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"Economics of education is still a young discipline. While substantial understanding has been achieved in many parts of the world, the subject has not solved its own methodological problems or made much effort to do so. Now it is back in fashion, and people are beginning to ask questions about the scope of its application, the relevance of its methods and the purposes it serves. Educational economists investigate the implications of resource allocation and distribution for relations between educational variables and between these and the external environment. They seek to understand processes of skill creation, qualifications and their application, in ways analogous to the work of educational historians, sociologists and psychologists. Operationally, the economics of education is concerned with education and economic growth, employment, and income distribution. A major sub-theme has been the finance and distribution of resources within and between educational sectors and the measurement of their effectiveness and efficiency. This paper is limited to the period before World War II. It develops the seminal work of the founding fathers of the discipline, before the significant developments of North American scholars such as Mincer, Schultz and Becker in the 50s and 60s" (author's abstract)

Zeitschrift für Pädagogik 59 (2013) 2, S. 219-237, Die vor einhundert Jahren verabschiedete Meißnerformel ist mit ihrem Bekenntnis zu Selbstbestimmung, Eigenverantwortung und Wahrhaftigkeit nach wie vor legendär und trifft auf breite Zustimmung, zumal als Programmformel der deutschen Jugendbewegung. Im Beitrag wird sowohl die Erfolgs- als auch die Verfallsgeschichte dieser Formel nacherzählt, mit deutlich stärkerer Gewichtung der Letzteren und im Ergebnis mit der These, dass der Erfolg der Meißnerformel nach 1945 von Veteranen der Jugendbewegung bewusst inszeniert wurde, um von den dunklen Seiten ihres Vermächtnisses abzulenken. (DIPF/Orig.), The Meissner rule with its declaration of belief in self-determination, self-responsibility and truthfulness, adopted 100 years ago, is still legendary and meets with broad acceptance, especially as a programmatic formula of the German youth movement. The author recounts the story of both the success and the decline of this formula, with a stronger emphasis on the latter, concluding with the thesis that the success of the Meissner rule after 1945 was deliberately stage-managed by veterans of the youth movement in order to distract from the darker sides of its legacy. (DIPF/Orig.)

"This article discusses the problem-solving capacity of river basin cooperatives in German water policy in historical and current cases. The article builds an institutional theory and refers to the most important Water Framework Directive (WDF) of the European Union in 2000 and works back to the emergence of the first agencies in Germany around 1900. The article shows that these agencies organized a sophisticated institutional compromise between different groups of water users such as mining companies and public authorities. The Prussian state set up a complex legal framework of representation and negotiation of conflicting interests, as the article shows with the cases of the Schwarze Elster and the Erft cooperative. The second part of the paper discusses the problem-solving capacity of these old institutional structures for today's problems such as environmental degradation and urban shrinkage. It states, by analyzing the cases of the Erft and the Rur cooperatives, that the complex mechanisms of financing and decision-making provide protection of water resources and broad agreement amongst the actors involved. The cooperatives are expanding their activities in the context of the WFD and can be regarded to be an appropriate instrument of water policy in the early 21st century." (author's abstract)

"This piece shall explore the use-value of ego-documents which are not in the focus of the recent surge of interest in these materials. At the center is an unpublished 'Aufschreibebuch' (not a diary but a notebook) of a Krupp-worker covering the 1920s into the late 1940s (with some addenda even into the 1970s). How did the writer try to 'keep time' in his recordings of his spending and using time? One of the striking features is the spatial 'simultaneity of registers' which the author pursued: politics, family and weather/ gardening stand out, occasionally seasoned by local, national or global catastrophes. More generally, this spatial frame paralleled multiple activities and occurrences. Still, the writer followed their temporal sequence. In other words: the spatial recordings show the flipside of the 'timespace' (Jon May) the writer encountered and appropriated. Thus, temporality appears as the space of and for writing - made visible and at the same time consumed by inscribing pages of paper. From this angle the author wants to re-set the question of 'acceleration' which has become a principal label of the modern era, esp. the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Here his take is that 'acceleration' is missing crucial practices (and experiences) of the historical actors. Rather, scrutiny of people's usage of space when writing time reveals various forms of intensification." (author's abstract)

"This article compares the two presidential elections of 1925 and 1932 in an attempt to determine the shifts between these two elections which brought Paul von Hindenburg to power. Although this article does not attempt to add to the historiography of Hindenburg's election and the subsequent deparliamentarization which has often been thought by historians to have eased Hitler's transition to power, it attempts to use statistical verification to underline a number of hypotheses generally agreed upon by historians, but which lack substantial evidence. In considering Hindenburg's election, a number of variables are considered, such as: which parties the Hindenburg voters came from, why Hindenburg was backed rather than his oppositional candidate Wilhelm Marx, and what social background the Hindenburg voters had. Also, the commonly held belief that many of the communist voters fluctuated from the communist party candidate, Ernst Thälmann, to Adolf Hitler is statistically analyzed." (author's abstract)

