This three-part study of one of Germany’s most important politicians of the early 20th century examines a biography in social context. It has been researched over a long period of time and the author was never satisfied with the third part. Part one explores the rise of Friedrich Ebert in German Social Democracy, the world’s largest pre-World War I social movement. His socialization in Imperial Germany, his more moderate ideological stance by the time he became a party secretary in 1905 and party co-leader in 1913 is traced in depth as he moved from agitator to organizer and part of a collegial leadership. Part two traces his shift in priorities from attaining socialism to establishing parliamentary government. He became by 1915/16 the decisive person in an altered Social Democracy that became ever more integrated in the German political system while still trying to reform it. In 1918/19 he headed the government during the revolutionary era at war’s end when he hindered more than aided transformation. His role remains a topic of division and debate among historians. Part three demonstrates how the national values of the war influenced his outlook and actions on behalf of the German state which he hoped to restore to great power status. By the time of his death he had moved to the political right as he associated with industrialists, militarists and state bureaucrats from the Imperial era and mostly lost contact to the working class from which he had emerged.

Throughout the Second Reich’s short life, military affairs were synonymous with those of the state. Indeed, it was the zeal and blood of Prussian soldiers that allowed the creation of a unified German empire. After solidifying itself as a major power, things grew more complicated as the Reich found itself increasingly surrounded by hostile rivals. To the west, French humiliation over their catastrophic defeat in 1870-71 continued to fester while, in the east, Russian sympathies for the new empire waned. The finalization of a Franco-Russian alliance in 1894 meant Germany faced formidable adversaries along her eastern and western borders. That unsettling realization dictated the empire’s military policy until its downfall in 1918. Drawing from the writings and speeches of Wilhelmine Germany’s military and political leaders, this work seeks to examine and analyze the Second Reich’s military policies and decision-making processes over the three decades preceding the First World War.

This dissertation argues that the interpretive framework from which Fontane's Effi Briest is commonly approached limits discussion to metropolitan core culture and fails to address Fontane's path-breaking accomplishment. After outlining limitations of some prominent approaches to Effi Briest in chapter one, my next four chapters explore alternative reading strategies that instead situate the novel in the imperial context of the new German state inflected by transnational relations and problematize the tendency to see Germany as a space territorially and culturally homogenized and stable. Chapter two reads the novel through Foucault's notion of heterotopia to demonstrate Fontane's heterotopic strategies as a counter-model to the monolithic mapping of novelistic space. In chapters three and four I use Bakhtin's chronotopic strategies to show how Fontane "fuses together" fictional time and space into a productive force for depicting society in motion and change. I demonstrate how this "spatial turn" breaks with the traditional time-paradigm and opens up space for polyphony and dialogism. Chapter five discusses Fontane's Wanderungen contrapuntally to draw attention to Fontane's counter-strategies, which break with the master narrative in favor of small-scale ones, to show their relevance for Effi Briest. The rest of my dissertation focuses on the novel's Eastern Pomeranian/Kessin-based chapters. Chapter six addresses the spatial arrangement of Hinterpommern from the viewpoint of the ruling elites. Chapter seven treats Kessin as a hybridized "third space" that both resists the dominant and represents an unstable and ambiguous alternative to paralyzing dichotomies of opposites. I also look into Hinterpommern as a contested space between Germans and Poles - and their competing claims over the Kasubians, inhabitants of the strategically important Baltic area. In chapter eight I show how the Polish margins impinge on Fontane's fictional representation of Prussia and are articulated in both the content and structure of Effi Briest. In chapter nine I discuss Fontane's representation of Polish/Slavic-hyphenated characters in terms of their different responses/resistance to anti-Slav/Polish prejudices and measures. In revealing the creative and transformative powers of margins this dissertation models alternative ways of approaching canonical writers and contributes to the transnationalization of German studies in particular and cultural studies in general.

