Eine Geschichte des Todes zu schreiben scheint unmöglich, denn es gibt keine Zeugnisse von Sterbenden oder Toten. Aber es gibt Vorstellungen vom Lebensende, die zum Beispiel in Tagebüchern festgehalten wurden. Überliefert sind außerdem Symbole und Inszenierungen, so im 19. Jahrhundert der Trauerschmuck (Armbänder oder Ketten, geflochten aus dem Haar von Toten), Totenmasken und die Post-mortem-Fotografie (Bilder von frisch Verstorbenen). Anhand dieser Quellen schreibt Isabel Richter eine Kulturgeschichte des Todes. Sie vermittelt uns den kulturellen Umgang mit Trauer und dem Wissen um die Endlichkeit des Lebens, mit der wir uns trotz aller medizinischen Fortschritte stets werden arrangieren müssen.
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This essay focuses on West Germany as exemplary global-local intersection of the spiritual turn in the long 1960s. It shows how spirituality as practices and beliefs seeking a closer connection with the divine within or outside religious groups experienced a multifaceted renaissance in the countercultures of the long 1960s. In this spiritual quest contemporary explorations in the expansion of consciousness and the increasing interest in meditation were pivotal practices. The essay reflects the international exchange of knowledge about body-mind practices from Amazonia and Mexico to the United States, India and West Germany, showing how actors were influenced by international and national connections. Practitioners found the practices of spirituality neither in Christian contemplative traditions nor in Jewish versions, but in various forms of what seekers received and practised as Hinduism or Buddhism, etc., that gave contemporary followers and seekers a means of connecting to higher truths – to God – without God.
The article analyzes clemency pleas of political prisoners of the leftist resistance movement against National Socialism. The questions of the documentary significance and the autobiographical dimensions of clemency pleas stand in the forefront. This focus is prompted by the recent expansion in thc definition of ego documents, in which the relationship between »voluntary« and »involuntary« autobiographical texts is increasingly considered. Written in compulsory and violent contexts, these texts, however, also revcal the authors' attempts to create - even if minimal and, at times, ambiguous - spheres of agency. In clemency pleas and statements pledging societal integration, efforts of imprisoned men and women to convincingly distance themselves from their previous lives become recognizable, as weil as attempts to create the most credible autobiographical 'authenticity'. The practice of clemency, which was bound to institutional regulations, illuminates the dynamic processes of authorities regarding perceptions of who was considered to be »worthy« of clemency, as weil as the possibilities of receiving clemency. Furthermore, an analysis of clemency practices sheds light upon the question of »völkisch « integration, which was played out in the arena of tension that existed between practices of power, legal norms, and the stratcgies of prisoners. ; The article analyzes clemency pleas of political prisoners of the leftist resistance movement against National Socialism. The questions of the documentary significance and the autobiographical dimensions of clemency pleas stand in the forefront. This focus is prompted by the recent expansion in thc definition of ego documents, in which the relationship between »voluntary« and »involuntary« autobiographical texts is increasingly considered. Written in compulsory and violent contexts, these texts, however, also revcal the authors' attempts to create - even if minimal and, at times, ambiguous - spheres of agency. In clemency pleas and statements pledging societal integration, efforts of imprisoned men and women to convincingly distance themselves from their previous lives become recognizable, as weil as attempts to create the most credible autobiographical 'authenticity'. The practice of clemency, which was bound to institutional regulations, illuminates the dynamic processes of authorities regarding perceptions of who was considered to be »worthy« of clemency, as weil as the possibilities of receiving clemency. Furthermore, an analysis of clemency practices sheds light upon the question of »völkisch « integration, which was played out in the arena of tension that existed between practices of power, legal norms, and the stratcgies of prisoners.
Abstract The desire to conquer old age is as old as humanity itself, yet the pursuit of youthfulness acquired a fiercer urgency with the rise of post-Enlightenment conceptions of youth as a redemptive social force. This introductory essay widens the circle of what constitutes modern rejuvenation by moving beyond the standard focus on anti-aging medicine and lays out the historiographical and methodological stakes of conceptualizing rejuvenation more broadly. Its main contention is that rejuvenation can serve as an analytical linchpin to reveal unrecognized connections between various historically specific projects of regeneration and repair that were comprised in individual flesh-and-blood as well as in imagined collective bodies such as nations and empires.
The goal of this document is to provide public, orderawarding and procurement agencies at federal, state and municipal levels – as well as company purchasers and institutional procurers, such as churches and associations – with a reliable and comprehensible aid for observance of environmental aspects in the procurement of desktop PCs. Protection of the environment is one of the most important tasks of our time. Information and telecommunications technology (ITC) can make a significant contribution to this task. Aside from matters of energy consumption and emission of greenhouse gasses, there are also other aspects to be addressed from an environmental perspective such as the conservation of natural resources by increasing material efficiency, improving health protection by lowering acoustic emissions, and the reduction of substances which can have negative effects on the environment. In this context, both the manufacturer and the purchaser of ITC equipment are challenged to be responsible. The manufacturer is challenged to develop and offer energy and resource efficient products, the purchaser to actually request environmentally friendly products so that they can gain widespread market acceptance. Both sides make an essential contribution toward achieving sustained supply and demand market patterns; they are directly interrelated.