"This article considers the youthful composition of the NSDAP between 1925 and 1933. This article not only challenges Michael Kater's previous analyses on the young party by finding the average age of members in the early years of the party to be younger than previously thought, but also examines information about the young recruits including: age, regional background, religious denomination and occupation. While previous research has shown the NSDAP movement to be one of the middle class, this article finds that, amongst the young members, the skilled working class is more heavily represented, thus challenging many commonly held notions about the party membership. This article also takes into consideration the high turnover rate of the NSDAP, while also analyzing which members subsequently rejoined after leaving the party, a quite common phenomenon." (author's abstract)

"The goal of the following analysis is to consider the hardly researched Bundestag elections as a link between the first and second German Republics in their historical context. Due to the lack of available data - there are no surveys available - an aggregate data analysis has been used to develop results about the socio-economic voting patterns from a temporal and spatial perspective. The economic and political factors in the election campaign are investigated in order to analyze the election. The Weimar roots of the election results are also presented in order to compare the results between 1928 and 1949. The relationship between the performance of the most important parties in the Bundestag elections of 1949, those parties' percentages of votes in the Landtag elections in 1946/ 7, and the Bundestag elections of 1953 are considered. The analysis of the socio-economic composition of the election results follows, whereby the influence of social factors on the election results is considered in the development leading up to the 1953 Bundestag elections. These factors include: (1) religious influences; (2) economic influences; (3) influence of socio-economic background. Then, the isolated relationships between the individual influence factors are illustrated in a causal model with latent variables. The results of the study are discussed." (author's abstract)

Zeitschrift für Pädagogik 59 (2013) 4, S. 508-525, Die Entwicklung des dreigliedrigen Schulsystems wird am Beispiel Berlins im Kontext der politischen Umbrüche von 1918, 1945 und 1989 und der dabei periodisch wiederkehrenden Phasen starken Schülerrückgangs untersucht. Während der relative Schulbesuch an Gymnasien in diesem Zusammenhang jeweils sprunghaft anstieg, waren Volks- und Hauptschulen am stärksten von rückläufigen Schülerzahlen betroffen. Die Erhöhung des Schulbesuchs an Gymnasien war eingebettet in Prozesse politisch vermittelter Bildungsmobilisierung und der Entwertung von Schulabschlüssen unterhalb des Abiturs und wurde verstärkt durch Selbsterhaltungsstrategien der Gymnasien. Aufgrund der auch demographisch initiierten Expansion der Gymnasien bei gleichzeitiger Marginalisierung der Volks- bzw. Hauptschulen wurden die dem dreigliedrigen Schulsystem zugeschriebenen Kanalisierungseffekte seit den 1960er Jahren zunehmend unterminiert. (DIPF/Orig.), Using Berlin as an example, the development of the three-tier school system is examined within the context of the political upheavals of 1918, 1945, and 1989 and the accompanying recurring phases of strong decrease in the number of students. While, in this context, the relative number of enrollments at the high school (Gymnasium) always showed a sharp increase, the lower secondary schools (Voksschule, Hauptschule) were affected most strongly by a decrease in student numbers. The increase in students attending the high school was embedded in processes of politically mediated educational mobilization and of the devaluation of school-leaving qualifications lower than the Abitur (the general qualification for university entrance). It was furthermore enhanced through strategies of self-preservation developed by the high schools. Due to the also demographically initiated expansion of the high school (Gymnasium) and the accompanying marginalization of the lower secondary schools (Volksschule, Hauptschule), the canalization effects attributed to the three-tier school system have been increasingly undermined since the 1960s. (DIPF/Orig.)

"This contribution challenges the often-cited middle-class thesis that concerns the idea of the NSDAP party being a movement mainly rooted in the German white-collar environment. According to this thesis, working-class members were rather immune to the ideas of National Socialism before 1933, whereas white-collar employers were attracted to it at a rate above average. The author rejects this notion as part of historical mythmaking and folk-pedagogical intentions. A critical reassessment of interpretations before and after 1945 concerning NSDAP electoral success shows a tendency to come to allegedly obvious conclusions without necessary empirical data. Examining the results of historical voter and election research, the author comes to the conclusion that the NSDAP was not a middle-class phenomenon, and that members of the working class were not at all as underrepresented among NSDAP voters as claimed by the middle-class thesis." (author's abstract)