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Die vorliegende kumulative Dissertation analysiert Determinanten und Konsequenzen der Berichterstattung von Unternehmen im deutschen Kaiserreich. Das erste Papier analysiert den Zusammenhang zwischen der freiwilligen Publizität und dem Produktmarktwettbewerb. Auf der Grundlage einer Stichprobe von 570 Unternehmensjahren lässt sich ein negativer Zusammenhang zwischen der freiwilligen Publizität und dem potentiellen Wettbewerb zeigen. Darüber hinaus finde ich einen negativen Zusammenhang zwischen der freiwilligen Publizität und der Branchenprofitabilität. Schließlich finde ich einen positiven Zusammenhang zwischen der freiwilligen Publizität und dem existierenden Wettbewerb. Dieser Zusammenhang ist jedoch nur für Branchenfolger statistisch signifikant. Im zweiten Papier analysiere ich den Einfluss von (überraschenden) Dividendenankündigungen auf die Berliner Börse im Jahr 1895. Auf der Grundlage einer Stichprobe von 166 Unternehmen finde ich positive (negative) kumulierte abnormale Renditen als Reaktion auf eine positive (negative) Dividendenüberraschung. Querschnittsanalysen zeigen, dass diese Effekte mit der Signaling Theorie vereinbar sind. Darüber hinaus lässt sich zeigen, dass der Handel auf dem Kapitalmarkt um die Dividendenankündigungen herum erhöht ist. Dies ist vereinbar mit der differentiellen Erwartungsrevision. Das dritte Papier analysiert schließlich den Zusammenhang zwischen der Zusammensetzung des Aufsichtsrats und dem bilanzpolitischen Verhalten von Unternehmen zu Beginn des 20. Jahrhunderts. Bei diesen Unternehmen lässt sich der von Burgstahler/Dichev (1997) dargestellte „earnings kink“ nachweisen. Darüber hinaus lässt sich zeigen, dass dieser „earnings kink“ nicht mehr präsent ist, sobald die Gewinne um Abschreibungen korrigiert werden. Es lässt sich allerdings nicht zeigen, dass die Präsenz von Bankdirektoren im Aufsichtsrat mit dem „earnings kink“ oder der Höhe der abnormalen Abschreibungen verbunden ist. / This cumulative Ph.D. thesis analyzes determinants and consequences of financial accounting practices in Imperial Germany. The first paper analyzes the relationship between product market competition and voluntary disclosure. Based on a balanced panel of 570 firm-years, I find a negative association between voluntary disclosure and potential competition. I also find a negative association between industry profitability and voluntary disclosure. Finally, I find a positive association between existing competition and voluntary disclosure for industry followers. The second paper analyzes share price and trading effects around dividend announcements of firms listed on the Berlin Stock Exchange in 1895. Based on a sample of 166 firms, I find a statistically and economically significant positive (negative) cumulative average abnormal return following a positive (negative) dividend surprise. Cross-sectional analyses show that these effects are consistent with the dividend signaling hypothesis. I furthermore find that trading is increased around the announcements. This is consistent with a differential belief revision among individual investors. The third paper analyzes the earnings of 50 public and 50 private German firms for the fiscal years 1903-1907. I find the earnings kinks reported by Burgstahler and Dichev (1997). I also find that these kinks disappear once I adjust earnings for depreciations. However, my analyses do not support a divergent probability to avoid small losses and earnings decreases when firms are monitored by bank directors. Based on a propensity score matching I do also not find systematic differences in discretionary depreciations between firms monitored by bank directors and firms without such bank attachments in general.

Diese Dissertation befasst sich mit europäischer und US-amerikanischer Konjunkturgeschichte und Marktintegration im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert. Zur Analyse von konjunkturellen Schwankungen stellt sie der weitverbreiteten Historischen Volkswirtschaftlichen Gesamtrechnung (VGR) die Methode dynamischer Faktoranalyse zur Seite, die dazu beiträgt, die begrenzten historischen Zeitreihen effizient zu nutzen. Die nationale und internationale Entwicklung von Weizenmärkten seit dem Ende der Napoleonischen Kriege wird mit einem multivariaten dynamischen Faktormodell untersucht. Spektralanalyse wird zur Berechnung frequenzspezifischer Kohärenz von historischen Börsenindizes und konkurrierenden Schätzungen des Nationalprodukts in Deutschland zwischen 1850 und 1913 herangezogen. Ein wichtiges Ergebnis ist, dass Finanzdaten die Datierung der Konjunktur im Deutschen Kaiserreich erleichtern, was auch durch die Ergebnisse der Faktoranalyse bestätigt wird. Der verwendete Aktienindex, einzelne reale Konjunkturindikatoren und der dynamische Faktor korrelieren eng miteinder. Die Bildung sektoraler Sub-Indizes zeigt, dass der Übergang von einer landwirtschaftlich zu einer industriell geprägten Volkswirtschaft vermutlich früher geschehen ist als Beschäftigungsanteile aus der Historischen VGR vermuten lassen. Die Untersuchung der U.S.-Konjunktur ergibt die Annahme zeitvariierender Strukturparameter eine Erhöhung der Konjunkturschwankungsbreite nach dem 2. Weltkrieg verglichen mit der Zeit vor dem 1. Weltkrieg. Für die Weizenmarktintegration in Europa zeigt sich, dass die Entwicklung vor der Mitte des 19. Jahrhunderts schneller voran ging als danach, was eine Neuinterpretation der Rolle von Technologien wie dem Metallrumpf und dem Dampfschiff sowie dem Eintritt Amerikas als Weizenproduzenten nahelegt. / This thesis addresses historical business cycles and market integration in Europe and America in the 19th and 20th centuries. For the analysis of historical business cycles, the widely used methodology of historical national accounting is complemented with a dynamic factor model that allows for using scarce historical data efficiently. In order to investigate how national and international markets developed since the early 1800s, a multivariate dynamic factor model is used. Spectral analysis helps in measuring frequency specific correlation between financial indicators and rivaling national income estimates for Germany between 1850 and 1913. One result is that the historical stock market index used helps to discriminate between competing estimates of German national income. A dynamic factor estimated from a broad time series data set confirms this result. Sub-indices for agriculture and industry suggest that the German economy industrialized earlier than evidence from national accounting shows. The finding for the U.S. business cycle is that relaxing the assumption of constant structural parameters yields higher postwar aggregate volatility relative to the period before World War I. Concerning market integration, it is found that European wheat markets integrated faster before mid-19th century than after. Thus, the impact of the metal hull and steam ship as well as the relevance of American wheat for the world wheat market have perhaps been overstated.

