What Remains? The Political Culture of an Unlucky Birth

2002 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 26-42
Author(s):  
A. James McAdams
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Political Culture ◽  
Democratic Republic ◽  
Special Treatment ◽  
World War ◽  
Soviet Occupation ◽  
Basic Law ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Wrong Place

The future political culture of eastern Germany and, with it, the relationshipbetween unified Germany’s once divided populations willdepend heavily upon how all Germans respond to a distinctive factabout the east. The region experienced not one but, counting theGerman Democratic Republic (GDR), two separate eras of dictatorship.This fact can be, and has been, understood in two differentways, with significantly different implications in each case. The firstis the perspective of the victim. According to this view, the citizens ofthe GDR uniquely had to shoulder the burden of having been born,in effect, “in the wrong place.” Not only did they endure greaterhardships than their western counterparts, such as the rebuilding ofGermany after World War II, but they suffered by themselvesthrough the debilitating consequences of Soviet occupation and theirinability, until 1990, to act upon the right to “free self-determination”(to quote the original preamble of the Basic Law). As a result, accordingto this argument, easterners were owed special treatment afterunification because of their distinctive misfortunes.

“This Land Remains German”: Requisitioning, Society, and the US Army, 1945–1956

2019 ◽  
Vol 52 (03) ◽  
pp. 476-495 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam R. Seipp
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Korean War ◽  
Early Years ◽  
World War ◽  
Real Property ◽  
Us Army ◽  
The Us ◽  
The Korean War ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Relationship

AbstractThis article examines debates over the requisitioning of real estate by the US Army during the decade after the end of World War II. Requisitioning quickly emerged as one of the most contentious issues in the relationship between German civilians and the American occupation. American policy changed several times as the physical presence of the occupiers shrank during the postwar period then expanded again after the outbreak of the Korean War. I show that requisitioning became a key site of contestation during the early years of the Federal Republic. The right to assert authority over real property served as a visible reminder of the persistent limits of German sovereignty. By pushing back against American requisitioning policy, Germans articulated an increasingly assertive claim to sovereign rights.

scholarly journals Political masculinities and Brexit

2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 89-106 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Higgins
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
Political Culture ◽  
Political Discussion ◽  
The European Union ◽  
World War ◽  
Cultural Discourses ◽  
British Experience ◽  
The Right

Abstract This article examines the discourses of masculinity to pervade debates on the United Kingdom’s exit from the European Union. The article outlines an association between excessive forms of masculinity and popular cultural discourses around conflict and war, constructing and reproducing a popular lexicon on the British experience of World War II in ways that are widely interpreted as symptomatic of a coarsening of political discussion. However, the article also emphasises the performative quality of these masculine discourses in line with the personalisation of politics, and stresses the scope for contestation and ridicule. The article thereby identifies the articulation of a performative masculinity with a nation-based politics of the right. While disputable and occasionally subject to derision, this produces a gendered component in any antagonistic turn in contemporary political culture.

Constitutional Review of Criminal Prohibitions Affecting Human Dignity and Liberty: German and Israeli Perspectives

2011 ◽  
Vol 44 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 63-89 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miriam Gur-Arye ◽  
Thomas Weigend
Keyword(s):  
Human Dignity ◽  
Constitutional Law ◽  
Case Law ◽  
Special Treatment ◽  
Constitutional Review ◽  
Basic Law ◽  
The Supreme Court ◽  
Intermediate Solution ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Relationship

Criminal laws must conform to each state's constitutional law. In both Israel and Germany, the highest courts have ruled on the compatibility of criminal prohibitions with constitutionally protected rights. One recurrent issue is the relationship between criminal prohibitions and the right to liberty, which is constitutionally guaranteed in both countries. The authors show that there are clear parallels in the case law of Israeli and German courts with regard to liberty. Human dignity is likewise protected in both legal systems, although it plays a different role in each. Under article 1(1) of the German Basic Law, human dignity enjoys “absolute” protection, which leads to problems in defining human dignity and accommodating countervailing interests in individual cases. In Israel, by contrast, human dignity is placed on the same level as liberty in the constitutional hierarchy of rights and is not afforded any “special treatment” by the Supreme Court. The authors suggest an intermediate solution: human dignity should not be granted “absolute” protection but should be treated with the greatest respect when criminal laws are reviewed for their constitutionality.