This article introduces the Knappschaft statistics as a basic source for quantitative data on a very important topic in historical social research, namely the rise of the welfare state. Scholars who seek to embark upon historical social research in that direction require both qualitative and quantitative data. Exploring data sources and making data available for general use thus is crucial to systematic research and scholarly discourse. For the period 1861 to 1920, the Knappschaft statistics document the operation of the various German Knappschaftsvereine as the carriers of miners' occupational social insurance at the time. Data on the various Knappschaften are quite rich enabling us to use them as a 'historical laboratory' not merely to study the welfare positions of and social relations in a particular societal class in a particular period, but to explore more general questions related to the roots of modern welfare states, their functioning, and the challenges they face. To stress this point, the author combines the concise overview of the Knappschaft statistics with a straightforward application to the question of the consequences of aging in a pay-as-you-go pension system., Historical Social Research Vol. 38, No. 1 (2013)

At the end of World War I, Germany was neither politically, nor culturally ”attendable”, for most of the European countries. In this context, one of the main cultural aims of the Weimar Republic will be the resumption of the cultural and academic relations with other countries. The foreign students were invested with a major role in this respect. The Weimar Republic has taken institutional and financial steps in order to intensify the student migration and to repopulate its universities with foreign students, measures that have paid off in the mid 20s. In 1925, the percentage of foreign students in Germany reached again the pre-war level. The groups of foreign students best represented in the German universities were the Romanians, the Bulgarians and the Polish. The paper also takes a look at the evolution of the foreign students in Germany during 1918-1933, focusing on their country of origin, the preferred institutions of higher education and fields of study, as well as on the presence of female students from foreign countries in Germany.

This article focuses on the divided and scattered political affiliations in the Weimar Republic which helped to provide an environment that supported rapid political changes between 1919 and 1933. Using methodologies of historical electoral research, this article considers cleavages between party blocs on a federal level by analyzing the stability within and voter fluctuation between political parties. These voter fluctuations are also analyzed by considering the social background of the eligible voters, as well as by religious denomination. An ecological regression analysis and aggregate data analysis determine the stability of voter blocs and note a number of reasons why the NSDAP received such a large number of votes from a rather stable voting system in March of 1933.

Erziehungswissenschaftliche Revue (EWR) 11 (2012) 1, Rezension von: Matthias Zaft, Der erzählte Zögling. Narrative in den Akten der deutschen Fürsorgeerziehung. Bielefeld: transcript 2011 (401 S.; ISBN 978-3-8376-1737-5)

Erziehungswissenschaftliche Revue (EWR) 11 (2012) 4, Sammelrezension von: 1. Werkstatt Alltagsgeschichte (Hrsg.), Du Mörder meiner Jugend. Edition von Aufsätzen männlicher Fürsorgezöglinge aus der Weimarer Republik. Münster u.a.: Waxmann 2011 (540 S.; ISBN 978-3-8309-2456-2). 2. Matthias Frölich (Hrsg.), Quellen zur Geschichte der Heimerziehung in Westfalen 1945-1980. Paderborn u.a.: Ferdinand Schöningh 2011 (738 S.; ISBN 978-3-506-77139-1). 3. Susanne Schäfer-Walkmann / Constanze Störk-Biber / Hildegard Tries, Die Zeit heilt keine Wunden. Heimerziehung in den 1950er und 1960er Jahren in der Diözese Rottenburg-Stuttgart Herausgegeben von der Diözese Rottenburg-Stuttgart. Freiburg im Breisgau: Lambertus –Verlag 2011 (328 S.; ISBN 978-3-7841-2031-7)

Erziehungswissenschaftliche Revue (EWR) 11 (2012) 3, Sammelrezension von: 1. Wolfgang Einsiedler / Margarete Götz / Christian Ritzi / Ulrich Wiegmann (Hrsg.), Grundschule im historischen Prozess. Zur Entwicklung von Bildungsprogramm, Institution und Disziplin in Deutschland. Bad Heilbrunn: Klinkhardt 2012 (310 S.; ISBN 978-3-7815-1837-7). 2. Johannes Jung / Bettina König / Katharina Krenig / Katrin Stöcker / Verena Stürmer / Michaela Vogt (Hrsg.), Die zweigeteilte Geschichte der Grundschule 1945 bis 1990. Ausgewählte und kommentierte Quellentexte zur Entwicklung in Ost- und Westdeutschland. Berlin: LIT 2011 (262 S.; ISBN 978-3-643-11087-9). 3. Johannes Jung, Der Heimatkundeunterricht in der DDR. Die Entwicklung des Faches in den unteren vier Jahrgangsstufen der Polytechnischen Oberschule zwischen 1945 und 1989. Bad Heilbrunn: Klinkhardt 2011 (163 S.; ISBN 978-3-7815-1817-9)

