Suchergebnisse

After the first elections for the federal parliament (Bundestag) of unified Germany in Dec 1990, one new party gained entrance into the Bundestag: the Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS). This party is the successor party of the United Socialist Party of Germany (SED), the ruling communist party in East Germany. The PDS is still represented in the Bundestag; it also has representatives in all lander parliaments of the eastern German regions, & is the third strongest party overall, & in some eastern German towns, the strongest party. To explain the PDS's excellent electoral results & its political clout, the author analyzes the party's ideological/programmatic goals, as well as the social conflicts it articulates in the German party system. The PDS represents the anti-Western social milieu, which includes 20% of the population of eastern Germany. Although the PDS has been trying to shed its communist legacy, its attitude toward the elements of the liberal/democratic regime has remained ambivalent since its members & voters demonstrate a significant antidemocratic potential. 12 Tables, 23 References. Adapted from the source document.

Emperor Carl's peace initiative via Prince Sixt of Bourbon is one of the most intriguing & insufficiently explained diplomatic episodes of WWI. By forging a quick peace, the Emperor wanted to eliminate the German tutelage & save the Habsburg Monarchy from the inevitable collapse in case of the Central Powers' defeat. The peace initiative failed largely due to Italy's reluctance to cede the territories promised to it by the London Peace Agreement, but also because it was not clear whether Austro-Hungary wanted a separate or universal peace in agreement with Germany. The failure of the Emperor's peace initiative politically discredited him, & at the same time made the Dual Monarchy even more politically & militarily dependent on Germany as well as on the outcome of the war itself. Adapted from the source document.

Germany's security dilemma is to fulfill the larger role in Europe & global security that is expected after reunification, while not rekindling a sense of threat, particularly among neighbors to the East. Opinion surveys of Germans & Central/East Europeans reveal substantial difficulties if Germany were to become more assertive. Changes in German behavior & constitutional interpretation suggest a maturation or "normalization" of German foreign policy. Thus far, these changes have emphasized traditional forms of diplomacy & alliance behavior focused on using the enlarged capacities of a reunited Germany that more directly pursue German interests. Alternative ways by which to perform a larger security role are discussed, particularly in light of data regarding the mutual perceptions of Germans among neighboring peoples & leaders. Adapted from the source document.

The author analyzes the development of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) as a federal party & states its ideological & programmatic objectives. The inauspicious experience of the Weimar Republic as well as the disastrous aftermath of the reign of National Socialism played the pivotal role in the shaping of the CDU. There have been attempts to fill in the ethical vacuum following the collapse of National Socialism by Christian humanism. The author focuses next on the Ahlen program (1947) & the Hamburg (1953) & Berlin (1968) party conventions. Particularly highlighted is the period between 1969 & 1982, the era of program modernization. In closing, the author looks into the current party standings in Germany today. Adapted from the source document.

German sociologist & anthropologist Helmuth Plessner has tried to explain the ascent of national socialism in Germany with the belated formation of the German nation. Not only was it formed later than other West European nations, but also it was formed in a different manner. While West European nations were formed by countering the monarchy with the novel concept of the state as a republic, the German nation was founded on the culture within the Reich, which was "a great power devoid of the idea of the state." The author has tried to prove the limited analytical value of Plessner's distinction between the belated & timely nations of pointing out that culture & tradition are an essential medium for the formation of nations. Adapted from the source document.

German sociologist & anthropologist Helmuth Plessner has tried to explain the ascent of national socialism in Germany with the belated formation of the German nation. Not only was it formed later than other West European nations, but also it was formed in a different manner. While West European nations were formed by countering the monarchy with the novel concept of the state as a republic, the German nation was founded on the culture within the Reich, which was "a great power devoid of the idea of the state." The author has tried to prove the limited analytical value of Plessner's distinction between the belated & timely nations of pointing out that culture & tradition are an essential medium for the formation of nations. Adapted from the source document.

This brief note introduces three Croatian translations presented in this journal issue of articles by German authors & identifies the source from which they were taken. Focus is on the pertinence of these essays on patriotism, nationalism, homeland, & state to the current situation in Croatia where both the political Left & Right are zealously engaged in building a state based on unconditional love for the country & its identification with an ethnically homogeneous nation. The nationalism of Nazi Germany & post-Yugoslavian Croatia are also compared. Z. Dubiel

The author looks into the Germanic ideas of Central Europe until the end of World War One. First, he reviews different meanings of the term "Central Europe" & its omission or inclusion in encyclopedias & lexicons. Then he goes on to describe the concepts of Central Europe by German & Austrian thinkers, who define it as various ways of political, cultural, & economic organization of the Central European region. The Germanic ideas of Central Europe tried to politically link the divided German ethnos, protect it from the influence of the "decadent" West & create a bulwark towards Russia. The author concludes that the underlying base of the Germanic ideas of Central Europe is German history as a "special path" (der Sonderweg). That is why they are grounded in romanticism & the rebuttal of liberal & democratic values, ensuing from the fatuity of German bourgeoisie. These ideas were proselytized with the intention of securing for the young nation its exclusive space, Central Europe, & ensuring its place in world history. Adapted from the source document.