Breaking with bourgeois rules and traditions

2015 ◽  
Vol 83 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 487-513 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Löhnig
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
German Democratic Republic ◽  
Democratic Republic ◽  
Socialist Society ◽  
World War ◽  
Soviet Occupation ◽  
The Family ◽  
East German ◽  
Soviet Occupation Zone ◽  
Family Models

When World War II ended in 1945, the plan was to build a society in the Soviet occupation zone and, later on, in the German Democratic Republic, which would break with the previously dominant bourgeois rules and traditions. Marriage and the family were utilized to achieve this goal. As the marriage law in force was the same in all parts of Germany between 1938 and 1955, this development has to be illustrated by analyzing the divorce files of the East German courts of Dresden and Leipzig in the late 1940s. By reviewing these documents, one cannot only reveal political and economic influences, but also discover the new household and family models of a socialist society.


Part V Case Studies, 41 The Law of Stationing Forces in Germany: Six Decades of Multilateral Cooperation

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fleck Dieter
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Democratic Republic ◽  
Active Role ◽  
Legal Regulation ◽  
Federal Republic Of Germany ◽  
World War ◽  
Multilateral Cooperation ◽  
German States ◽  
The Status ◽  
The Right

This chapter describes the different phases of legal regulation of the stationing of visiting forces in Germany until today. World War II has led to the stationing of a large number of foreign forces, first as occupiers but soon as allies playing an active role in the maintenance of external security. When occupation was terminated in 1955, there were Soviet forces in the German Democratic Republic and forces from six permanent Sending States in the Federal Republic of Germany. In addition, in both German States further Allies, too, were hosted on a temporary basis. In this context, the chapter assesses both the right to stay in the country (jus ad praesentiam) and the status regulation (jus in praesentia).

scholarly journals Romania in The Last Hundred Years Historical and Musical Considerations What was done? What are we doing? What to do?

2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-45
Author(s):  
Carmen Chelaru
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
World War I ◽  
World War ◽  
Civic Involvement ◽  
Musical Life ◽  
The Past ◽  
Natural Connection ◽  
Soviet Occupation ◽  
Historical Image ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract In 2018, Romanians celebrate the Centenary – a hundred years since Romania had the largest territory ever inhabited primarily by Romanians, at the same time, a century since Romania as a modern country was born. What do we know about our history in the last one hundred years? What and why do we celebrate? We know too little; many of the Romanians participating in the celebration do not know what it is for. The torrent of pathetic and solemn words about the past is useless. I followed two paths side by side, which happen to be in a natural connection, but sometimes they also go through distinct stages: on one hand, the course of the main historical events from the beginning of World War I until now, and on the other hand, Romanian musical life during the same period. I will cover five historical stages (World War I, Interwar Period and World War II, Soviet Occupation, Ceauşescuʼs era and Post-Communist Period) pursuing four main aims: a) an explicit historical image (as a musician I had a relatively narrow perspective on general historical facts); b) completing superficial knowledge received in school (before 1989) with information to justify certain events; c) the relationship between history–culture–music, in support of the idea that art does not exclude knowledge and civic involvement, on the contrary; d) the Past justifies the Present and together they work upon the Future. In the epilogue I will reveal an example that I consider illustrative for this fourth aim: the project Saving Enescu’s Cottage from Mihăileni. I have made this study mainly for my own benefit, in order to understand the historical facts, but especially to find an answer to the question: knowing history – what’s the use?

Rights of Noncitizens

2014 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 60-73
Author(s):  
Hanna-Mari Kivistö
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
West Germany ◽  
The Political ◽  
Federal Republic Of Germany ◽  
World War ◽  
Post World War Ii ◽  
Basic Law ◽  
Political Choices ◽  
The Right

Post–World War II developments concerning citizenship and access as one of the dimensions of citizenship are examined through the prism of noncitizenship and rights, using the drafting of the asylum paragraph of the 1949 Grundgesetz of the Federal Republic of Germany as a specific case study. The aim of this article is to look into the creation of the right to asylum in West Germany, to examine its political history by exploring its development and by searching for its conceptual, political, and rhetorical origins. The article investigates the birth of the unique conceptualization of asylum in the debates of the Parliamentary Council, the constitutional and quasi-parliamentary assembly responsible for the writing of the postwar Basic Law, and examines the political choices, motivations, and compromises behind its creation. To connect the matter of asylum to a wider problematic related to noncitizens and rights, the article benefits from the political philosophy of Hannah Arendt, with reference to her writings on human rights and refugees in the immediate post–World War II period.

