is in particular constructed in relation to physical ability and 'gender-specific' skills. Women are seen as being in need of protection. All these differences normalize the gendered division of work, assigning men the role of breadwinner and women that of being responsible for family work for the man. The article concludes by asking to what extent this differentiation still exists and wherein lie the advantages and disadvantages of switching from difference to diversity as the dominant mode of thinking in (Forestry) Work Science." (author's abstract)

In June 2009, five dock diaries were placed in the possession the German Maritime Museum, including two by marine architect Herbert Pfohl describing his work in the Rickmers shipyard repair and dock operations in the period from 1982 to 1986. Born in 1929, from 1960 to 1966 Herbert Pfohl drew up steel vessel construction plans at the Rickmers shipyard in Bremerhaven. In 1967, at his own request, he transferred to the Rickmers shipyard repair and dock operation which had been newly founded in the fishing port. The two dock diaries shed light on the working procedures of the Rickmers shipyard repair and dock operations in the years 1982 to 1986. Herbert Pfohl refers to them as "technical bookkeeping" since, in addition to notes on organizational procedures and the scheduling of individual repair and conversion orders, the diaries also include many sketches of technical details. Herbert Pfohl started keeping these diaries of his own accord when he noticed that loose slips of paper did not suffice to record the comprehensive and complex information and refer to it quickly. Such a need might have come about, for example, during discussions on invoices for ship repairs in which the nautical inspector as well as a representative of the insurance company and the head of repair operations all took part. When differences of opinion arose between the customer and the company, the dock diary was consulted as evidence of the work carried out.

The article focuses on meteorology and geomagnetics and their growing significance in the nineteenth century, and discusses the substantial impact of these complex sciences on the economy. In both cases it became obvious that data from higher latitudes was essential for further progress in the respective discipline - a circumstance which served as a strong catalyst for the realization of polar expeditions. However, what was needed was isochronal data of the kind that could only be obtained with a sufficient number of circumpolar observation sites located - to the extent possible - at equal distances from one another. This task exceeded the capacities of individual countries; international cooperation became a must, and the first International Polar Year was carried out in 1882/83. In the course of the International Polar Years I, II (1932/33) and III (International Geophysical Year 1957/58), the focus of scientific interest broadened to include ever higher layers of the atmosphere. The first satellites were employed, and the threshold to outer space thus crossed. The fourth Polar Year (2007-09) did not follow this trend. Instead, it concentrated strongly on researching the changes in the biosphere brought about by man. The article is interspersed with reflections on the interrelationship between politics and science which played a major role in the development of the exemplary Antarctic Treaty Systems.

In the period between the two polar years 1882/83 and 1932/33, the classical captive and sounding balloon ascent methods developed at aerological observatories were also employed in the polar regions. It was only in the period leading up to the second Polar Year that radiosonde ascents and aircraft sounding came into use as new methods of aerological research. In the North Polar region, vertical temperature, humidity and wind profiles in the boundary layer were developed overseas (Arthur Berson, Hermann Elias, Hugo Hergesell) and in Greenland (Max Robitzsch, Alfred Wegener and others) during the early decades of the twentieth century with the aid of kite, captive and sounding balloon ascents. Here special attention was paid to cloud and inversion layers as well as to the catabatic wind then described for the first time. Various types of boundary layers, among them the extreme stratification conditions during the polar night, were also found by George Clarke Simpson and Erich Barkow in the Antarctic. Barkow’s micrometeorological measurements, including the registration of turbulent temperature fluctuations, are worthy of particular mention.