In der vorliegenden Arbeit wird die Bedeutung der Landschafts- und Marinemalerei für die nationale Einheit und bürgerliche Identifikation im Kaiserreich und in der Weimarer Republik beispielhaft am Werk des Berliner Secessionskünstlers Ulrich Hübner (1872-1932) untersucht. Zu Beginn wird die Rolle der Landschaft für die Konstitution von Staatswesen und nationaler Identität allgemein erläutert, um deutlich zu machen, vor welchem Hintergrund die Landschaftsmalerei Ulrich Hübners einen Beitrag zur bürgerlich-nationalen Identitätsfindung im (neugegründeten) Nationalstaat leisten konnte. Im Hauptteil werden dazu anhand Hübners biographischer Stationen unterschiedliche Gesichtspunkte, wie die pluralistischen Einflüsse auf Hübners Landschaftsmalerei, seine Rolle in der Berliner Secession, seine Positionierung auf dem Kunstmarkt, seine Rezeption durch die Kunstkritik und seine Funktion an der Akademie der Künste, untersucht. Hübners Konzentration auf Küstendarstellungen, Seestücke und Stadtansichten führte in Abgrenzung zur Marinemalerei zu dem neuen Typus der Stadt- und Wasserlandschaft, zwischen klassischer Veduten- und Landschaftsmalerei und impressionistischen Stimmungsbildern. Auf Grundlage des erstellten Werkverzeichnisses wird durch die Betrachtung Hübners Werks im Gesamtzusammenhang des Berliner Kunstgeschehens unter dem Aspekt des wirtschaftlichen und gesellschaftlichen Erfolges und der Entwicklung des privatwirtschaftlichen Kunstmarktes deutlich, wie ein Künstler in diesem System agierte. Hübners Erfolg mit dem neuen Typus der Stadtlandschaft und der Konzentration auf bestimmte Vertriebswege und erfolgreiche Motive steht exemplarisch für den deutschen Impressionismus in Zeiten des Stilpluralismus. Als Vertreter einer moderaten Moderne wurden seine Gemälde heimatlicher Landschaften Identifikationsbilder des aufgeschlossenen Bürgertums und somit eine Versicherung von Kontinuität in den politisch bewegten Zeiten vom Kaiserreich bis zum Ende der Weimarer Republik. / This doctoral thesis examines the significance of landscape and maritime painting for the national unity and civil identification in Imperial Germany and the Weimar Republic through the case study of the oeuvre of the Berlin Secession artist Ulrich Hübner (1872-1932). In the first instance, we will outline the effect that landscape painting in general had on the constitution of the political system and national identity in order to assess the extent of which Hübner’s landscape painting contributed towards the shaping of a civil-national identity in the newly founded nation state. To this effect we will then study key events in his biography, focusing on the following aspects: the pluralist influences that shape Hübner’s landscape painting, his role in the Berlin Secession, his place in the art market, art criticism’s response to his work and his position at the Berlin Academy of Arts. Hübner’s focus on coastal views, sea- and cityscapes, as opposed to maritime painting, lead to the new type of Urban Landscape and Waterscape which is situated between classical Veduta and landscape painting on one hand and impressionist “Stimmungsbilder” on the other. The catalogue raisonné will form the basis on which we examine his oeuvre in the context of the greater Berlin art scene with particular emphasis on his commercial and social success on one hand as well as seen within the more specific framework which is the development of the commercial art market on the other. The success Hübner had with his new type of Urban Landscape and his focus on specific commercial channels and successful subject matters is exemplary for the German Impressionism in times of stylistic pluralism. Representing a moderate Modernism, his paintings of “Heimat”-landscapes became symbols that the liberal bourgeoisie could identify with and thereby a guarantee of continuity during the politically agitated times from the beginning of the German Empire to the end of the Weimar Republic.