Labour markets in transition. The experiences of women in two border regions of East Germany

The political turning point in the former GDR and the transformation processes that have been observed since then have significantly affected economic and social structures in the new Federal States. Gender roles, however, were subjected to even more dramatic changes. Whilst many women experienced the employment policies of the GDR era as beneficial, social researchers often designate them as the losers of unification nowadays. This is largely because the abundance of State support measures for employed women and mothers has been drastically reduced and women as a group have been hit hardest by the crisis on the East German labour market. Using two cases (Mecklenburg-Westpommerania and Thuringia), this paper aims to illustrate the impact of the transformation process on the everyday (working) lives of women. We are particularly concerned with a comparative analysis of how women experience and deal with regional disparities in East Germany. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Interlocking directorships and trans-national linkages within the British Empire, 1900–1930

Recent research has highlighted the value of employing the idea of networks to describe the interrelatedness of today's globalizing economy. Networks facilitate flows of knowledge, ideas, managerial techniques and capital between firms both within and across political borders. This paper argues that the reconstruction of social connections through which information is created, given value and exchanged is fundamental to an understanding of not only contemporary but also historical patterns of economic globalization. We focus on the networks of the capitalist elite running 12 major multinational enterprises, active across British imperial territories, between c .1900 and c .1930. An examination is made of the economic and spatial interlocks between firms created by board members who were multiple directors. Social underpinnings of multiple directorates are examined by exploring the common, overlapping social spheres within which individuals engaged. A clearer grasp of the ways in which corporate activity operated in the early 1900s can provide a better understanding of the social context of global economic operations.     

The Knorre astronomers' dynasty

We attempt to throw light upon the poorly known astronomical dynasty of Knorre and describe its contribution to astronomy. The founder of the dynasty, Ernst Christoph Friedrich Knorre (1759–1810), was born in Germany in 1759, and since 1802 he was a Professor of Mathematics at the Tartu University, and observer at its temporary observatory. He determined the first coordinates of Tartu by stellar observations. Karl Friedrich Knorre (1801–1883) was the first director of the Naval Observatory in Nikolaev since the age of 20, provided the Black Sea navy with accurate time and charts, trained mariners in astronomical navigation, and certified navigation equipment. He compiled star maps and catalogues, and determined positions of comets and planets. He also participated in Bessel's project of the Academic Star Charts, and was responsible for Hora 4, published by the Berlin Academy of Sciences. This sheet permitted to discover two minor planets, Astraea and Flora. Viktor Knorre (1840–1919) was born in Nikolaev. In 1862 he left for Berlin to study astronomy. After defending his thesis for a doctor's degree, he went to Pulkovo as an astronomical calculator in 1867. Since 1873 Viktor worked as an observer of the Berlin Observatory Fraunhofer refractor. His main research focussed on minor planets, comets and binary stars. He discovered the minor planets Koronis, Oenone, Hypatia and Penthesilea. Viktor Knorre also worked on improving astronomical instrumentation, e.g. the Knorre & Heele equatorial telescope mounting (© 2009 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

The development of the Schmidt telescope

Bernhard Schmidt (1879–1935) was born in Estonia. After a few years of studying engineering he ran an optical workshop in Mittweida, Saxonia, between 1901 and 1927. Astronomers appreciated the quality of his telescopes. Starting in 1925, on behalf of the Hamburg Observatory, he developed a short focal length optical system with a large field of view. For this purpose, Schmidt moved his workshop to the observatory. He succeeded in inventing the “Schmidt telescope” which allows the imaging of a large field of the sky without any distortions. Schmidt's first telescope (spherical mirror diameter 0.44 m, correction plate 0.36 m diameter, aperture ratio 1:1.75, and focal length 0.625 m) has been used since 1962 at the Boyden Observatory in Bloemfontein/South Africa. Apart from his 0.36m telescope, Schmidt produced a second larger one of 0.60m aperture. Shortly after Schmidt's death, the director of the observatory published details on the invention and production of the Schmidt telescope. After World War II, Schmidt telescopes have been widely used. The first large Schmidt telescope, the “Big Schmidt” (1.26 m), Mount Palomar, USA, was completed in 1948. The 0.80 m Schmidt telescope of Hamburg Observatory, planned since 1936, finished in 1954, is now on Calar Alto/Spain (© 2009 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Water scarcity problems in Israel