"Der Vortrag wird dem Wandel der Tier-Mensch-Grenze mit dem Aufkommen und der Verbreitung der Evolutionstheorie im 19. Jahrhundert nachgehen. Im Zentrum steht hierbei, dass mit der Auflösung der Tier-Mensch-Grenze neue Grenzen gezogen und evolutionstheoretisch begründet werden. So stehen von nun an Tiere wie der Affe dem Menschen näher als Personen wie der 'Wilde', der Verbrecher oder die Frau. Denn mit der für das späte 19. und frühe 20. Jahrhundert maßgeblichen teleologischen Interpretation der Entwicklungsgeschichte wird eine hierarchisch strukturierte 'Stufenleiter' etabliert, auf der bestimmte, durch eine Serie von Merkmalen (physiologische, psychologische, soziale, u.a.) charakterisierte Personen zugeordnet werden können. Aus der evolutionstheoretischen Begründung des Sozialen folgt damit, dass bestimmte 'Menschen' nur bedingt bzw. überhaupt nicht als soziale Personen angesehen werden. Diese Konzeption der Entwicklungsgeschichte liefert nun den Rahmen oder anders gesagt: das Narrativ für die Humanwissenschaften um 1900. Denn in diesen werden Personen wie Verbrecher, Hysterikerinnen, Kinder oder 'Wilde' zu aus dem Sozialen ausgeschlossene Figuren, über welche die Wissenschaften vom Menschen ihr Wissen produzieren. Wesentlich für die evolutionstheoretischen Grenzziehungen ist, dass die zeitliche Achse in eine räumliche bzw. figurale Achse übersetzt wird. So wird der Verbrecher nicht nur aus dem Bereich des Sozialen ausgeschlossen, weil er für dieses schädlich ist, sondern weil er als Repräsentant der Vergangenheit des Menschen (d.i. der weiße und männliche Europäer), aus dem Bereich des Sozialen schon ausgeschlossen ist. Diese Übersetzung von Zeitlichkeit in Räumlichkeit zeigt, dass die jeweiligen Grenzziehungen zwischen sozialen und nicht-sozialen Personen über narrative Verfahren erfolgen, genauer und mit Michail Bachtin gesagt, über die Etablierung von Chronotopoi. Diese leisten mit der Vergegenwärtigung des Vergangenen die Begründung der Grenzen des Sozialen und Normalen. Abschließend wird der Vortrag am Beispiel von Robert Müllers Roman Tropen einen der wichtigsten Chronotopoi betrachten: die von so genannten 'Wilden' bewohnten Tropen. Müllers Roman wiederholt keineswegs nur das teleologische Schema der Entwicklungsgeschichte, sondern destruiert dieses, indem er deren Chronotopoi als das analysiert, was sie sind: narrative Strategien, die nicht nur illustrierende Funktion haben, sondern Grenzen des Sozialen allererst herstellen." (Autorenreferat)

"Robert Boyles erfahrungswissenschaftliches Programm ist in der Wissenschaftsgeschichtsschreibung auf vielfältige Weise gedeutet worden: als Überwindung einer (angeblich) unwissenschaftlichen Alchemie und Begründung der modernen Chemie, als Streben nach nützlichem Wissen zum Wohle der Menschheit, als Strategie der Bearbeitung von Problemen der politischen und sozialen Ordnung während der englischen Restauration, als Ausdruck theologischer Überzeugungen und einer voluntaristischen Gotteskonzeption. Vergleichsweise wenig Aufmerksamkeit ist der Frage geschenkt worden, was Boyles leidenschaftliches Interesse für die unterschiedlichsten Naturphänomene motiviert und was ihn dauerhaft an seine verschiedenen Forschungsgegenstände bindet, so dass er einen beträchtlichen Teil seines Lebens (und seines Vermögens) der Naturforschung widmet. Anhand verschiedener Dokumente soll der Frage nachgegangen werden, inwiefern Boyles Interesse an Naturphänomenen ästhetisch gestiftet ist. In diesem Zusammenhang soll gezeigt werden, dass dieses Interesse bei Boyle innerhalb spezifisch verfasster sozialer Kontexte freigesetzt wird: in der Abgeschiedenheit des Laboratoriums - und fern vom Schreibtisch, der Boyle mit dem leistungsethisch motivierten Anspruch, ein bedeutendes Werk hervorzubringen, konfrontiert -, vor allem aber eingebettet in die spezifisch verfasste Beziehung zwischen Wissenschaftlern, die sich für denselben Forschungsgegenstand interessieren und in ihrer Weltabgewandtheit freundschaftlich verbunden wissen. Naturerfahrung bedeutet im Fall von Robert Boyle, sich der Natur als Forschungsgegenstand zu öffnen, und dies ist unauflöslich an eine luxuriöse weltabgewandte Existenz innerhalb einer spezifisch verfassten Gemeinschaft von Wissenschaftlern verknüpft." (Autorenreferat)

