How the obelisks reached Rome: evidence of Roman double-ships

The Egyptians transported obelisks to Alexandria for the last time shortly before 30 BC. The Romans learned from them after their annexation of Egypt in that year. In 13/12 BC two obelisks were transported from Heliopolis to Alexandria under Roman supervision. The hypothesis put forward is that in the light of this experience the Romans constructed a special sea-going version of the Nile vessels for onward transport to Rome—a double-ship with three hulls. © 2000 The Nautical Archaeology Society     

古代中国人造蓝紫硅酸铜钡颜料

这篇文章是对四件附着有硅酸铜钡颜料的中国古代器物的研究。其中三个样品是彩陶颗粒,来自甘肃省张家川马家源遗址,它属于战国晚期（474-221BC）。另外是对山东章丘威山汉墓壁画上的（206BC-8AD）单个晶体的单独研究。一个彩陶颗粒样品和单个晶体表明有中国深蓝（BaCu2Si2O7）存在,这是一关于硅酸铜钡的新发现。相对于已知道中国蓝（BaCuSi4O10）和中国紫（BaCuSi2O6）,这种BaCu2Si2O7成分被称为中国深蓝,该彩陶颗粒的颜料层也含有中国蓝中国紫。还运用了SEM和EDX对其表面形态的分析和通过拉曼光谱对中国蓝、中国紫元素成分的分析。x射线对单个晶体的分析知道了BaCu2Si2O7化合物的结构。通过现代仪器的综合分析研究,推断前期硅酸铜石英相谱图,白色Ba2CuSi2O7成分,仅有很小的可能性在历史遗迹中找到该颜料。     

Erschöpfte Literatur. Über das Neue bei Samuel Beckett

Exhausted Literature. The Emergence of the New in Samuel Beckett's Novels and Plays. The article investigates literary subjectivity in some texts by Samuel Beckett. The article proceeds by relating the ways of how narration and speech acts constitute literary subjectivity to the problems of subjectivity that scientific investigations deal with. While successful self‐regulation of the organism nourishes the roots of subjectivity, i. e. the habits, subjectivity decomposes in states of exhaustion, when self‐regulation breaks down. As soon as a certain threshold is transgressed, fatigue sets in, alters the personality and eventually leads to exhaustion – a state, which psychiatrists compare to mental illness. Notwithstanding the different explanations given, scientists agreed about the effects of exhaustion. According to their investigations, the decomposition of personality by exhaustion generally does not involve apathy, withdrawal from activity or termination of movements, but rather mere action. Similarly, in Beckett's novels and plays exhaustion is much more than tiredness, as French philosopher Gilles Deleuze observed. For Beckett, exhaustion is rather the model for both literary innovation and a new concept of subjectivity, which he explores on the basis of a detailed knowledge of physiology, psychology, and psychiatry, but using his own literary means. The exhausted subject is beyond any calculus of activity. It will perform an activity even if he or she makes mistakes or loses control, and will thus act in an unpredictable way. This unpredictable action is not an exception in the continuation of the habits, but rather points to the moment when a new subjectivity emerges. Such new subjectivity surfaces in Beckett's novels and plays in forms of literary innovation.     

Organizing the ‘people’s community’: the NSDAP and the ‘ethnic Germans’ in Nazi-occupied territories

ABSTRACT

This article refers to recent scholarly debates on the term ‘people’s community’ (Volksgemeinschaft), which throughout the Third Reich remained rather vague and encompassed often contradictory purposes. It deals with the relations between the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, NSDAP) and some of the ‘ethnic German’ (volksdeutsche) organizations to exemplify how German society should be transformed into a ‘people’s community’ after 1933. Thus, it is necessary to analyse the ‘people’s community’ not by asking whether or not its different purposes were realized, but by examining its functions in the Nazi regime. This functional analysis of the ‘people’s community’ focuses on the NSDAP and its relations with ‘ethnic German’ organizations after 1933, primarily in Nazi-occupied territories during the Second World War. First, the article describes the NSDAP’s efforts to align the ‘Germans abroad’ (Auslandsdeutsche) after the seizure of power and to organize the German Front (Deutsche Front) in the Saar territories in 1934/35—an experience serving as a blueprint for the relations between the NSDAP and ‘ethnic German’ organizations during the Second World War. Second, it evaluates the creation of the Ethnic German Community (Volksdeutsche Gemeinschaft) in the General Government and its efforts to organize ‘ethnic Germans’. Third, it interprets the foundation of the German People’s Community (Deutsche Volksgemeinschaft) in Lorraine and its ongoing attempts to establish a racial hierarchy of ‘ethnic Germans’ over the autochthonous French population. Fourth, it looks at the connection between the Germanization of Lower Styria and the launch of the Styrian Homeland Union (Steirischer Heimatbund) as an ‘ethnic German’ movement. The article argues that the NSDAP’s operational routines regarding both the German population and the ‘ethnic Germans’ living in the occupied territories shaped the ‘people’s community’.     

Charismatic Legitimation and Bureaucratic Rule: The NSDAP in the Third Reich, 1933-1945

This article deals with the history of the Nazi Party's officeof the Deputy Führer, Rudolf Heß, which after Heß'sflight on 10 May 1941 was renamed the Party Chancellery andled by Martin Bormann. It evaluates the structures and functionsof this important party office which had the exclusive rightto control government legislation. The Deputy Führer'sstaff was established before 1935/36. It consisted of severaloffices which influenced nearly all processes of legislationand tried to introduce Nazi ideology into all sectors of Germansociety. This was done by corresponding intensively with ministerialbureaucracy. Although the staff of the Deputy Führer andof the Party Chancellery acted in a very bureaucratic manner,the article argues that Max Weber's concept of ‘bureaucraticrule’ is not appropriate for analysing the radicalizationof the Nazi régime throughout the Second World War becausethis Weberian ideal type tends to neglect social practices.The same is true for Weber's concept of ‘charismatic rule’which only offers fruitful insights into the social relationsbetween Hitler and his followers.