The demand for scarce fresh water requires Israel to cease squandering this limited resource on agriculture, at present consuming about 70% of the annual supply. Environmental pollution must cease as well, for untreated urban water effluent contaminates ground water. All Israel's 700 million cubic metres sewage water must be suitably purified to irrigate about one hundred thousand hectares. Climatically controlled greenhouses and advanced agricultural research will reduce the amount of water and land required for the cultivation of the fresh vegetables and fruit, and small proportion of the dry fodder needed for the country's consumption. Israeli agriculture's association with moral, ideological and social ideas obstructs meaningful reduction in the allocation of water to agriculture. The Zionist movement has always seen transforming land into a means of production as the index of its success. Failure in this would signify an inability to adapt to adverse environmental conditions and be a sweeping repudiation of Zionism. The protracted Israeli-Arab national conflict also affects water policy. Israeli Jewish society has always considered rural settlement, agricultural activity, as part of the substance of its national identity and power, bonding the people with the land and consolidating territorial sovereignty. Since the 1970s, capitalism, which has dominated Israeli ideology, has favoured the individual's interests over the community's. Thus agriculture is mobilized to accommodate the private struggle for the good of the farming sector against the needs of the national collective.     

The beginnings of decameter radio astronomy: pioneering works of Semen Ya. Braude and his followers in Ukraine

S.Ya. Braude (1911–2003) was the well‐known radio astronomer, one of the founders of low‐frequency astronomical research in the world, in particular in the former Soviet Union. He began to work in this field of science in 1957, in Kharkiv city (Ukraine), from the design and manufacturing small decameter interferometer ID‐1 and ID‐2. Since that time Braude and his team have developed more sophisticated radio decameter telescopes as UTR‐1 and UTR‐2 (the largest in the world till now) as well as the first decameter VLBI network URAN. They have obtained some important pioneering results about low‐frequency radio emission of objects in our Solar system, Galaxy and Metagalaxy by means of these telescopes. In this paper the key events of early history of decameter radio astronomy research in the former USSR are mentioned with emphasizing the role of S. Braude. For the period of 1957–1962, the quotations of Braude's Personal Diary (2003) are first laying open to the public. The most important results obtained by S.Ya. Braude and his followers as well as perspectives of decameter radio astronomy in Ukraine and in the world are highlighted briefly. (© 2007 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Possible portrait of Galileo Galilei as a young scientist

We describe here the possible discovery of a portrait of Galileo Galilei in his youth. The painting is not signed and the identification is mainly physiognomic. In fact, the face reveals clear resemblance to Domenico Tintoretto's portrait and to Giuseppe Calendi's engraving derived from a lost portrait made by Santi di Tito in 1601. Along with the portraits by Tintoretto, Furini, Leoni, Passignano, and Sustermans this could be another portrait of Galileo made al naturale, but, unlike the others, it depicts the scientist before he reached fame. Galileo looks rather young, at age of about 20–25 years. His eyes in the portrait are clear and the expression intense and appealing. From Galileo's correspondence we know of a portrait made by his friend Ludovico Cigoli. Rather interesting, though admittedly quite improbable, is the possibility of a self‐portrait whose existence is mentioned in the first biography of Galileo by Salusbury in 1664 (© 2011 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Venus 1882 and Jean‐Charles Houzeau

This paper focuses on one particular type of telescope – the heliometer – designed for solving one specific basic problem in astronomy: the scale factor of the solar system. One very special instrument of this type was the “heliometer with unequal focal lengths” designed by the Belgian astronomer Jean‐Charles Houzeau for the 1882 transit of Venus. We also draw attention to the most interesting personality of Houzeau, and to his social engagement that went much beyond his work as a scientist (© 2009 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)