In 1958/1959, two liners dating from the pre-war era, one in Hamburg, and one in Bremen, were converted almost simultaneously for service in the North Atlantic between Germany and the United States. The EMPRESS OF SCOTLAND became the HANSEATIC of the Hamburg-Atlantic Line, and the PASTEUR became the BREMEN of the North-German Lloyd. The HANSEATIC, a ship whose exterior was quite modern, was already setting course for New York after about six months in the shipyard. The elegant BREMEN only began its service after one year and nine months. Although the BREMEN was roughly comparable to the HANSEATIC in size, it cost 100 Million deutschmarks - far more than twice as much as the HANSEATIC - to purchase and convert her. The purchase price of the HANSEATIC amounted to little more than a third of that of the PASTEUR despite the better condition and the existing equipment of the EMPRESS OF SCOTLAND. The latter vessel had been extensively refurbished in 1950 and, until the date of conversion, been used as a passenger liner - and not a troopship like the PASTEUR. This circumstance explains the substantially lower costs and considerably shorter time span for the conversion of the Hamburg liner. The PASTEUR, however, turned out to be in very poor condition. Major components such as the engine and large parts of the superstructure as well as the lavish interior all had to be replaced. The HANSEATIC was only partially but very effectively upgraded. The radical conversion of the PASTEUR into the BREMEN was tantamount to a new ship construction. Never before or afterwards did such a large passenger liner undergo such an elaborate conversion process.

Anhand von Entwicklung, Problemen und Perspektiven des Luftverkehrs, insbesondere des Passagierverkehrs, werden Persistenz und Wandel der räumlichen Verteilungsmuster und die jeweilige Stellung der deutschen Verkehrsflughäfen untersucht. Ausgehend von der relativ schnellen Etablierung des Luftverkehrs bis zum Ende des Zweiten Weltkriegs wird die gegensätzliche Entwicklung in den beiden deutschen Staaten bis zur Wiedervereinigung im Jahre 1990 dargelegt; dabei waren eine Einbindung in die jeweiligen politischen und gesellschaftlichen Systeme und eine deutlich größere Dynamik in Westdeutschland charakteristisch, zugleich aber auch eine weitgehende Persistenz der Vorkriegsstrukturen. Innerhalb eines relativ stabilen dezentralen hierarchischen Systems hat allerdings Frankfurt a. M. als unangefochtener Spitzenreiter Berlin abgelöst und seine führende Stellung seit 1990 noch ausgebaut. Das dynamische Wachstum des Luftverkehrs weltweit und in Deutschland erlitt angesichts von Krisen und Terroranschlägen ab 2001 deutliche Einbrüche, die inzwischen überwunden sind. Angebote von Billigfliegern und Regionalflughäfen sind am neuerlichen Wachstum stark beteiligt. Die innerdeutschen Passagierströme sind relativ stabil, die weltweiten Flugziele nach Ländern dagegen stark von unterschiedlichen Gunst- oder Ungunstfaktoren abhängig. Gegenwärtige Trends und Probleme sind Kooperationen und Fusionen von Luftverkehrsgesellschaften, die Erarbeitung von Flughafenkonzepten mit Ausbaumaßnahmen und der Vernetzung mit anderen Verkehrsträgern sowie die gleichzeitige verstärkte Berücksichtigung von Belangen des Natur- und Landschaftsschutzes. Da bei wird von staatlichen Repräsentanten ein bedarfsgerechter Ausbau bei maximaler Berücksichtigung von Umweltaspekten gefordert, damit die deutschen Flughäfen im europäischen und globalen Wettbewerb ihren Rang behaupten können. This article takes a look at the development, problems and prospects of air traffic, in particular passenger traffic, to study persistence and change in regional patterns of distribution and the position of German commercial airports. It describes the contrasting development in the two German states up to reunification in 1990 starting with the relatively fast establishment of air traffic until the end of the Second World War. The characteristic factor was being integrating into their specific political and societal systems with greater dynamism in western Germany, although the pre-war structures persisted to a great extent. Within a relatively stable decentralised hierarchical system, Frankfurt am Main was able to replace Berlin as the unchallenged forerunner and even being able to build up its leading position after 1990. Starting in 2001, the dynamic growth of air traffic throughout the world and in Germany suffered major setbacks with crises and terror attacks that have been overcome in the meantime. Cheap airlines with their low prices and regional airports have had a major share in the most recent growth. The flows of passengers within Germany are relatively stable, although global flight destinations to differing countries depend to a great extent upon various factors having to do with popularity or a lack thereof. The present trends and problems are airlines merging or co-operating with one another, outlining airport strategies by expanding and interlinking them with other means of traffic while taking questions of conservation and landscape preservation into consideration. Governmental representatives call for needed airport expansion while taking major environmental questions into account to ensure that German airports can keep up the pace in European and global competition.