Erziehungswissenschaftliche Revue (EWR) 11 (2012) 3, Rezension von: Gert Geißler, Schulgeschichte in Deutschland. Von den Anfängen bis in die Gegenwart. Frankfurt a.M.: Lang-Verlag 2011 (1003 S.; ISBN 978-3-631-61435-8)

"In the various stages of its development - from a small right-wing extremist movement, opposed to the democratic parliamentary system of the Weimar Republic, to the solely ruling party of the most gruesome dictatorships of the 19th century - nationalsocialism always bore features of protest- or government populism. This is characterized by a massive personalization and emotionalisation of politics, the use of bogeyman figures and enemy stereotypes in an extremely dichotomous and simplified world view, a vertical juxtaposition of 'below' (the people) and 'above' (the elites/ the system), frequent calls upon the 'Volk' with an aggressive and depreciating attitude towards political adversaries, promises of liberation and salvation by a charismatic Leader are some of the most important populist features of the national socialist party, which can at least partly be attributed to its 'völkisch' origins. In any understanding, some features of nationalsocialism are distinctly not populist, e.g. the will to power, the claim of totalitarianism, the readiness for tactical compromise and the massive use of force and terror prevent an interpretation of nationalsocialism as a populist phenomenon tout court." (author's abstract)

Der Beitrag beschreibt die Stadtlandschaft zwischen Berlin und Potsdam. Durch seine Historizität stellt dieser suburbane Raum eine in Deutschland besondere, teilweise als Weltkulturerbe ausgezeichnete Kulturlandschaft dar. Die Kulturgeschichte dieses suburbanen Raumes wird seit dem 19. Jahrhundert skizziert. 1838 wurden die beiden preußischen Residenzstädte erstmals durch die Stammbahn miteinander verbunden. Dies war die Grundlage für viele Siedlungsgebiete am Wannsee, Schlachtensee und Griebnitzsee. Zugleich wurden die Seenlandschaft der Havel und die Waldlandschaft des Grunewaldes beliebte Naherholungsgebiete für Berlin. Seit der Phase der Industrialisierung in der Gründerzeit siedelten sich große Teile des Berliner Bürgertums in Landhaus- und Villenkolonien am südwestlichen Rand der Millionenmetropole an. Der private Bauunternehmer von Carstenn entwarf bereits 1892 die metropolitane Vision von Berlin und Potsdam als einer Stadt, verbunden durch den Grunewald als Park. Der wachsende Siedlungsdruck und die Freiraumverluste in diesem Gebiet führten Ende des 19. Jahrhunderts zur Herausbildung einer Waldschutzbewegung, welcher es schließlich 1915 gelang, durch den Staat große Dauerwaldgebiete gegen den metropolitanen Wachstumsdruck zu sichern. Durch die Bildung von Groß-Berlin im Jahr 1920 wurden viele Villenvororte eingemeindet, das "wilde", durch private Akteure getragene Siedlungswachstum wurde nun öffentlich gesteuert. Der in den 1920er und 1930er Jahren durch die Mittelschichten getragene Suburbanisierungsprozess wurde mit der Teilung Deutschlands und Berlins für über vier Jahrzehnte unterbrochen. Seit 1990 wachsen Berlin und Potsdam wieder enger zusammen, der Siedlungsdruck erfasst auch die benachbarte Region Teltow, Kleinmachnow und Stahnsdorf. This paper describes the urban landscape between Berlin and Potsdam. The historicity of this cultural landscape makes it a particularly important suburban space within Germany, and part of it has been designated a world heritage site. The cultural history of this suburban space is outlined from the nineteenth century onwards. In 1838 the two Prussian residencies were linked by a permanent railway. This provided the basis for the development of many settlements on the lakes of Wannsee, Schlachtensee and Griebnitzsee. At the same time the lake-dominated landscape of the Havel and the woody landscape of Grunewald became popular recreational areas for Berlin residents. At the time of industrialisation in the late nineteenth century many of Berlin’s bourgeoisies settled in villa and country-house districts on the south-western edge of the million-strong metropolis. As early as 1892 the private developer von Carstenn designed a metropolitan vision whereby Berlin and Potsdam were one city connected by a park consisting of the woodland area of Grunewald. The increasing pressure on land through continued building and the associated loss of recreational space in this area led to the formation of a wood protection movement at the end of the nineteenth century. In 1915 this initiative managed to persuade the state to protect large areas of permanent woodland from urban growth. The creation of Greater Berlin in 1920 involved the incorporation of many of the suburban villa districts and the bringing under public control of the “wild” urban development carried out by private actors. The process of suburbanisation was continued by the middle classes through the 1920s and 1930s, but this was then interrupted for four decades by the division of Germany and Berlin. Since 1990 Berlin and Potsdam have been growing closer together again and the demand for housing is also affecting the neighbouring region of Teltow, Kleinmachnow and Stahnsdorf.

