Rezension: Kronstädter Beiträge zur germanistischen Forschung, Band 20: Gesehenes, Gehörtes, Erdachtes. Kulturelle, literarische und sprachliche Paradigmen und Strategien der (rumänien)deutschen Postmoderne. Aldus Verlag, Kronstadt:2020

The present paper reviews the articles published in the 20th volume of the Kronstädter Beiträge zur germanistischen Forschung, which focus on a variety of postmodern elements found within German culture, language, and literature. A special emphasis is set on the person and works of the German author living in Romania Joachim Wittstock, whom the given volume has been dedicated to, on the occasion of his 80th birthday.

Zu den Heiligennamen „Bartholomäus“ und „Johannes“ im Siebenbürgisch-Sächsischen, die auf biblische Heilige und deren Geburtstage zurückgehen

The article initially covers the historical information regarding two biblical saints „Saint Bartholomew“ and „John the Baptist“ and their birthdays. In vernacular documents from 1900 to 1980 inclusively, the Transylvanian-Saxon names „Bartholomew“ and „John“ were related to the respective saint. The vernacular documents show that their birthdays were playing a role in seasonal determination for peasant work as well as being used in descriptive country sayings, in idioms and in traditional customs. The case examples are taken from the Transylvanian-Saxon Dictionary, the North Transylvanian Dictionary, as well as relevant specialist and vernacular literature.

Deutsch als Fremdsprache in Rumänien am Beispiel der Polytechnischen Universität Temeswar

In the phenomenon of globalization, the foreign language skills are part of both scientific field and everyday life. Though the number of learners of German decreased in the last twenty years, German seems to be again in greater demand as a foreign language all over the world. In the Romanian universities, the study of the German language continues to arouse great interest in the recent years. The following article deals with the role that German language plays in our country, and it tries to find answers regarding the Banat region/area, by using the example of the Polytechnic University of Timișoara. Another topic that the author emphasizes is the contribution of German as a foreign language - lessons in promoting the German language and culture in the Banat region.

Einige Bemerkungen zu den produktivsten Wortbildungsstrategien in der deutschen Fachterminologie des Eisenbahnwesens unter der kontrastiven Berücksichtigung des Polnischen

This article is dedicated to present the most common word-formation strategies in German railway specialist terminology. The presentation of the most productive morphological nomination strategies in the analysed area is preceded by a short historical outline of the railway industry in Germany. The adumbration of the historical background and hints regarding the current EU environmental plans for railways are intended to expose the importance and relentless currency of the analysis undertaken here. The presented examples, which were extracted from the most extensive industry terminology database, RaiLLexic, have been correlated with their Polish equivalents. This contrastive procedure allows, going further, to draw conclusions about both language systems within which the professional terminology described here is constituted.

Ästhetische Darstellungsformen der kommunistischen Vergangenheit in Carmen Francesca Bancius Lebt Wohl, Ihr Genossen und Geliebten! (2018)

Carmen Francesca Bancius trilogy that includes the novels Vaterflucht (1998), Das Lied der traurigen Mutter (2007) und Lebt Wohl, Ihr Genossen und Geliebten! (2018) make from a cultural-historical perspective individual and collective memory processes in post-communist Romania visible. Her last work shows most clearly what shifts the culture of remembrance underwent in post-communist Romania, and how the tone of remembrance changed from a radical criticism of the system in the 1990s to a conciliatory narrative in the 2000s. Considering the dominant memory discourses in non-literary spaces, the present contribution analyses the aesthetic possibilities that Banciu explores in order to humanize the image of the unscrupulous communist official that dominated her narrative in Vaterflucht (1998), and Das Lied der traurigen Mutter (2007).

Interkultureller Dialog und deutsche Landeskunde in Temeswar

Here the German language acts as a bridge between Eastern and Western Europe playing an important role. It is exactly on the Banat with its multicultural tradition that many hopes are pinned. The introduction of the subject German Cultural Studies within the framework of the Communication Sciences at the “Polytechnic” University Timișoara is only a stepping stone, but in the given context this is however a sign that betokens our will to participate in the task of building the linguistic and cultural bridge. The present paper elaborates on starting points towards a cultural history of the Banat.

Ungarndeutsche Literatur als Möglichkeit ungarndeutscher Identitätsbildung

This paper examines meaning-making processes in the contemporary Hungarian German literature as processes of identity construction. I give a description of exemplary identity models provided by this literature and discuss, how the models have established themselves and what has led to their modification, destabilization or replacement. The research method implemented in the paper offers a systematic insight into the sociological formation principles of the models and also into their ideological determination, moreover, it allows the question to be asked, to what extent the models can contribute to orientation in their social and historic context.

In Zeiten von Corona. Sprache in der Krise

The article is dedicated to language in public space. The COVID-19 pandemic not only dominates the media, but is the subject of numerous linguistic comments and scientific articles discussing the linguistic consequences of the health crisis (the emergence of new meanings and words or the penetration of specialized terms in everyday language).

Die Rolle des Radiointerviews im Landeskundeunterricht Ein Mediascher in Paraguay

The tendency to apply media in regional studies for students of German as a foreign language (Deutsch als Fremdsprache, DaF) is no longer a novelty. Thus, we see media applied as such in multiple different forms, like videos, press releases, radio segments or online statements. This contribution is focused on the radio interview, as a constitutive part of the regional studies’ courses for DaF students of Germanistik in Romania. As a starting point serves the assumption, that the application of visual media can be enhanced through dialogue sequences, which further highlight the subject of the course. Through chosen interviews, that have been aired by the state channels, students can become familiar with such issues, that affect the German minority in Romania. The authenticity that is being sought for, will result from the primary situation of the interviewer and the interviewee communicating, as well as through the utilization of Rumäniendeutsch as the standard language of the German minority, living in Romania. Thus can cultural, social, historical and linguistic phenomena that are specific for the local German speaking population and that are (re)constructing the cultural inheritance of Germans in Romania, be regarded in greater detail.

Die Angst war „Ein Gefängnis ohne Mauern”1 Rezension zu: Spiridon-Șerbu, Claudia: Zensur in der rumäniendeutschen Literatur der 1970er und 1980er-Jahre. Wien: LIT Verlag 2018. ISBN 978-3-643-90998-5. Reihe: Osteuropa Bd. 12., 272 S.

The present article is an interpretation of Claudia Spiridon-Șerbu’s study on censorship in Romania during the last 30 years of communist rule. Drawing on unreleased documents from the CNSAS (National Council for the Study of the Securitate Archives) Archive dwelling on German ethnic authors from Romania, the author paints a vivid picture of the complex phenomenon of literary censorship. The study follows both the official censorship undertaken by the General Office for Press and Publishing and the unofficial prosecution of writers by Securitate agents and their collaborators.