Archimedes, an outstanding mathematician, natural scientist and engineer of antiquity, is widely known for having established the hydrostatic principle of the balance between the buoyancy and displacement forces of floating bodies. Much less well-known, however, are his equally significant achievements in the development of a criterion for the hydrostatic stability of such bodies and thus of ships, comparable in a sense to the concept of a positive lever arm of the righting aspect of these forces. This lack of fame is surprising, considering that his unusual ideas on stability, demonstrated in the example of the simple form of a rotation paraboloid, appeared in the same extant treatise that contains the basic principle of hydrostatics: On Floating Bodies. Yet Archimedes’ treatises are seldom read carefully. The study at hand therefore takes a closer look at the treatises on which his contributions to the subject are based. An explanation is provided for his ability to calculate lever arms despite the fact that he did not have the methods of integral calculus at his disposal. Finally the article provides an account of the adventurous paths by which this nearly forgotten knowledge of Archimedes reached modern times, and how it contributed to the reestablishment of the stability theory, above all by Pierre Bouguer and Leonhard Euler. Within this context, light is shed upon those aspects of the knowledge of antiquity that serve as the roots for our present-day understanding of the stability of ships.

As in Parts I-IV (appearing in DSA 1996-1999), the boat and ship engine production of a specific German region and period is described in this article. Here the author focuses on the territory of the Soviet Occupied Zone (1945-1949) and the German Democratic Republic that emerged from it (1949-1990). Particular attention is paid to the history of the factory locations Aken, Berlin, Böhlitz-Ehrenberg, Chemnitz, Cunewalde, Dessau, Kamenz, Ludwigsfelde, Magdeburg and Zittau. In addition, brief lexical passages are devoted to discussing the history of the Eastern German firms that manufactured large diesel engines for ships in Berlin, Görlitz, Halberstadt, Magdeburg (SKL), Nordhausen, Rosslau, Rostock (DMR) and Schönebeck.

Der Beitrag berichtet über die Probleme vom Umgang mit den überlieferten maschinenlesbaren Datenbeständen aus der DDR. Vorgestellt wird die wechselvolle Geschichte jenes Einsatzgebietes elektronischer Datenverarbeitung im Bereich des DDR-Eingabenwesens, welches unter dem Signum 'EDV-Projekt Eingaben der Bürger zur Erfassung und Auswertung des Inhalts der Eingaben der Bürger' zwischen 1979 bis 1989 aktenkundig geworden ist. Da das einschlägige überlieferte Schriftgut bislang weder systematisch erschlossen noch umfassend ausgewertet worden ist, wird an dieser Stelle ein grober Überblick über Konzeption und Aufbau des Eingaben-Projektes geboten. Die folgenden Ausführungen betrachtet der Verfasser daher als einen ersten Zwischen- bzw. Werkstattbericht über das noch laufende Projekt der Datenerschließung. (pre)

