The Reichswehr, the Republic and the Primacy of Foreign Policy, 1918-1923

This article contends that the relationship between the Reichswehrand the Republic was shaped by the primacy of foreign policybetween 1918 and 1923. In this period the major concern of theofficers was the stabilization of the German Reich, which wouldpreserve Germany as a Machtfaktor in Europe and serve as thebasis for a revisionist and militarized foreign policy. Foreignpolicy matters and aims shaped their attitude to domestic politics.Cooperation with the Republic enabled the officers to achievethe stabilization of the Reich by 1923. They were also ableto introduce important reforms in the military structure ofthe Reich, which showed that cooperation with the Republic couldpay dividends. In terms of the substance of foreign policy theReichswehr followed a pragmatic, unideological approach by developinglinks with the Red Army. By examining the relationship betweenthe Reichswehr and the Republic from the perspective of theprimacy of foreign policy, it is possible to come to a fullerunderstanding of the shifting nature of civil-military affairsin the Weimar Republic.     

'On mind-blindness (optic agnosia)', a classical clinico-pathological report, and its author Wilhelm von Stauffenberg (1879-1918)

Two photographs from the beginning of our century still instructively illustrate the phenomenon of visual agnosia: the perplexed face of an old lady confronted with objects clears after touching them. This patient with bilateral posterior cerebral infarction was followed for seven years at the Munich Medicine Department of Friedrich von Müller (1858-1941) who had a strong interest in neurology. His assistant Wilhelm von Stauffenberg (1879-1918) reported the case in great detail, including anatomical analysis performed under Constantin von Monakow (1853-1930). Promoted to "Privatdozent" in 1913 on the basis of this report, Stauffenberg's work included several additional, similarly extensive clinico-anatomical case studies but was not limited to problems of cerebral localisation. Under the influence of the Burgh?lzli group in Zürich he started to practice psychotherapy. Stauffenberg, deeply interested also in the arts and in literature, was the physician of the poet Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926) from 1914. He succumbed to pneumonia in 1918.     

Biodiversity and sectoral responsibility in the development of Swedish Forestry Policy, 1988-1993

In 1993 the Swedish parliament deregulated national forestry policy and established an environmental goal in parallel with the previous, long-standing goal of high wood production. This paper shows how the change occurred in the context of major changes in Swedish environmental policy during the late 1980s and early 1990s. Within a short time, new environmental legislation and the introduction of legal protection for small forest and agricultural habitats of high ecological value reoriented national forestry policy, away from an overriding focus on wood production to an increased awareness of nature conservation and biodiversity preservation. Reflecting a major compromise with the state, forest owners have gained greater freedom to manage their land, but must also improve environmental conditions while achieving high wood production, a policy known as 'freedom under responsibility'. The paper explains how both the parliament and industry supported increased nature conservation and biodiversity to maintain forest health and support the forestry industry, by favouring responsible resource use and not simply protection from human influence.     

Location of Memory versus Space of Communication: Presses,Languages, and Education among Czernovitz Jews, 1918-1941

Abstract

The history of Czernovitz, chief city and former capital of Bukovina, has long been veiled in a mythology based largely on romanticized accounts. In order to understand the background to this city’s rich literary production better, we have evaluated the German-language press which flourished in Czernovitz during the interwar period, when the city remained an enclave of German-language culture, highly intellectual, and predominantly Jewish, long after Bukovina itself came under Romanian rule in 1918. In this article, we challenge the romantic mythology of Czernovitz, stressing the city’s function as a modern space of communication rather than a location of memory. Our research is based on press articles, contextualizing archival material and testimonies of contemporaries born between 1908 and 1936. Its underlying conceptual framework is Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of the field of cultural production.     

The business of ethics: gender, medicine, and the professional codification of the American Physiotherapy Association, 1918-1935

The history of codes of ethics in health care has almost exclusively been told as a story of how medical doctors developed their own professional principles of conduct. Yet telling the history of medical ethics solely from the physicians' perspective neglects not only the numerous allied health care workers who developed their own codes of ethics in tandem with the medical profession, but also the role that gender played in the writing of such professional creeds. By focusing on the predominantly female organization of the American Physiotherapy Association (APA) and its 1935 "Code of Ethics and Discipline," I demonstrate how these women used their creed to at once curry favor from and challenge the authority of the medical profession. Through their Code, APA therapists engaged in a dynamic dialogue with the male physicians of the American Medical Association (AMA) in the name of professional survival. I conclude that, contrary to historians and philosophers who contend that professional women have historically operated under a gender-specific ethic of care, the physiotherapists avoided rhetoric construed as feminine and instead created a "business-like" creed in which they spoke solely about their relationship with physicians and remained silent on the matter of patient care.     

Rethinking battle commemoration: female letters and the myth of the battle of Las Navas de Tolosa (1212)

This article re-examines epistolary accounts by Berenguela and Blanche of Castile of the Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa. Building on previous assertions that Berenguela’s letter is a forgery, and through close comparison with the three surviving male eyewitness battle accounts, this article argues the letters of Berenguela and Blanche – in the form in which they survive – are confections based on original letters. The Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa’s mythical status and standing as a watershed event within the narrative of Gran Reconquista is understood to have been largely shaped by three male-authored chronicle accounts: Chronica Latina regum Castelle (1239), Chronicon mundi (1239) and De rebus Hispaniae (1243). In asserting these letters are confected accounts, in circulation by the 1220s, this article argues that battle commemoration began in the immediate aftermath of the Christian victory, and that female voices were recognised by contemporaries as a viable tool for commemoration.