»Zeitgeschichte als transatlantisches Projekt: Autobiographische Überlegungen zur deutschen Frage«. This autobiographical retrospective discusses Konrad Jarausch’s scholarship as an example of the topical and methodological development of contemporary history. In contrast to nationally bound scholars, his career in the United States and involvement in German debates illuminates the transatlantic connections of historicizing the recent past. The need to confront the Nazi dictatorship initially privileged political history, but the societal upheavals of the 1960 shifted interests towards quantitative methods and the new social history. The peaceful revolution of 1989 then challenged historians to establish a nuanced interpretation of the GDR in scholarship and memory culture. At the same time the cultural turn called for an engagement with postmodern methods of narratology, transforming theoretical approaches towards constructivism. The growing sensitivity towards the European and global embeddedness of the German past finally inspired a move towards transnational perspectives. This intellectual trajectory is therefore emblematic of successive changes which opened contemporary history towards a new plurality.

"Today, the type of illustrated magazine emerging during the 1920s has become an extraordinarily substantial and esthetically top-rate source of information on the history of culture, communication, design, photography and everyday life. However, complete issues in public libraries are extremely rare, and only very few have so far been backed up on secondary media. In an ongoing cooperation project by the Saxon State and University Library of Dresden (SLUB) and the Communication Studies Department at the University of Erfurt, ten of the most important German-language magazines of the 1920s, comprising around 650 issues, an estimated 75,000 printed pages and an expected number of at least 50,000 illustrations, are being made digitally accessible and prepared for a wide variety of interdisciplinary research purposes. The paper introduces main characteristics of these sources and informs about the basic technical conditions for digitizing this particular type of material. In its main part, special emphasis is devoted to the implementation, with regard to methods applied and proceeding. The authors dose with a brief outline of an exemplary research access, referring to the visual framing of the 'New Woman' during the Weimar period." (author's abstract)

Today, the type of illustrated magazine emerging during the 1920s has become an extraordinarily substantial and esthetically top-rate source of information on the history of culture, communication, design, photography and everyday life. However, complete issues in public libraries are extremely rare, and only very few have so far been backed up on secondary media. In an ongoing cooperation project by the Saxon State and University Library of Dresden (SLUB) and the Communication Studies Department at the University of Erfurt, ten of the most important German-language magazines of the 1920s, comprising around 650 issues, an estimated 75,000 printed pages and an expected number of at least 50,000 illustrations, are being made digitally accessible and prepared for a wide variety of interdisciplinary research purposes. The paper introduces main characteristics of these sources and informs about the basic technical conditions for digitizing this particular type of material. In its main part, special emphasis is devoted to the implementation, with regard to methods applied and proceeding. The authors dose with a brief outline of an exemplary research access, referring to the visual framing of the 'New Woman' during the Weimar period., Historical Social Research Vol. 37, No. 4 (2012): Focus II: Towards Web History: Sources, Methods, and Challenges in the Digital Age. Starting Point and Frequency: Year: 1979, Issues per volume: 4, Volumes per year: 1

Erziehungswissenschaftliche Revue (EWR) 11 (2012) 4, Rezension von: Jonas Kleindienst, Die Wilden Cliquen Berlins. „Wild und frei“ trotz Krieg und Krise. Geschichte einer Jugendkultur. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang 2011 (128 S.; ISBN 978-3-631-61808-0)

