‘Occupation Children’ in Germany after World War II — Problems and Coping Strategies

The article focuses on the autobiographical memories of people born in Germany after the Second World War, whose mothers were local women and whose fathers were members of the allied forces. Based on the analysis of narrative interviews, we ask how these people experienced their growing up and their sociocultural environment in the post‐war era, and what kind of coping strategies they developed to deal with adverse living conditions.     

德国保护地体系评述与借鉴

德国保护地体系是沿袭历史逐步形成的。首先论述了德国保护地体系的法律基础,并对11类德国保护地的定义、现状和管理事权进行了解释。继而对德国保护地体系进行归纳总结:各类保护地由《联邦自然保护法》统筹、分级管理,以自然保护为核心目标;各类保护地地界交织现象广泛存在,从而实现更广泛的连接;关注文化与自然的融合,强调文化景观管理;各类保护地倾向不同功能,平衡保护与利用并合理发展可持续旅游;法治巩固本土特色的保护地。最后对我国的保护地体系进行相关思考:法定保护地须纳入国土空间规划;包容自然与文化景观的保护地可与"自然公园"相得益彰;对保护地的利用及管理需要通过统一规划实现。     

Marriage and separation risks among German cohabiters: Differences between types of cohabiter

We propose a typology of different meanings of cohabitation that combines cohabiters’ intentions to marry with a general attitude toward marriage, using competing risk analyses to examine whether some cohabiters are more prone than others to marry or to separate. Using data (N = 1,258) from four waves of the German Family Panel (PAIRFAM) and a supplementary study (DEMODIFF), we compared eastern and western German cohabiters of the birth cohorts 1971–73 and 1981–83. Western Germans more frequently view cohabitation as a step in the marriage process, whereas eastern Germans more often cohabit as an alternative to marriage. Taking into account marital attitudes reveals that cohabiters without marriage plans differ from those with plans in their relationship careers, and also shows that cohabiters who plan to marry despite holding a less favourable view of marriage are less likely to realize their plans than cohabiters whose intentions and attitudes are more congruent.     

A transient presence: black visitors and sojourners in Imperial Germany, 1884–1914

The onset of German colonial rule in Africa brought increasing numbers of black men and women to Germany. Pre-1914 the vast majority of these Africans can best be described as visitors or sojourners and the black population as a whole was a transient one. This makes recovering their presence in the archival record exceptionally difficult and it is not surprising that the existing historiography is dominated by biographies of well-documented lives. Through utilising a number of recently digitised archival materials, particularly the Hamburg Passenger Lists, this article draws upon a database with information on 1094 individuals from sub-Saharan Africa who spent time in Germany over the period 1884–1914 in order to widen our understanding of the black presence as a whole. It offers new insights and detail into the composition and character of this fluid population – where visitors came from, why they came to Germany, their age on arrival – as well as more accurate information on the temporal and spatial distribution of African visitors.     

When the state takes over: civic integration programmes and the role of cities in immigrant integration

The idea that cities enjoy a certain degree of autonomy from the state when it comes to shaping immigrant integration policy has been repeatedly highlighted by research and promoted by good governance discourses. However, the emergence of state-led civic integration programmes (CIP) across Europe would seem to jar with this movement. This is the contradiction that this article explores. CIP mobilise significant resources and streamline immigrant integration through language courses, the provision of information about the host society and vocational orientation. Drawing on policy documents and interviews with local policy-makers on the CIP in the Netherlands, Germany and Sweden, this article demonstrates how they reduce the role cities have in immigrant integration; and how they transform integration policies—to varying degrees—from being developed in relationship to locally emerging needs to being charged with state sovereignty. These findings challenge the idea that there is an increasingly local approach to integration. They also raise concerns about the ambitions of CIP. Although presented as a means to make integration policies more efficient, their focus on control and coercion may in fact jeopardise their capacity to respond to concrete integration needs.     

Health insurance system financing reforms in the Netherlands,Germany and France: Repercussions for coverage and redistribution?

For a number of years, the Dutch, German and French health insurance systems have been attempting to contain costs and diversify their sources of finance, which traditionally have come mainly from social contributions. Diversification may involve broader‐based public finance, as well as greater recourse to private resources and operators. In the case of the Netherlands and Germany, the reforms go hand in hand with efforts to introduce competition between health insurance bodies. In France, private complementary insurance has become indispensable for adequate access to health care. However, these measures have repercussions for redistribution, which social assistance programmes have difficulty in addressing.     

The German debate over the intake of Uyghur Guantanamo inmates: a research note

Given the recent increase of scholarly interest in the Uyghur diaspora's international activism, this research note presents the development of the Uyghur issue in Germany. Although the Uyghur issue has gradually received attention in German legislative debate, this was not primarily achieved through diasporic efforts; rather, the willingness of sympathetic German parliamentarians to offer Uyghur activists the opportunities and venues to operate played a determining role. However, party politics and reservations from the executive branch have prevented Berlin from accepting Uyghur Guantanamo inmates.     

Assimilation,segregation, or integration? A teaching project examining approaches to religious and ideological diversity in the classroom

In this article, we describe the multiple phases of a project that was constructed around the real case of a young Muslim student who wished to be exempted from coeducational physical education on religious grounds. When the school refused her initial request, she decided to take legal measures which ended up in the German Federal Administrative Court. The court ultimately ruled in her favour. Her case was selected as the core ingredient for a new teaching project, which studies acculturation from different perspectives, and examines the complex balance between individual rights and societal duties, as defined by constitutional law in the Federal Republic of Germany. This case demonstrates that the majority society, represented in this study by the school, at times needs to change traditional educational policy in order to further national goals of integration; not as a compromise, but as a fair balance of interests. The project was implemented successfully as an integrated part of teacher preservice education occurring towards the end of the first academically based phase of their training.     

How do labour laws affect unemployment and the labour share of national income? The experience of six OECD countries, 1970–2010

Using longitudinal data on labour law in France, Germany, Japan, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States over the period 1970–2010, the authors estimate the impact of labour regulation on unemployment and the labour share of national income. Their dynamic panel data analysis distinguishes between the short‐run and long‐run effects of regulatory change. They find that worker‐protective labour laws in general have no consistent relationship to unemployment but are positively correlated with labour's share of national income. Laws specifically relating to working time and employee representation are found to have beneficial effects on both efficiency and distribution thus proxied.