PESTALOZZI AND FICHTE – THE POWER OF EDUCATION

The text explores the relationship between Pestalozzi and Fichte. The author argues that, with the exception of Kant, Pestalozzi had probably the strongest influence on the development of Fichte’s philosophy, and especially on his placing education in the focus of his philosophy. The influence of Pestalozzi on Fichte is most visible in Fichte’s critique of the existing education and the construction of a completely new conception of educational activity. It is at this point that Fichte directly relies on Pestalozzi’s insights into the importance of independence and self-activity in pedagogical practice. At the same time, there are significant differences between the two of them, clearly visible in Fichte’s conception of national education. This conception of Fichte must by no means be viewed only from the context of The Addresses to the German Nation but must be viewed as a whole of the development of Fichte’s philosophy, and especially in relation to the historical and educational circumstances that prevailed at the time. Keywords: education, independence, self-activity, selfishness, nation.

THE POLITICAL HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF THE 1989 GDR REFUGEES PASSING THROUGH HUNGARY

Raising awareness on the political-historical background of the popular movements of the 20th century is very important because behind the stories there were often ill-considered political decisions. It is interesting to see how the last century leaders of the great powers represented their self-interests, and what political games they had developed to achieve their political goals. The interests of nations living in countries were often not interesting to take into consideration. The Soviet Union was not a nation-state, but neither was the United States of America, while at that time most of the European states were nationstates, and along this were nations that sought to assert their national interests, by force when necessary. However, the post-World War II political settlements did not serve the interests of the German nation, but divided its population and turned them against one other. This is why the movement of German citizens within Germany has occurred.

The ideology of nationalism and sports

Sport is considered as a collective practice, participation in which in any capacity (as an athlete, coach or fan) contributes to the formation and strengthening of socio-cultural and political identity. The period of unification of the German nation is analyzed: classical gymnastics in the XIX century was a response to the society’s request for national identity and gymnastics classes became a unifying nation-forming social practice. It is shown that in the 30—40s of the twentieth century, sports became one of the technologies for building, approving and spreading the ideology of German national socialism.

"alte Traum von alten Deutschland"

Similar to national feasts - e.g. the Wartburg Fest 1817 - German music festivals could be understood as symbolic politics: the masses of interpreters and listeners representing the German 'nation', the works, especially symhonies and oratorios, representing the 'greatness' of German culture (shown in texts by Wolfgang Robert Griepenkerl, Eduard Krüger, Robert Schumann). Mendelssohn's <Lobgesang>, first performed at the Leipzig Gutenberg Fest 1841, then one year later at the Düsseldorf music festival, is discussed as music for national feasts (with its references to the national 'heroes' Gutenberg, Luther, and Beethoven).

Romantic Nationalism and German ›Universality‹. Novalis’ »Europa« Speech and its context

The poet Novalis (Friedrich von Hardenberg) first put forward the idea that the German nation was destined to “deliver” Europe from its political and cultural crisis, an idea that formed the basis of his work “Europe” (1799). With it he ultimately transferred Christian universalism and missionarism into politics, thereby establishing a line of thinking that German nationalism would lastingly incorporate into its mindset.

Metaphorical representations of the “German economic miracle” in the prose of Bernhard Schlink

This article discusses the difficult postwar years of Germany reflected in the works of B. Schlink, as well as assesses the impact of economic circumstances upon the formation of German collective consciousness. The object of this research is the novels &ldquo;The Justice of Selb&rdquo;, &ldquo;The Deceit of Selb&rdquo;, &ldquo;The Farewell of Selb&rdquo; by B. Schlink. The subject of this research is the artistic peculiarities of representation of the &ldquo;German economic miracle&rdquo; in the prose of B. Schlink. The writer had a critical attitude on idealizing the results of Germany's rapid economic development. He believes that mythologization of the positive results of economic development is only one side to a coin. A profound analysis of the listed novels by B. Schlink, dedicated to the theme of postwar restoration of Germany, gives a better perspective on the writer&rsquo;s role in the German literary process during the late XX &ndash; early XXI centuries, which defines the relevance of this research. The goal of this article lies in studying the importance of mythological representations associated with the rapid recovery and economic development of Germany in the consciousness of the German nation, as well as their reflection in the works of Bernhard Schlink. In his novels, B. Schlink not only mentions the return of former Nazis to public and civil posts, but also draws the images of the prosperous postwar existence of German industrialists, whose factories used to supply the needs of the Reich. Depicting the conflict between the characters, the writer destroys one of their pleasant elements of the myth of &ldquo;German economic miracle&rdquo;. The hero &ndash; Detective Selb &ndash; reflects on the ethical questions pertinent to economic development. The life-changing event in national history, which allowed Germany to regain its rightful place among the European nations, is linked by the author with a range of negative consequences, such as development of the psychology of &ldquo;consumerism&rdquo; in the society, concealment of the German national past, detection of significant environmental problems, and escalation of radical moods among German youth.