"Die (fiktive) Anrede 'Genosse Herr Minister' drückte in pointierter Weise das Spannungsverhältnis aus, in dem sich die neuen sozialdemokratischen Minister, Volksbeauftragten oder Senatoren in den Reichs- und Länderregierungen der Weimarer Republik befanden, denn die neue Regierungsaufgabe traf die führenden Sozialdemokraten bzw. Minister weitgehend unvorbereitet. Der 'Genosse Minister' steht hier für jene Sozialdemokraten, die das Ministeramt vor allem als Parteiamt und als Teil ihrer Parteikarriere betrachteten. Ihre Amtsführung war 'parteilich', das heißt politisch und wirkungsorientiert geprägt. Der 'Herr Minister' steht dagegen für jene Sozialdemokraten, die das Ministeramt als öffentliches politisches Amt und als Teil einer Karriere im öffentlichen Dienst betrachteten. Ihre Amtsführung war 'überparteilich', das heißt fachlich und verwaltungsorientiert geprägt. Das Ziel der vorliegenden kollektiv-biographischen Studie besteht darin, die sozialdemokratischen Minister im Spannungsfeld dieser beiden Idealtypen zu verorten. Der Beitrag ist in fünf Abschnitte geteilt: 1) wird nach der Regierungsfähigkeit der politischen Parteien in der Weimarer Republik im allgemeinen und der SPD im besonderen gefragt; 2) wird nach den verfassungsmäßigen Grundlagen der Regierungsfähigkeit gefragt und das Parlamentarische Regierungssystem im Reich und in den Ländern vorgestellt; 3) werden die Reichs- und Landtagswahlergebnisse als die wichtigsten Determinanten der Regierungsfähigkeit zusammenfassend genannt und die Regierungsbeteiligung der Sozialdemokratie im Reich und in den Ländern beschrieben; 4) werden im Hauptteil ausgewählte Ergebnisse einer Kollektivbiographie der insgesamt 213 sozialdemokratischen Regierungsmitglieder in Form eines kommentierten typischen Lebenslaufs vorgestellt und anhand einer Einzelfallstudie illustriert; 5) wird schließlich die zentrale Frage nach der Regierungsfähigkeit des sozialdemokratischen Regierungspersonals beantwortet und dabei auch das spezielle Verhältnis von SPD und öffentlichem Dienst diskutiert." (Autorenreferat)

In der Weimarer Republik war die deutsche Volkswirtschaftslehre durch grundlegende Auseinandersetzungen gespalten, die die Fundamente wissenschaftlicher Erkenntnis betrafen. Der Ökonom Walter Eucken spielte eine prominente Rolle innerhalb dieser Kontroversen und formulierte umfassende methodologische Überlegungen. Zugleich beteiligte er sich intensiv sowohl an den wirtschaftspolitischen Debatten des Landes als auch an den disziplinären Machtkämpfen seines Faches. Der Beitrag zeigt am Beispiel des Briefwechsels mit seinem Kollegen Alexander Rüstow, dass die erkenntnistheoretischen Stellungnahmen Euckens in engem Zusammenhang mit seinen alltäglichen sozialen Praktiken standen. Der Aufsatz richtet sich gegen die rein ideengeschichtliche Perspektive, die in den Studien zur Geschichte der Sozialwissenschaften weiterhin verbreitet ist, und plädiert für eine stärkere Einbettung methodologischer Konzeptionen in den gesellschaftlichen Kontext. During the Weimar Republic, German economics were affected by outstanding controversies regarding the fundamentals of scientific knowledge. The economist Walter Eucken played a decisive role in these disputes and formulated major methodological considerations. Furthermore, he took part in the public debates about economic policy as well as in the institutional conflicts within his discipline. Based on correspondence with his colleague Alexander Rüstow, this paper shows that Eucken's methodological statements were closely related to his social practices. Arguing against the narrow perspective still common within the history of social sciences, the article therefore constitutes a call for further study of methodological concepts in relation to social context.

"Populism was treated as a special subject and in a certain way connected to the concept of 'demagogy'. It was presented as a sort of cancer inside the constitutional and democratic-oriented political systems of 19th and 20th centuries. The essay shows how in some sense the 'appeal to the people' is deeply included in the roots of modern constitutionalism. Based on the idea of the 'sovereign people', modern constitutionalism can not avoid the challenge from subjects claiming that its actual form has betrayed the faith of the 'true' people. This challenge is not necessary produced in order to defeat the democratic constitution, but, of course, an evil always existing. The border line between a 'good' and a 'bad' populism is very thin and to govern these boundaries is a heavy job for a political system looking for its balance. The duty for the leaders of making political speeches, party platforms as means to fight elections and in the end the uprising of television as a communicative medium also for building up political consensus have complicated the panorama of the good and bad uses of appealing to the people." (author's abstract)

"In the German Democratic Republic antifascism was an important propagandistic component to claim the regime's alleged moral and political superiority. Biographies of antifascist resistants were misused and often falsified for political purposes. Antifascist resistants were described as stereotype heroic figures, whose political legacy had to be fulfilled. The essay deals with Bruno Hinz, a prominent member of the "International Brigades", and confronts official propaganda with documents." (author's abstract)

