The Health Status and Healthcare Utilization of Ethnic Germans in Russia

Ethnic German resettlers from the former Soviet Union are one of the largest migrant groups in Germany. In comparison with the majority of the German population, resettlers exhibit worse subjective health and utilize fewer preventive measures. However, there is little evidence on health among ethnic Germans who remained in Russia. Hence, the objective of this study was to determine the differences in subjective health, diabetes, smoking, and utilization of health check-ups between ethnic Germans and the majority population in Russia. We used data from the Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey II from 1994 to 2018 (general population of Russia n = 41,675, ethnic Germans n = 158). Multilevel logistic regression was used to calculate odds ratios (ORs) adjusted for age, sex, period, and place of residence. Analyses were furthermore stratified by the periods 1994–2005 and 2006–2018. Ethnic Germans in Russia rated their health less often as good compared with the Russian majority population (OR = 0.67, CI = 0.48–0.92). Furthermore, ethnic Germans were more likely to smoke after 2006 (OR = 1.91, CI = 1.09–3.37). Lower subjective health among ethnic Germans in Russia is in line with findings among minority populations in Europe. Increased odds of smoking after 2006 may indicate the deteriorating risk behavior of ethnic Germans in Russia.

Tourism potential of Ukraine in the context of geography and current state of German cultural heritage

The article describes theoretical foundations of the study of tourism potential of the regions of Ukraine in the context of geography and current state of German cultural heritage. The historical preconditions for the formation and development of cultural heritage of German ethnic minority on the territory of the modern Ukraine are studied. Geography of German ethnic minority of the early XX century within the modern territory of Ukraine and geography of ethnic Germans and German cultural heritage in the modern Ukraine are developed. On the basis of a cluster analysis of indicators of the number of preserved objects and the number of former German settlements, groups of regions with high, medium and low potential for the development of ethnic tourism are identified. Odesa, Lviv, Zaporizhzhia, Kyiv and Zhytomyr are the leaders by the number of objects of German cultural heritage among all regions of Ukraine. The group of regions with a medium level of potential for ethnic tourism includes the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, Volyn, Kherson, Ivano-Frankivsk, Mykolaiv, Poltava, Chernivtsi, and Khmelnytskyi regions. Seven main types of preserved objects of German cultural heritage in Ukraine are identified. Sacred objects and public buildings and structures are best represented. The objects of German cultural heritage preserved to this day in the context of the regions of Ukraine are described. It was found that the main obstacles to the development of German ethnic tourism in Ukraine are the destruction of many cultural heritage objects, lack of funding for restoration of these objects, insufficient involvement of objects to tourist routes and low level of their promotion. The main ways to overcome these obstacles are identified: allocation of budget funds for the restoration of objects, attracting private investors, international organizations and German community; development of new tourist routes; marking places with information stands, publishing information materials about objects; digitalization of objects; organization of international conferences, round tables, festivals, etc.

Sanitary and medical services for german refugees from the occupied regions of Ukraine in 1943-1944.

Aim of the article. The article reveals the main aspects related to the organization of sanitary and medical services for ethnic Germans, exported by the Nazi authorities from the occupied regions of Ukraine in 1943-1944. Research methods. Problem-chronological, descriptive and comparative methods were used. Scientific novelty. Based on the involvement of a wide range of archival documents, for the first time in historiography, it was possible to highlight in detail one of the littleknown and at the same time essential subjects of the evacuation of ethnic Germans from the occupied Ukrainian regions in 1943-1944. Conclusions. The level of health care for German refugees depended mostly on the territory of their stay. At the first stage of the evacuation, the Nazi authorities were unable to pay due attention to this significant issue since many resources were at the Wehrmacht disposal. The negligent attitude of indeed responsible authorities to the evacuated ethnic Germans' problems also played an important role. Very significant changes in refugees' situation took place only after moving to German territory in early 1944. Trying to prevent the mass spread of various infectious diseases among them, the Nazi administration was forced to take several urgent measures (such as disinfection, quarantine, and vaccination), which helped stabilize the sanitary and epidemiological situation gradually.

The Reichsschulen and the Napolas’ Germanizing Mission in Eastern and Western Europe