A Nation Connected

This chapter opens with an illustration of the Prussian government’s use of telegraph networks to unite the German nation during the war with France in 1870 by ensuring the timely and ubiquitous distribution of news. Otto von Bismarck and Generalpostmeister Heinrich Stephan then sought to build upon this unifying conception of telegraphic communication by improving and homogenizing the new Kaiserreich’s network, but they soon faced obstacles from within and outside the state. On the one hand, the federal structure of the new empire granted Bavaria and Württemberg the right to manage their own networks. On the other hand, the increasingly global network upon which trade and finance depended, and the news cartel established between Havas, Reuters, and Wolffs Telegraphisches Büro limited the imperial administration’s ability to manage the cost and nature of information circulating on its lines. These issues, and particularly the economic crisis of 1873, led to conflicts in the Reichstag, where deputies openly questioned the technology’s capacity to ‘annihilate space’ and formed alliances based upon the sections of society which they believed should or should not possess an advantage in communication. At a local level, meanwhile, government efforts to build new, more imposing, post and telegraph buildings alongside subsidiary offices threatened the business community’s privileged position within the urban landscape. The distance and time involved in the transmission of telegrams came to define one’s local and social status—as shown vividly in the novels of Theodor Fontane in the early 1880s and in the popular press.

Cultural Diplomacy and Europe's Twenty Years’ Crisis, 1919–1939: Introduction

Photographs of the German and Soviet pavilions facing off at the Paris International Exposition in 1937 offer an iconic image of the interwar period, and with good reason. This image captures the interwar period's great conflict of ideologies, the international interconnectedness of the age and the aestheticisation of political and ideological conflict in the age of mass media and mass spectacle. [Figure 1] Last but not least, it captures the importance in the 1930s of what we now call cultural diplomacy. Both pavilions – Germany's, in Albert Speer's neo-classical tower bloc crowned with a giant swastika, and the Soviet Union's, housed in Boris Iofan's forward-thrusting structure topped by Vera Mukhina's monumental sculptural group – represented the outcome of a large-scale collaboration between political leaders and architects, artists, intellectuals and graphic and industrial designers seeking to present their country to foreign visitors in a manner designed to advance the country's interests in the international arena. Each pavilion, that is, made an outreach that was diplomatic – in the sense that it sought to mediate between distinct polities – using means that were cultural – in the sense that they deployed refined aesthetic practices (like the arts and architecture) and in the sense that they highlighted the distinctive features, or ‘culture’, of a particular group (like the German nation or the Soviet state).

‘Wir schaffen das’: Hope and hospitality beyond the humanitarian border

This article examines how hope for a different culture of hospitality has been articulated during the long summer of migration of 2015 in Germany by juxtaposing Angela Merkel’s ‘Wir schaffen das’ speeches with the cross-border migrant March of Hope. The article suggests that while Merkel’s rhetoric opens the horizon to a more hospitable Europe, her policies of humanitarian securitisation ultimately redistribute hope away from migrants and towards a German nation imagined to be in need of protection from them. Subsequently, the article turns to the March of Hope to see how the gesture of hospitality embedded in Merkel’s rhetoric was reinterpreted and resisted. It shows that cross-border marches reveal affective infrastructures of care and hospitality that extend beyond the humanitarian border enacted by the state. These infrastructures provide the space for intimate negotiations of citizenship in which the relationality of social life is not framed through the racialised emergency logics of biopolitical control.