As has been the case with other trailblazing innovations, several "inventors" claimed to have been the first to come up with the idea of the underwater vessel. Many of their theories have come down to us, theories that were never put into practice or developed to the point of usability. The experiments carried out by the Dutchman Cornelius van Drebbel (1624), David Bushnell (1742), Fulton (ca. 1800), Wilhelm Bauer (1850) and Horace Hunley (1863) are, for example, worthy of mention. Until the last quarter of the nineteenth century, however, the development of submarines was subject to limitations, due not least of all to the fact that the primary problem - the economic incentive for surface/subsurface movement- could not be solved by technical means. The various initial experiments with submersible craft nevertheless led to a number of significant findings: The designers knew what prerequisites had to be fulfilled for submerged running, they had tested the diving and surfacing functions of their craft and gained insight into the effects of subsea movement on the crew. With regard to the tactical application of these vessels in maritime warfare, it was known that underwater craft were a promising means of approaching an enemy ship unrecognised and carrying out an underwater detonation. Between 1875 and 1900, the systematic development of usable underwater vessels advanced quickly, due both to the introduction of suitable construction materials and developments in the area of engine and arms technology: This period saw the invention of the battery-powered electric engine for subsea movement and the torpedo as the submarine's primary weapon. While the United States and France played a leading role in the systematic development of the submarine, Germany waited and made use of experience gained by other countries. Through the introduction of technical improvements in the weaponry as well as the steering, locating, and propulsion functions - particularly the installation of torpedoes and the design of diesel engines that could be used in connection with electric drive - the submarine finally underwent concrete application in all navies at the beginning of the twentieth century.

As an eye witness to the discovery of America by Columbus, Juan de Ia Cosa possessed excellent and authentic knowledge of geography. His map of the world of 1500 a.d. is the subject of this article, which documents the computer-supported cartometric study undertaken to determine the degree of the map's precision. Based on an analysis of the map's "external" geometry (paper distortion), its "internal" precision was investigated by means of the locational comparison of points on the old map with the corresponding areas on a modern map. This process begins with the definition and digitalisation of "identical" points (salient coastline landmarks, identifiable cities) on the historic map. Then the relevant geographical coordinates of these points are determined and projected on a freely selectable plane. The comparison of the Cosa map's historical depiction with that of the modern map is carried out by means of an adjusted coordinate transformation (Helmert transformation) of the identical points. The criterion for the quality of correspondence between the two projections is the size of the remaining errors of position with regard to the identical points. The comparison is carried out iteratively by changing the map projection with the goal of minimising the remaining errors. According to the numerical investigation of various regions, the Mediterranean area exhibits mean square error of ± 73 km. The analysis of the entire region comprising the Mediterranean, Northwest Africa and Cuba reveals a standard deviation of ± 1 81 km, corresponding to approximately 3% of the distance to America.

"Of all the illustrations depicting a section of the earth's surface, the first to resemble the actual circumstances closely are Medieval sea charts known as Portolan charts. These depictions appeared quite suddenly in the thirteenth century and exhibit a conspicuous chordal network, a linear system based on the point of the wind. Mathematical investigations of the coastlines shown on these sea charts have revealed an astonishing degree of precision in comparison to modern charts. It is not known what methods were used to determine the geodetic foundations for the Portolan works. The question of authorship leads back to Roman and Hellenistic antiquity, and it is not impossible to imagine a set of circumstances that could have allowed these mysterious documents to survive ancient times and be handed down through the generations to the Medieval period." (author's abstract)

Die vorliegende Analyse der Temperaturschwankungen seit dem Mittelalter basiert auf Index-Kalkulationen der verschiedenen klimatischen Phasen. Für die Zeit nach 1500 liegen genauere Daten vor, die Rückschlüsse auf Landwirtschaft und Sozialgeschichte erlauben. Die Interpretation der Daten mittels einer Regressionsanalyse zeigt starke, natürlich bedingte Fluktuationen in der klimatischen Entwicklung Mitteleuropas. Insgesamt beansprucht die Studie, zu einem besseren Verständnis der Mensch-Umwelt-Beziehung beizutragen. (ICE) 'The present contribution concerns with the course of temperatures in central Europe since the year 1000 A.D. Based on index calculations the various climatic phases, wuch as the Medieval Thermal Optimum and the Little Ice Age are discussed at the decennial level. For the time after 1500 A.D. a monthly subdivision is presented which expecially lends itself to more detailed interpretations e.g. in the fields of agricultural and social history. By means of regression analysis temperature level and annual mean temperatures are calculated, allowing an assessment of the major periods. The study reveals the great dimensions of natural fluctuation in the course of temperature in central europe, hopefully contributing to a better understanding of Man-and-Environment relationship.' (author's abstract)