The author looks into the political, historical, & intellectual beginnings of the debate about liberalism & communitarianism in the US from the standpoint of sociology. Then he goes on to describe its reception in Europe & finally to depict in greater detail its course in Germany. The purpose of the whole analysis may be reduced to the investigation of the possibilities for a transfer of theoretical & political debates from one into another national & social & political hermeneutical situation. On the one hand, the author is skeptical towards such transfers since they are at the same time very courageous transformations, while on the other this points to the common economic & political characteristics of contemporary industrial societies of the West that enable such transfers & make them understandable. Adapted from the source document.

The author deals with one of the "classic" components of the state governed by law -- the principle of judges' autonomy -- using the example of the German legal system & its practice after the unification of 1990. Following a short outline of the evolution of the postulate of judges' autonomy, the author depicts the institutional framework of the present-day German judiciary, & then the quandaries ensuing from the unification of the legal systems of the two Germanies. Finally, the author describes Croatian problems. The Republic of Croatia, as a country in transition, & due to the specific circumstances caused by the Patriotic War, has found itself in a similar predicament. It has responded to these challenges, but not as successfully as Germany. Adapted from the source document.

The text presents the genesis of the concept of Christian democracy in Croatia, which developed under the influence of corresponding ideas from Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, & particularly Slovenia. A major role in this genesis was played by a bishop from Krk, Antun Mahnic, of Slovenian descent. The author divides the development of Christian democracy in Croatia into the pre-party period (up to WWI) & the party organization following the creation of a Yugoslav state in the form of the Croatian Populist Party. This party's program is compared to the program of Radic's Croatian Peasants' Party. 7 References. Adapted from the source document.

The article discusses the historical foundations & development of the right to free development of personality guaranteed by Article 2 section 1 of the BL. Though Article 2 section 1 has remained unchanged since enactment of the BL, the right to free development of personality has been significantly developed & elaborated by the Federal Constitutional Court. On the one hand, when interpreted in conjunction with Art. 1 section 1 of the BL it protects the general right of personality, & on the other hand a broadly defined general freedom of action. Both lines of jurisprudence are supported by a large number of cases that have granted protection to a number of unspecified rights. Examples are protection of private & intimate life sphere, data protection rights, right to personal dignity, right to one's own spoken word, etc. That leads to a conclusion that any attempt to create a comprehensive formal catalogue of fundamental rights must necessarily remain incomplete. An exhaustive list of fundamental rights is possible only in absence of their concretization. As the German experience shows, any interpretation, ie, concretization of fundamental rights, necessarily leads to the change of their scope & substance. Adapted from the source document.

The author analyzes political, philosophical, ethical, & legal implications of the trial in which, in August of 1997, some former members of the Politburo of the United Socialist Party of the former Democratic Republic of Germany were sentenced to prison terms after they had been found guilty for the murders committed by the East German border patrols when trying to prevent people from fleeing to the West. The legal grounds for such a sentence are dubious, not only because it runs counter to the ban on the retroactive enforcement of legal provisions but also because it presupposes the universal validity of the Western concept of human rights. If the intention was to react legally to what, from the Western point of view, were unpardonable acts during the communist reign, then the most prominent representatives of that system should have been -- in accordance with wartime law -- treated as enemies defeated in a (cold) war. Adapted from the source document.

The author first gives a short account of those German scientific institutions that study the history of Eastern or Southeastern Europe, including the history of Croatia. Then he lists the leading researchers & outlines the fundamental tenets of two major works of German historiography on the national identities in Dalmatia. The focus is on the research method & the used "tools." The author thinks that an interdisciplinary approach should be designed in historiographic, political science, & sociological research of the process of the formation of the Croatian national identity but also of other national identities & other modernization processes in Dalmatia. 4 References. Adapted from the source document.

(Originally published in the collection Wirklichkeit als Tabu [(Reality as a Taboo) Munich: Oldenburg, 1986].) The author argues that the word homeland disappeared from the political language & that it has been replaced by the unpolitical word: identity. This raises a question: what is identity to a German if the state cannot provide it? The consequence of Hitler's legacy is that the tradition is troublesome so that the identity is now linked with the constitution. The author looks into the idiosyncrasies of the German constitutional/legal system by which the old state thinking has been replaced with the "constitutional thinking." In this way patriotism becomes "constitutional patriotism," & the constitution becomes the homeland. The consensus about the constitution -- the result of the general acceptance of antitotalitarianism -- was challenged by students in 1968, when this antitotalitarianism was replaced by antifascism. At the same time, however, an entire political culture of disobedience against institutions evolved, & declared the constitution the "system's life's lie." The system took a long time to recover, but it rehabilitated the state authority within a constitutional state. Nevertheless, this has not restored the individuality of German statehood, ie, the state does not become the homeland. Although the author is aware that this idea is outmoded, he nevertheless points out that the consensual base would be broader if Germans were allowed to be what they are by their history & their position, & not only what they should be according to the constitution. Adapted from the source document.