Flottenpropaganda 1848: Johann Georg Kohls "Für eine deutsche Flotte"

The geographer, travel writer and librarian Johann Georg Kohl (1808-1878) of Bremen left behind an extensive literary and publicistic oeuvre. Although he consistently adorned himself with the claim to objectiveness, his writings were characterized by political statements, e.g. in the form of a rejection of Pan-Slavism or of frontline positions against the southern states during the American Civil War. At the same time, if we take his overall work into consideration, we find that Kohl rarely voiced his political opinions directly or in relationship to specific current events. One of the exceptions is a brochure published by the Teubner-Verlag in Dresden in 1848 under the title "Für eine deutsche Flotte" (Appeal for a German Fleet). Kohl was not the only writer to have concerned himself with this topic at the time, acting as he was against the background of the conflict with Denmark over Schleswig. His appeal, however, was not inspired by nationalist sentiment or anti-Danish polemics, but rather by rational and well-considered deliberations: The conflict with Denmark actually served as a welcome occasion for thinking about the fleet issue. In Kohl’s opinion, a German fleet was a necessity for both economic and political reasons. He envisioned a defensive fleet whose mission would be the protection of mercantile interests - a Friedensflotte (peace fleet), as he expressed it. He revised his speculations in 1849, making his argumentation less ambiguous than before: A fleet is naturgemäß (natural) for a nation; it is the expression of the nation itself (which Kohl conceives of as a kind of living organism), because it is capable of preserving and increasing the Nationalreichthum (national wealth) while at the same time serving as a symbol of external sovereignty

"Zugleich diese gute Statt [...] ihre Seel und Leben gleichsamb auß dem Weser=trafiquen habend": die Weser als Gegenstand literarisch-rhetorischer Bemühungen (1550 - 1685 - 1760 - 1796)

From ancient times to the present, rivers have been a popular literary theme and motif. The river can be understood as an image of unceasing movement, as a connective or divisive element, as a source of fertility and prosperity through trade, but also as one of danger. The Weser is one of the many rivers of Germany to have been commemorated in literature, as is illustrated here with the aid of examples from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries. The German humanist Felix Fi(e)dler’s 1550 cycle on the rivers of his native country forms the point of departure for this discussion. With his poetic description of the Weser, Fi(e)dler left a striking monument to posterity which reflects his knowledge of the literature of antiquity. It was from this age-old literature that he drew his information about the disputes between the Romans and the Teutons thought to have taken place on and near the Weser. Here the river is ascribed a Germanic, "national" element which would also play a role in its later depictions. In the academic speech of 1685 by Nicolaus Mindemann of Bremen, this use of antique literature as an orientation and the emphasis on the historical significance of the Weser as a "German river" recede into the background in favour of a focus on geographical-topographic and economic aspects. For Mindemann, the Weser is the source of trade carried out in Bremen, and hence of the city’s well-being. Here the processing of the river as a literary theme is combined with a eulogy of the city of Bremen in a form reminiscent of a "Städtelob" (speech or song in praise of a city). In his poem Die Weser of 1760, on the other hand, Michael Conrad Curtius directed his attention once again to the “national” element, prompted by the events of his day. Finally, at the end of the eighteenth century, this element underwent negative reinterpretation in Schiller’s Weser epigram from the Xenia. Here the Germanic-national aspect stands for darkness and lack of civilization in contrast to the brightness of antiquity. In Schiller’s work, the Weser’s character as a "German river" - frequently referred to in literature even of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries - and as the symbol of a national myth is satirically contradicted

Die Inkunabeln der Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Bremen: ein Zensus

(gedruckte Version mit Abbildungen in: Bremisches Jahrbuch 84, 2005, 202-232)202232Bremen8

Die Bremer Bibliothekartage 1954 und 1977: Themen - Tendenzen - Verpasste Chancen?

Bibliothekartage sind heute Großveranstaltungen mit mehreren Tausend Besucherinnen und Besuchern. Sie sind ein Schaufenster des deutschen Bibliothekwesens und zugleich zentrale, überregionale Fortbildungs-veranstaltung. Bibliothekartage sind stets Spiegel ihrer Zeit gewesen - im Guten wie im Schlechten waren auch sie Moden und politischen Vorgaben (so z. B. die Bibliothekartage in Posen 1905, Danzig 1934 und Graz 1939) unterworfen. Sie konnten immer auch einen gewissen Charme entwickeln und gelegentlich - wenn auch von den Veranstaltern nicht beabsichtigt - eine ungeahnte Eigendynamik. In dem Beitrag werden unter diesem Fokus die Bibliothekartage 1954 und 1977 in Bremen beleuchtet.Breme

3D laser engineering of molten core optical fibers: toward a new generation of harsh environment sensing devices

International audienceAluminosilicate glasses offer wide-ranging potential as enabling materials for a new generation of optical devices operating in harsh environments. In this work, a nonconventional manufacturing process, the molten core method, is employed to fabricate and study sapphire (Al$_2$O$_3$) and YAG (yttrium aluminum garnet) derived all-glass silicate optical fibers in which a femtosecond (fs) laser is used to imprint oriented nanostructures inside the fiber cores. Both writing kinetics and thermal stability of the laser-modified regions are investigated over a wide temperature range (20–1200 °C). The laser-imprinted modifications in these high alumina-content fibers exhibit improved thermal stability with respect to commercial pure silica and GeO$_2$-doped silica analogs. Furthermore, optical devices in the form of Rayleigh backscattering and fiber Bragg grating sensors are fabricated to demonstrate the high-temperature sensitivity and stability of these nonconventional fibers. This functionalization of aluminosilicate fibers by fs-laser direct writing opens the door to a new generation of optical devices suitable for high-temperature operation