Historiography of German Entrepreneurship in Siberia in the second half of the 19th and early 20th centuries

The historiography of ethnic entrepreneurship in pre-revolutionary Siberia has not yet been fully investigated. Individual works of researchers studied German entrepreneurship exclusively through the broader topic of foreign capital and its importance in the state economy. The subject of this article is historiography concerning the history of German entrepreneurship in the Siberian region. The purpose is to analyze the corresponding works on the history of entrepreneurial activity of the Germans in Siberia in the second half of the 19th – early 20th centuries. In this study both general and specialized scientific methods are used, which allowed to carry out a coherent analysis of the works of researchers on ethnic entrepreneurship in order to identify the main characteristics and approaches used. We have identified the characteristics and trends of German entrepreneurship considered by historians. German immigrants in Siberia in the second half of the 19th century became one of the main driving forces of the agrarian development in the region; they retained farms, acting both as independent merchants and as managers of firms. Historiographic analysis allows to formulate a conclusion about the positive influence of German entrepreneurship on the socio-economic development of Siberia in the period preceding the October Revolution. The article is of interest to researchers, teachers of history, and students of the humanities.

Rumänisch im deutschen Migrationskontext

The migration of Romanian nationals to Germany has a rather long history, but it has gained intensity in the last fifty years. There are almost 780.000 Romanians now living in Germany making them the second-largest group of foreign EU citizens residing in this country. If we also include naturalised citizens as well as the “old” and “new” ethnic German immigrants (the German Romanians), the total number of immigrants originating from Romania exceeds one million individuals. Despite this, migratory linguistic studies are almost non-existent. This article examines the sociolinguistic situation of Romanian as an extraterritorial language in Germany and the discourse behaviour of Romanian migrants to which it correlates. Special attention is paid to the second generation. The focus is on the following aspects: the acquisition of the language of origin and the territorial language, the migrants’ language competence in Romanian compared to their language competence in German, the use of these languages by domains and the translinguistic markers in discourse. The empirical study — which is preceded by a brief description of Romanian migration to Germany — is based on data obtained using qualitative and quantitative methods.

Introduction

This introduces the book’s main issues via a historical vignette of German imperialism in Southwest Africa from the 1890s to 1908. The German strategy was to seize the land of the most powerful tribes in the area for German immigrants to farm. In the process, Germans unethically victimized the Africans, undercutting their culture, their roles, and identity as regional leaders. German racism was a continuum, a hallmark being frequent floggings, which Germans considered “parental chastisement.” When the key tribe rebelled in 1904, German forces fought not simply to defeat them but also to completely obliterate them. It was the twentieth century’s first genocide: 92,000 Africans were slain.

Opera as Comics: Richard Wagner’s The Ring of the Nibelung in Craig P. Russell’s Graphic Adaptation

The paper discusses P. Craig Russell’s graphic adaptation of Richard Wagner’s dramatic tetralogy The Ring of the Nibelung. Originally, the series was released monthly by Dark Horse Comics (2000-2001), in 2014 it was published as a two-volume paperback. Wagner’s music has entered the American cultural scene in the second half of the 19th-century, predominantly due to the notable influence of German immigrants, and its impact is still vivid in the 21st-century. Despite the fact that American acceptance of Wagner was not universal and his political opinions are still disputed, his work has significantly affected the development of American music, poetry, and popular culture. Though Russell does not belong to the greatest formal innovators in comics, his merging of opera and comics turned out to be not only original but also a critically acclaimed format. Russell interprets the Ring Cycle as an essential predecessor of American superhero comics, thereby making the complex work feel familiar to wide audiences. His Ring Cycle adaptation includes behind-the-scenes production art, notes of the artist, or history of the opera itself. Drawing on the hybridity of both comics and opera, the paper discusses the visual aspects of the adaptation and the transmedial methods which Russell used to adapt opera and its effects into graphic novel. The main focus will on the illustration style and its cultural impact on the unifying social function of the comics medium, and, more importantly, the methods of transmission of sounds into the silent medium, with special attention paid to the meaning and visual form of the Wagnerian leitmotiv.

THE GERMANS IN RUSSIA IN XVIIIth - FIRST QUARTER OF THE XIXth CENTURY

В статье анализируется историческое пребывание немцев на территории Российской империи XVIII - первой четверти XIX в. Рассматривается правовой статус немецких переселенцев в XVIII - первой четверти XIX в. На основе законодательных актов просматриваются тенденции в период каждого царствования, а также общая тенденция на протяжении исследуемого периода. Проанализированы историографические работы, связанные с нахождением немцев на территории России. Исследуются экономические, политические и культурные связи немцев и российского государства. Рассматривается конфессиональная политика российского государства в отношении немецкого населения. Каждый правитель старался включать иностранцев (немцев) в российское общество. В период с XVIII - первой четверти XIX в. не сформировался особый правовой или экономический статус немцев в Российской империи. The article analyzes the historical stay of the Germans on the territory of the Russian Empire in the XVIII - first quarter of the XIX century. The legal status of German immigrants in the XVIII - first quarter of the XIX century is considered. On the basis of legislative acts, the trends in the period of each reign are viewed, as well as the general trend during the period under study. The historiographical works related to the presence of the Germans on the territory of Russia are analyzed. The economic, political and cultural relations of the Germans and the Russian state are investigated. The article considers the confessional policy of the Russian state in relation to the German population. Each ruler tried to include foreigners (Germans) in Russian society. In the period from the XVIII - first quarter of the XIX century. The special legal or economic status of the Germans in the Russian Empire was not formed.