Heinrich Himmler, August Heißmeyer, and the NPEA Inspectorate were eager to create a transnational empire of Napolas and ‘Reichsschulen’ in all of the territories occupied by Nazi Germany during World War II. These schools both mirrored and contributed to broader National Socialist occupation and Germanization policies throughout Eastern and Western Europe. They were intended to create a cadre of ‘Germanic’ or ‘Germanizable’ leaders, loyal above all to the SS. The chapter begins by exploring the genesis of the Reichsschulen in the occupied Netherlands—Valkenburg and Heythuysen—which were adopted as a ‘Germanic’ prestige project by the Reich Commissioner of the Netherlands, Arthur Seyß-Inquart. The chapter then turns eastwards to consider the role of the Napolas which were established in the conquered Czech and Polish lands, focusing on NPEA Sudetenland in Ploschkowitz (Ploskowice), NPEA Wartheland in Reisen (Rydzyna), and NPEA Loben (Lubliniec). All in all, the Napola selection process in the occupied Eastern territories can be seen as the peak of all the ‘racial sieving’ processes which the Nazi state forced ‘ethnic Germans’ (Volksdeutsche), Czechs, and Poles to undergo, inextricably bound up with the Third Reich’s wider race, resettlement, and extermination policies. The ultimate aim of all of these schools was to mingle Reich German and ‘ethnic German’ or ‘Germanic’ pupils, educating the two groups alongside each other, in order to create a unified cohort of leaders for the future Nazi empire, and to reclaim valuable ‘Germanic blood’ for the Reich.

Russian Language in German socio-linguistic space as an Object of Russian Language state Policy

Today about 110 thousand people are learning Russian in Germany, and almost 2 million people are learning German in Russia The apparent contradiction is that if ethnic Germans do not constitute the dominant non-autochthonous group in Russia, then Russian in Germany is defnitely one of the most widespread languages among the residents and citizens of immigrant origin According to some sources, it even takes the leading position in this segment Its popularization can (and should) serve to preserve the ethnolinguistics identity of the Russian-speaking community abroad The Russian language is undoubtedly an effective instrument of ‘soft power’ in Russian policy abroad, contributing to the creation/ preservation of an attractive image of Russia in the international arena, the establishment of economic, academic, and ethnocultural relations, the construction of a comfortable feld of objective information exchange, the development of the ‘Russian world’ in its current large-scale understanding The answer, in the author’s opinion, is unequivocal The success of efforts undertaken by public and academic organisations of our states; the implementation of projects initiated by German educational institutions and offcial institutions in the framework of international cooperation should not only be supported but to a large extent ensured by the Russian side The article gives an up-to-date assessment of the role of the Russian language and Russian-speaking community in the sociopolitical space of Germany in the course of education, integration, electoral and other processes, the activities of certain actors in striving to reverse the frightening trend of losing Russian language and Russian cultural traditions outside Russia, the problems and prospects of the external direction of contemporary Russian language policy.

Intertextualities in Elfriede Jelinek’s Rein Gold: Ein Bühnenessay

Elfriede Jelinek’s postdramatic stage essay Rein Gold (2012) interweaves countless texts including Richard Wagner’s operas from the Ring cycle, Karl Marx’s The Capital, and Marx and Friedrich Engels’s The Communist Manifesto as well as contemporary writings and news articles. Scholarship has so far examined the play in comparison to Wagner’s Rheingold opera, which serves as the base for the dialogue between the father Wotan and daughter Brünnhilde. This article examines intertextualities with the story of the National Socialist Underground, an extremist right-wing group that committed hate-crime murders and bank robberies, and with the exploitative history of workers, particularly women, in capitalist systems. Jelinek compares the National Socialist Underground’s attempt to violently rid Germany of non-ethnic Germans with Siegfried’s mythical fight as dragon slayer in the Nibelungenlied that created a hero who has been cast as a German identity figure for an ethnonational narrative and fascist ideas in twenty-first-century Germany.

Dynamic Effects of Co-Ethnic Networks on Immigrants’ Economic Success*

This paper investigates how co-ethnic networks affect the economic success of immigrants. Using longitudinal data of immigrants in Germany and including a large set of fixed effects and pre-migration controls to address the possible endogeneity of initial location, we find that immigrants in districts with larger co-ethnic networks are more likely to be employed soon after arrival. This advantage fades after four years, as migrants located in places with smaller co-ethnic networks catch up due to greater human capital investments. These effects appear stronger for lower-skilled immigrants, as well as for refugees and Ethnic Germans.

From Hitler’s Disciple to Wartime Refugee

Building on recent investigations into children as historical actors, this article examines the experiences of ethnic German (Donauschwaben) expellees from northern Yugoslavia’s Vojvodina region. Using original oral history interviews, the article embeds these individuals’ childhood experiences of World War ii and expulsion into their greater life stories, thereby highlighting children’s multifaceted wartime roles and opportunities for agency. Contrary to prevailing (German) historiographic and popular imagination—as encouraged particularly by postwar expellee organizations—young ethnic Germans were not the mere passive victims of war and expulsion. Rather, even during their expulsion, they actively participated in Nazi youth organizations, accompanied columns of Jewish camp evacuees, worked in Nazi munitions factories, and fought in the Third Reich’s final desperate military “storm.” At different occasions, children and youth thus became both witting and unwitting agents of wartime destruction. As the article concludes, a more concerted investigation into questions of childhood agency in war is central to the analysis of such contested topics as German victimhood and perpetration during World War ii, the Vertreibung (expulsion), and Germany’s transgenerational postwar reckoning with the crimes of its past.