Demokratie und väterliche Autorität: Das Karlsruher "Stichentscheid"-Urteil von 1959 in der politischen Kultur der frühen Bundesrepublik

Im Juli 1959 erklärte das Bundesverfassungsgericht den so genannten "väterlichen Stichentscheid" für verfassungswidrig. Mit dieser Entscheidung verwarf es zwei Paragraphen des Gleichberechtigungsgesetzes von 1957, in denen sich ein patriarchalisches Verständnis elterlicher Autorität niedergeschlagen hatte. Diese Entscheidung des Gerichts lässt sich als ein Durchbruch einer emanzipatorischen Geschlechterpolitik interpretieren. Die Argumentation der Richter entsprach einem in der westdeutschen Öffentlichkeit verbreiteten Bedürfnis, väterliche Autorität nicht mehr als ein natürliches Entscheidungsrecht des Mannes und ein hierarchisches Verhältnis von Befehl und Gehorsam zu interpretieren. Die Suche nach neuen Formen der Vaterschaft war in der frühen Bundesrepublik ein zentrales Thema der allgemeineren Selbstverständigung über Autorität und Demokratie. In der Debatte um den "demokratischen Vater" experimentierten die Westdeutschen mit einem Lebensgefühl, das es ihnen erlaubte, die Bundesrepublik nicht nur als Schicksal, sondern als Chance zu begreifen.On 29 July 1959, the Federal Constitutional Court of West Germany declared that the "paternal casting vote" was unconstitutional. This ruling annulled two elements of the family law reform of 1957 which had codified a patriarchal conception of parental authority. Within the bounds of civil law, fathers no longer had the final word. This essay interprets the court’s ruling as the emergence of emancipatory gender policies. In addition, it analyses criticism of the "paternal casting vote" during the 1950s in relation to contemporaneous debates over the meaning of paternal authority. The search for new kinds of fatherhood was not merely an obsession of the West German public between the early 1950s and the mid-1960s; it also played a key role in the process of democratisation in a society whose citizens were emerging from a murderous past and striving to steer a course, marked by tensions between democracy and authority, in order to construct a better polity

Speaking and Acting in Breslau's Antisemitism during the Kaiserreich

Current approaches to the social history of antisemitism differ from the socioeconomic emphasis fashionable in the 1970s and early 1980s in abandoning the often sterile search for the economic causes of antisemitism, acknowledging instead that antisemitic activities are to a great extent products independent of socioeconomic conditions. A close reading of the local political history of Breslau in Imperial Germany provides an illustration of the complex and multi-layered process that produces antisemitism. The paper is divided into four parts: first, the author briefly outlines the political history of Breslau, the second largest city in Prussia; second, he analyzes how antisemites successfully translated into practice their demand for the suspension of Jewish immigration; third, the author discusses the unsuccessful campaign by Breslau antisemites to exclude Jewish teachers form state schools; and fourth, it is argued that antisemites remained marginalised in local politics because of their failure to articulate their demands in accordance with the specific rhetorical rules of 'apolitical' local politics.Current approaches to the social history of antisemitism differ from the socioeconomic emphasis fashionable in the 1970s and early 1980s in abandoning the often sterile search for the economic causes of antisemitism, acknowledging instead that antisemitic activities are to a great extent products independent of socioeconomic conditions. A close reading of the local political history of Breslau in Imperial Germany provides an illustration of the complex and multi-layered process that produces antisemitism. The paper is divided into four parts: first, the author briefly outlines the political history of Breslau, the second largest city in Prussia; second, he analyzes how antisemites successfully translated into practice their demand for the suspension of Jewish immigration; third, the author discusses the unsuccessful campaign by Breslau antisemites to exclude Jewish teachers form state schools; and fourth, it is argued that antisemites remained marginalised in local politics because of their failure to articulate their demands in accordance with the specific rhetorical rules of 'apolitical' local politics

Juden und andere Breslauer: die Beziehungen zwischen Juden, Protestanten und Katholiken in einer deutschen Großstadt von 1860 bis 1925

van Rahden T. Juden und andere Breslauer: die Beziehungen zwischen Juden, Protestanten und Katholiken in einer deutschen Großstadt von 1860 bis 1925. Kritische Studien zur Geschichtswissenschaft ; 139. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht; 2000