John Cranko's Antigone (1959): A Ballet Lost and Found

2015 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
Henrietta Bannerman
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Jean Racine ◽  
World War ◽  
Martha Graham ◽  
Detailed Consideration ◽  
Lost And Found ◽  
The Many ◽  
Tragic Drama ◽  
The Relationship

John Cranko's dramatic and theatrically powerful Antigone (1959) disappeared from the ballet repertory in 1966 and this essay calls for a reappraisal and restaging of the work for 21st century audiences. Created in a post-World War II environment, and in the wake of appearances in London by the Martha Graham Company and Jerome Robbins’ Ballets USA, I point to American influences in Cranko's choreography. However, the discussion of the Greek-themed Antigone involves detailed consideration of the relationship between the ballet and the ancient dramas which inspired it, especially as the programme notes accompanying performances emphasised its Sophoclean source but failed to recognise that Cranko mainly based his ballet on an early play by Jean Racine. As Antigone derives from tragic drama, the essay investigates catharsis, one of the many principles that Aristotle delineated in the Poetics. This well-known effect is produced by Greek tragedies but the critics of the era complained about its lack in Cranko's ballet – views which I challenge. There is also an investigation of the role of Antigone, both in the play and in the ballet, and since Cranko created the role for Svetlana Beriosova, I reflect on memories of Beriosova's interpretation supported by more recent viewings of Edmée Wood's 1959 film.

Confluencia geopolítica entre Cárdenas y Roosevelt:

2019 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 231-254
Author(s):  
Andreu Espasa
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
New Deal ◽  
Spanish Civil War ◽  
The United States ◽  
Political Crisis ◽  
World War ◽  
Military Alliance ◽  
Bilateral Relations ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The New Deal

De forma un tanto paradójica, a finales de los años treinta, las relaciones entre México y Estados Unidos sufrieron uno de los momentos de máxima tensión, para pasar, a continuación, a experimentar una notable mejoría, alcanzando el cénit en la alianza política y militar sellada durante la Segunda Guerra Mundial. El episodio catalizador de la tensión y posterior reconciliación fue, sin duda, el conflicto diplomático planteado tras la nacionalización petrolera de 1938. De entre los factores que propiciaron la solución pacífica y negociada al conflicto petrolero, el presente artículo se centra en analizar dos fenómenos del momento. En primer lugar, siguiendo un orden de relevancia, se examina el papel que tuvo la Guerra Civil Española. Aunque las posturas de ambos gobiernos ante el conflicto español fueron sustancialmente distintas, las interpretaciones y las lecciones sobre sus posibles consecuencias permitieron un mayor entendimiento entre los dos países vecinos. En segundo lugar, también se analizarán las afinidades ideológicas entre el New Deal y el cardenismo en el contexto de la crisis mundial económica y política de los años treinta, con el fin de entender su papel lubricante en las relaciones bilaterales de la época. Somewhat paradoxically, at the end of the 1930s, the relationship between Mexico and the United States experienced one of its tensest moments, after which it dramatically improved, reaching its zenith in the political and military alliance cemented during World War II. The catalyst for this tension and subsequent reconciliation was, without doubt, the diplomatic conflict that arose after the oil nationalization of 1938. Of the various factors that led to a peaceful negotiated solution to the oil conflict, this article focuses on analyzing two phenomena. Firstly—in order of importance—this article examines the role that the Spanish Civil War played. Although the positions of both governments in relation to the Spanish war were significantly different, the interpretations and lessons concerning potential consequences enabled a greater understanding between the two neighboring countries. Secondly, this article also analyzes the ideological affinities between the New Deal and Cardenismo in the context of the global economic and political crisis of the thirties, seeking to understand their role in facilitating bilateral relations during that period.

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