German Population Local Evacuations from the USSR Occupied Regions in winter-spring 1943

One of the elements of the “total war” declared by the Nazi leadership in February 1943 was the massive displacement of the civilian population of the occupied Soviet territories to the deep rear. As a rule, these movements were voluntary compulsory. Among those who were also subjected to mandatory evacuation were ethnic Germans, who, as a rule, enjoyed the special patronage of the occupation authorities. Most of them, of course, could not help fearing reprisals after the return of Soviet power and therefore preferred to retreat with the Wehrmacht. As a result, during the first few months of 1943, thousands of refugees of German nationality were quickly evacuated from several occupied regions of the RSFSR, the Ukrainian SSR, and the BSSR. Some of them, by decision of the SS leadership, remained on the territory of the Reichskommissariat “Ukraine”, while others left for the imperial region of Warthegau and the General Government. Despite their very modest scale, these evacuations had at least two main outcomes. First, they became, in a sense, a prototype (especially at the organizational level) of administrative relocations that unfolded in the autumn of the same year on the territory of Ukraine. Some considerations (such as the idea of the concentration of German refugees on the right bank of the Dnieper or in Galicia) would later form the basis for further plans of the Nazi leadership. Secondly, the arrival of a fairly large contingent of Soviet Germans in the Reich required several changes to the legal framework governing the procedure for their naturalization. A significant part of these innovations will determine the fate of the majority of German immigrants from the USSR practically until the end of the war. In the presented article, based on the involvement of a significant array of documents from the archival funds of Germany, the characteristic features of the evacuation of ethnic Germans from the occupied regions of Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus in winter-spring 1943 are considered.

The Language Situation in the Russian German Ethnic Community of Molchanovo District, Tomsk Region

This article presents the analysis of the language situation, done as part of sociolinguistic study among representatives of the German etnic minority in the Molchanovo district of Tomsk region which has been a place of concentrated residence of German immigrants since the second half of the 20th century. Using recorded monologic and dialogic speech as well as questionnaire data, the authors identify subject-specific areas that have communicative significance in the speech behavior of Russian Germans in the area. The purpose of this article is to examine the functioning of the German dialect in the speech of representatives of the German ethnic minority from the Molchanovo district of Tomsk region as an exogloss component of the language situation. The study uses data from a sociolinguistic analysis of the language situation conducted on the territory of the Molchanovo district of Tomsk region in 2017. The main research methods are observation, comparison and interpretation, oral interviews and questionnaires. The analysis of the language situation in the indicated region has revealed a significant dominance of the Russian language over German in all areas of everyday communication. Thus, 99% of the Russian German surveyed use the Russian language, which has become their native language (54%) and serves as the main means of communication among the informants. Since, due to its long-term residence in a Russian-speaking environment, the Molchanovo German ethnic minority has been isolated from the German-speaking parent community in Germany, this has brought about a widespread use of Russian in oral (72%) and written (63%) speech as well as communication in the workplace (72%). Of no small importance is the belief of these Russian Germans in the importance of the Russian language for the development of Tomsk region (63%) as well as the use of Russian in religious practice when reading texts and prayers (45%), caused by more than fifty years of living in the area dominated by a different religious tradition (Russian Orthodox). Thus the language situation among Russian Germans in the Molchanovo district of Tomsk region is characterized by a significant dominance of the Russian language as its endoglossic exponent.

Aufgabentypen bei der Didaktisierung von Materialien zu den Spuren der deutschen in der Geschichte von Kiew

The article is devoted to the problem of didactization of linguistic and historical materials about the activities of German immigrants in the territory of Kyiv. The main focus is on the choice and justification of the types of tasks for using these materials during German classes. It is determined that semi-open and open types of tasks are optimal in the process of didactization of these materials. A number of tasks have been developed on the basis of materials on the contribution of German architects to the design and construction of recognized architectural monuments of Kyiv. It has been found that the proposed assignments are appropriate to use for students at B1 + level in accordance with the Common European Guidelines for Language Education. The developed tasks are based on the following principles: communicative orientation, activity orientation, intercultural sensitization, and scaffolding.

“I had never had a dancing lesson in my life, but somehow, I knew I could train those other children, and I did.”

Catherine Littlefield’s great-grandparents, Gottlieb and Catherine Doebele, are German immigrants who settle in Philadelphia in the 1850s and raise six children. Gottlieb dies from injuries sustained while serving with a German regiment in the Civil War, and Catherine Doebele becomes a surrogate parent to her granddaughter, Caroline Doebele, after the girl’s parents divorce. Catherine Doebele (Grandma Doebele) is very religious and disapproves of Caroline’s early interest in dancing but provides her with piano lessons instead. James H. Littlefield, born and raised in Maine, serves in the US Cavalry and later takes a job with the PRR-YMCA in Philadelphia. He loves music and theater and meets Caroline. They marry in 1904.