50 Years of Capital Mobility in the Eurozone: Breaking the Feldstein-Horioka Puzzle

This paper assesses capital mobility for the Eurozone countries by studying the long-run relationship between domestic investment and savings for the period 1970-2019. Our main goal is to analyze the impact of economic events on capital mobility during this period. We apply the cointegration methodology in a setting that allows us to identify endogenous breaks in the long-run saving-investment relationship. Precisely, the breaks coincide with relevant economic events. We find a downward trend in the saving-investment retention since the 70s for the so-called “core countries”, whereas this trend is not so evident in the peripheral, where the financial and sovereign crises have had a more substantial impact. In addition, our analysis captures other economic events: the Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM) crisis, the German reunification, the European financial assistance program, and the post-crisis period. Our results also indicate that the original euro design had some flaws that remain unsolved.

Kindsein – Erinnern – Erzählen

Artikelbeginn:[English title and abstract below] »Erinnerungen aus der Kindheit kann man doch nur haben, wenn man selbst kein Kind ist« (de Velasco 2013, S. 10) – so kommentiert die 13-jährige homodiegetische Erzählerin Nini im Roman Tigermilch das Auftauchen einer ersten bewussten »richtige[n] Kindheitserinnerung« (ebd.). Angesprochen ist damit der zunächst paradox anmutende Zusammenhang von Kindsein und Erinnern. Sich selbst im umfassenderen Sinn daran zu erinnern, wie es ist, ein Kind zu sein, gehört zu den Fähigkeiten, die Kindern nicht zugesprochen werden. Die Kindheit gilt als das Lebensalter, in dem man ganz bei sich ist, in dem alles gegenwärtig und vieles möglich ist. Pläne und Perspektiven richten sich in die offene Zukunft, im Rückblick über Erinnerungen zu verfügen und sie als Teil der eigenen Biografie zu begreifen, wird selbst zum Zeichen der Differenz: ein Indiz dafür, dass die Kindheit bereits an ihr Ende gekommen ist. Recalling and Retelling ChildhoodThe (Self)Depiction of Childhood during German Reunification from Memory Culture and Generational Viewpoints Ever since the Peaceful Revolution paved the way for the reunification of Germany in 1990, texts and media for children and young adults have depicted these historical events from a range of narrative and generational viewpoints. This article addresses forms of childhood remembrance of this era of radical political and social upheaval in East Germany, focussing on autobiographical texts and media (essays and comics) as well as novels and stories. These are discussed through the lens of memory studies with respect to individual and collective identity and memory construction, and as functions of intra- and intergenerational communication. Using selected examples and with reference to the categories of the novel of remembrance and the novel of memory, the article identifies narrative strategies and image–text relationships employed to recall the events preceding and following German reunification. It shows how texts filter, interpret and condense individual memories, and link these to generational memory, and how they may ultimately be seen as contributions to communicative memory.

Comparison of the Abitur examination in mathematics in Germany before and after reunification in 1990

In Germany, the Abitur is the highest qualification granted at the end of secondary education after 12 or 13 years of schooling; it provides a general university entrance qualification. Traditionally, written and oral examinations are required to obtain the Abitur. Until 1990, there were mainly decentralized examinations in mathematics in West Germany (Federal Republic of Germany [FRG]), which were taken after 13 school years, and a centralized examination that students took after 12 years of school in East Germany (German Democratic Republic [GDR]). In the unified Germany, examinations are now increasingly set by the 16 individual federal states. This paper has a special focus on changes and permanent features in the written Abitur examination in mathematics in Germany in the context of the social changes caused by the German reunification in 1990. These changes since 1990 are described with regard to the initial situation and framing conditions for the written Abitur examination. Two time periods are considered: (1) the examination situation in the FRG and GDR before 1990 and (2) the changes in the five eastern German federal states (former GDR) under the system change and accession to the FRG after 1990 but before the PISA shock.

“Greetings from the Apocalypse”: Race, Migration, and Fear after German Reunification

In the early 1990s, reunified Germany faced surging numbers of asylum seekers and a wave of far-right violence against foreigners. In letters that German citizens wrote to President Richard von Weizsäcker, it is clear that some Germans feared that the arrival of large numbers of non-Germans would bring about the collapse of the state or the destruction of the German people. This article engages with the history of fear in postwar Germany by examining Germans’ post-reunification fears of migration and foreigners. I argue, first, that a biological understanding of race was still surprisingly widespread as late as the early 1990s. Second, I call for a substantially more nuanced understanding of German reunification, one that emphasizes uncertainty and the terrifying openness of the future. Finally, I highlight the intersection of race thinking and memory by showing that racial fears were frequently shaped by memories of Germany's dark past.

The Politics of Rammstein’s Sound

Germany’s premier rock music export Rammstein has been controversial since its formation in 1994. This article analyzes Rammstein’s sonic signature from the perspective of the “art of record production.” It decodes the politics of Rammstein’s sound, which is inextricably linked to the exaggeration of German attributes and the associations attached to them. The findings suggest that although Rammstein productions emphasize some specific German stereotypes in their sound, their overall aesthetic is international. This carefully crafted fine line between exotic otherness and conformity to pop standards has made Rammstein successful on the global pop music market for more than two decades. The production aesthetic must be understood against the background of the band’s experience of German reunification. Rammstein were founded as a means for the band members to come to terms with their new “German” identity. Initially, the band dealt with the shock of reunification and the realities of Western capitalist societies. Later the band pursued two further goals: to improve the history of their country in foreign perception and to help the Germans make peace with their nation’s past. These goals are achieved by adopting strategies of industrial music for their course, such as provocation, ambiguity, contrast, recontextualization, and humor.

Financial literacy, institutions and education: Lessons from the German reunification

A growing body of literature highlights the importance of financial literacy in affecting household choices. However, much fewer studies focus on understanding the determinants of different levels of financial literacy. Our paper contributes to filling this gap by analyzing a specific determinant, i. e., the educational system, to explain the heterogeneity of financial literacy scores across Germany. The results suggest that the lower financial literacy observed in East Germany can be partially attributed to the different institutional framework experienced during the Cold War, more specifically, to the socialist educational system experienced in East Germany, which affected specific cohorts of individuals. By exploiting the unique set-up of the German reunification, we identify education as a channel through which institutions and financial literacy are related in the German context. In support of this hypothesis, we find that individuals exposed to the Eastern educational system exhibit 12 % 12\hspace{0.1667em}\% to 21 % 21\hspace{0.1667em}\% lower financial literacy scores compared with the households in the control group, not exposed to such system.

Rail Accessibility in Germany: Changing Regional Disparities between 1990 and 2020

Transport accessibility is an important location factor for households and firms. In the last few decades, technological and social developments have contributed to a reinvigorated role of passenger transport. However, rail accessibility is unevenly distributed in space. The introduction of high-speed rail has furthermore promoted a polarisation of accessibility between metropolises and peripheral areas in some European countries. In this article we analyse the development of rail accessibility at the regional level in Germany between 1990 and 2020 for 266 functional city-regions. Our results show two different facets: The number of regions that are directly connected to one another has decreased, but at the same time the spatial disparities of accessibility have decreased, albeit to a small extent. This development was strongest in East Germany after German reunification and thus largely a consequence of the renovation of the conventional rail infrastructure, not high-speed rail. Nevertheless, it can be concluded that the introduction of high-speed traffic in Germany did not lead to an increase in accessibility disparities. Instead, the accessibility effects of high-speed rail in Germany seem to break the traditional dichotomy between core and periphery.