Apprenticeship Training in Germany – Investment or Productivity Driven?

The German dual apprenticeship system came under pressure in recent years because enterprises were not willing to offer a sufficient number of apprenticeship positions. A frequently made argument is that the gap could be closed if more firms would be willing to incur net costs during the training period. This paper investigates for the first time whether German enterprises on average indeed incur net costs during the apprenticeship period, i.e. if the impact of an increase in the share of apprentices on contemporary profits is negative. The paper uses the representative linked employer-employee panel data of the IAB (LIAB) and takes into account possible endogeneity of training intensity and unobserved heterogeneity in the profit estimation by employing panel system GMM methods. An increase in the share of apprentices has no effect on profits. This can be interpreted as a first indication that most establishments in Germany do not invest more in apprentices than their productivity effects during the apprenticeship period

“Femmes à Boches”. Sexual encounters between occupiers and occupied (France and Belgium, 1914-1918)

Between 1914 and 1918, in occupied territories of the Western Front, tens of thousands Belgian and French women experienced sexual intercourse with German occupiers. Misery and gender imbalance made the prostitution explode. The spreading of venereal diseases forced an uneasy cooperation between occupying and occupied authorities to counter them. Sentimental affairs also embodied the phenomenon, but in any case, women who dated Germans were rejected by their community, sometimes very violently