"Der Autor gibt einen eher impressionistischen, denn systematischen Rückblick auf sein Forscherleben. Dabei zeigt sich eine nicht überraschende Kontinuität: In den letzten 40 Jahren, seit 1971, begleitet die Kollektivbiographie den beruflichen Werdegang des Autors. Im Beitrag erfolgt die fokussierte individualbiographische Rekonstruktion der Autorenvita in fünf Zeitabschnitten vor der Folie der Kollektivbiographie: 1) wird kurz nach der Bedeutung der Herkunft und nach möglichen prägenden Faktoren der Kindheit gefragt; 2) werden kurz Schule und Studium erwähnt, um dann Promotion, erste wissenschaftsgeschichtliche Kollektivbiographien und die Netzwerkbildung durch die Arbeitsgemeinschaft QUANTUM zu schildern; 3) werden der Einstieg in die Bielefelder Welt der Historischen Sozialwissenschaft, die Durchführung des Bremer Forschungsprojektes DABAG und die Gründung des Zentrums für Historische Sozialforschung beschrieben; 4) werden der Aufstieg in die Berliner Welt der Historischen Sozialwissenschaft, die Durchführung der kollektivbiographischen Großprojekte BIOKAND, BIOSOP und BIORAB, die Netzwerkbildung mit INTERQUANT, die Anfänge der Methodenlehre (QUANTKURS, ZHSF-Herbstseminar) und den Aufbau der Zeitschrift HSR dargestellt; 5) werden die Etablierung als ZHSF-Abteilungsleiter in der Kölner (Teil-)Welt der GESIS und die wichtigsten Tätigkeitsfelder des Autors beschrieben: Zeitschrift HSR, ZHSF-Methodenseminar, Parlamentarismus-, Eliten- und Biographieforschung, Parlamentarierportal BIOPARL und exemplarisch das Projekt zu den politischen Strafgefangenen in der DDR." (Autorenreferat)

"This article compares the responses to the declining birthrate by three very different regimes in Wilhelmine, Weimar and Nazi Germany. In their intent these policies were markedly different: just before and during the First World War a declining birthrate symbolized national decline, sapping national progress and military power and the central aim was to boost fertility almost at any price; eugenics was not yet a major influence on official Wilhelmine policy. In the wake of the devastation reaped by the lost war and also influenced by the depression at the end of the 1920s the democratically elected governments of the Weimar Republic attempted to 'rationalize' reproduction to suit the prevailing socio-economic circumstances and the belief in modernity in industry and everyday life. They favored 'fewer but better children' but their policies remained fragmented and heavily contested; lawmakers tried to balance individual rights and collective interests, welfarism and eugenic concerns. In contrast, Nazi leaders developed a comprehensive and sophisticated system of selective reproduction based on racial prejudice; legal safeguards to protect the rights of individuals were ruthlessly dismantled. Material and ideological inducements to boost the birthrate benefited only 'Aryans' and healthy Germans. A series of extremely repressive measures were introduced: on the one hand they were meant to curb the breeding of the 'unfit', like Jews, gypsies, or those considered congenitally diseased and, on the other, they aimed to curb individual birth control by those deemed 'fit'. But of course the picture is more complicated. If we compare official population programs with their implementation at the local level and also with the reproductive strategies employed by ordinary women and men, a more subtle picture emerges about the regimes which is marked by both fundamental changes but also striking continuities." (author's abstract)

Erziehungswissenschaftliche Revue (EWR) 10 (2011) 6, Sammelrezension von: 1. Adolf Reichwein: Frühschriften zur Erwachsenenbildung, 1920 – 1925, Pädagogische Schriften, hrsg. v. Ulrich Amlung, Bd. 1, Bad Heilbrunn: Klinkhardt 2011, 536 S. 2. Adolf Reichwein: Schriften zur Erwachsenen- und Arbeiterbildung, 1925 – 1929 Pädagogische Schriften, hrsg. v. Ulrich Amlung, Bd. 2, Bad Heilbrunn: Klinkhardt 2011, 496 S.

This article compares the responses to the declining birthrate by three very different regimes in Wilhelmine, Weimar and Nazi Germany. In their intent these policies were markedly different: just before and during the First World War a declining birthrate symbolized national decline, sapping national progress and military power and the central aim was to boost fertility almost at any price; eugenics was not yet a major influence on official Wilhelmine policy. In the wake of the devastation reaped by the lost war and also influenced by the depression at the end of the 1920s the democratically elected governments of the Weimar Republic attempted to 'rationalize' reproduction to suit the prevailing socio-economic circumstances and the belief in modernity in industry and everyday life. They favored 'fewer but better children' but their policies remained fragmented and heavily contested; lawmakers tried to balance individual rights and collective interests, welfarism and eugenic concerns. In contrast, Nazi leaders developed a comprehensive and sophisticated system of selective reproduction based on racial prejudice; legal safeguards to protect the rights of individuals were ruthlessly dismantled. Material and ideological inducements to boost the birthrate benefited only 'Aryans' and healthy Germans. A series of extremely repressive measures were introduced: on the one hand they were meant to curb the breeding of the 'unfit', like Jews, gypsies, or those considered congenitally diseased and, on the other, they aimed to curb individual birth control by those deemed 'fit'. But of course the picture is more complicated. If we compare official population programs with their implementation at the local level and also with the reproductive strategies employed by ordinary women and men, a more subtle picture emerges about the regimes which is marked by both fundamental changes but also striking continuities., Historical Social Research Vol. 36, No. 2 (2011): Special Issue: Fertility in the History of the 20th Century: Trends, Theories, Policies, Discourses. Starting Point and Frequency: Year: 1979, Issues per volume: 4, Volumes per year: 1

