From Teamchef Arminius to Hermann Junior: glocalised discourse about a national foundation myth

If for much of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the ‘Battle of the Teutoburg Forest’, fought in 9 CE between Roman armies and Germanic tribes, was predominantly a reference point for nationalist and chauvinist discourses in Germany, the first decade of the twenty-first century has seen attempts to link public remembrance with local/regional identities on the one hand and international/intercultural contact on the other. In the run up to and during the ‘anniversary year’ of 2009, German media, sports institutions and various other official institutions articulating tourist, economic and political interests attempted to create a new ‘glocalised’ version of the public memory of the Teutoburg battle. Combining methods of Cognitive Linguistics and Critical Discourse Analysis, the paper analyses the narrative and argumentative topoi employed in this re-orientation of public memory, with a special emphasis on hybrid, post-national identity-construction. Das zweitausendjährige Gedenkjahr der „Schlacht im Teutoburger Wald“ im Jahr 2009 bot eine günstige Gelegenheit, die bis in die zweite Hälfte des 20. Jahrhunderts dominante Tradition nationalistisch–chauvinistischer Deutungen des Sieges von germanischen Stämmen über drei römische Legionen zu korrigieren und zu überwinden. Der Aufsatz analysiert mit Hilfe diskurslinguistischer Methoden die Anstrengungen regionaler Institutionen und Medien, die nationale Vereinnahmung des historischen Gedenkens kritisch zu thematisieren sowie neue, zum eine lokal situierte, zum andern international orientierte Identifikationsangebote anzubieten. Die Analyse zeigt, dass solche „de-nationalisierten“ Identifikationsangebote zwar teilweise auch früher verwendet wurden, aber heutzutage rekontextualisiert und auf innovative Weise in den Vordergrund gestellt werden

Differential effects of lovastatin on mitogen induced calcium influx in human cultured vascular smooth muscle cells

1. In this study the effect of lovastatin, an inhibitor of cholesterol and isoprenoid synthesis, on the rises in intracellular calcium concentration ([Ca(2+)](i)) induced by platelet derived growth factor BB (PDGF-BB), angiotensin II (AII), low density lipoproteins (LDL) and foetal calf serum (FCS) was examined in human cultured vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMC) from saphenous vein. Changes in [Ca(2+)](i) were measured in cell suspensions by the Ca(2+) sensitive probe, fura 2. 2. Incubation with lovastatin for 24–26 h markedly reduced the peak rise and sustained phase of [Ca(2+)](i) elevation in response to PDGF-BB but the responses to AII, LDL and FCS were unaffected. Further experiments showed that lovastatin pretreatment inhibited PDGF-BB induced Ca(2+) influx but not intracellular Ca(2+) release. This inhibition could be overcome by co-incubation with mevalonic acid. 3. Pretreatment of cells with the heterotrimeric G protein inhibitor pertussis toxin for up to 24 h completely abolished AII-induced [Ca(2+)](i) rises but the response to PDGF-BB was unaffected. 4. The tyrosine kinase inhibitor genistein largely abolished PDGF-BB-induced [Ca(2+)](i) elevation but had no significant effect on AII-induced responses. 5. Pre-incubation with lovastatin had no effect on the level of tyrosine phosphorylation of PDGF-β receptors (as measured by Western blot) in response to the PDGF-BB ligand. 6. PDGF-BB elicits Ca(2+) influx via a tyrosine kinase-dependent mechanism distinct from the heterotrimeric G protein coupled pathway utilized by AII. Lovastatin most likely acts by inhibition of isoprenylation (via blockade of isoprenoid synthesis) of an intermediate molecule involved in PDGF-BB-induced Ca(2+) influx

Walking in Virginia Woolf's Footsteps, Performing Cultural Memory

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