Die Arbeit präsentiert die Geschichte der modernen Wirtschaftswerbung in der ersten Hälfte des 20. Jahrhunderts und zeigt, dass Werbung trotz kultureller Barrieren die Alltagswelten der Deutschen kolonialisierte und Einfluss auf die „deutsche Kultur“ nahm. Die Arbeit zeigt, dass das Konstrukt der „deutschen Kultur“ nicht ausschließlich durch die bürgerliche Hochkultur definiert wurde, sondern zunehmend auch durch Einflüsse der Konsumkultur bestimmt war. Die Bilderwelten der Werbung prägten nationale Ikonen, schufen (bspw. durch Leuchtwerbung) modifizierte "Oberflächen" und Raumwahrnehmungen, ebenso wie die Logik der Marktdifferenzierung und des Marketing soziale Interaktionen als auch die politische Kommunikation (Hitler als Marke) zu bestimmen begann. Diese Entwicklung verlief nicht konfliktfrei. Sowohl die Debatten über Werbung als auch die direkte Konfrontation zwischen Kulturkritikern und Werbern verdeutlichen den massiven Zusammenprall zweier Mentalitäten, die den Konflikt von traditionellem zünftigem Denken, hochkultureller Repräsentation sowie einer vermeintlich authentischen Ästhetik des Inhalts auf der einen Seite und einer "Welt des Scheins" und einer Ästhetik der äußeren Form auf der anderen Seite hervortreten ließ. In dieser Debatte spielte eine Frage eine zentrale Rolle: inwieweit Kapitalismus, Marktwirtschaft, Konsum und die Ästhetik der modernen Lebenswelt mit ihrer spezifischen (werblichen) Oberflächenstruktur mit Vorstellungen "des Deutschen" zu vereinbaren waren., This dissertation offers a history of modern commercial advertising during the first half of the twentieth century and demonstrates that despite cultural barriers, advertising colonized the everyday world of Germans and began to encroach upon “German culture”. The work shows that the construct of “German culture” was not only defined by bourgeois high culture, but rather increasingly by factors from consumer culture. The imagery of advertising shaped national icons, created modified “surfaces” (for example, through illuminated ad media) and perceptions of space. Likewise, the logic of market differentiation and marketing began to determine social interactions as well as political communication (Hitler branding). This development did not progress without conflict: Debates surrounding both advertising as well as the direct confrontation between cultural critics and advertisers make clear that there was a massive collision between two mentalities. This allowed a conflict to emerge between traditional, guild thinking, high cultural representations and a putatively authentic aesthetics of content, on the one hand, and on the other hand, a “world of appearances” and aesthetic of the exterior form. One question in particular played a central role in this debate, namely: the extent to which capitalism, the market economy, consumption and the aesthetics of the modern Lebenswelt with its specific (commercial) texture were in accord with ideas of “Germanness.”

Annotation zu: Andreas Hoffmann-Ocon: "Die Deutsche Schule" im Nationalsozialismus. Unter Mitarb. v. Dominique Oesch. (Die Deutsche Schule, 10. Beiheft). Münster: Waxmann 2009 (143 S.; ISBN 978-3-8309-2151-6; 14,90 EUR).

Annotation zu: Ullrich Amlung / Nicole Hoffmann / Bettina Irina Reimers (Hrsg.): Adolf Reichwein und Fritz Klatt. Ein Studien- und Quellenband zu Erwachsenenbildung und Reformpädagogik in der Weimarer Republik (Koblenzer Schriften zur Pädagogik). Weinheim; München: Juventa 2008 (228 S.; ISBN 978-3-7799-1619-2; 23,00 EUR).

2. besprochenes Werk: Jesse, Eckhard: Diktaturen in Deutschland - Diagnosen und Analysen. Baden-Baden: Nomos Verl.-Ges. 2008, 978-3-8329-3679-2.

Annotation zu: Knut Engeler: Geschichtsunterricht und Reformpädagogik. Eine Untersuchung zur Praxis des Geschichtsunterrichts an höheren Schulen der Weimarer Republik. Münster / Berlin: Lit Verlag 2009 (407 S.; ISBN 978-3-8258-1922-4; 39,90 EUR).