There are surprisingly detailed similarities between Germany and the USA on their way towards the Second World War. In this paper, I have compared the nations' expansionist philosophies, their encounter with racism, and the internal conflicts between authoritarian leadership and democracy. I began with an overview of Manifest Destiny and the German myth of the East. Next, I summed up the deep changes that the First World War caused for both societies and how they went into the Great Depression. I examined the rise of scientific racism as part of the international eugenics movement and the emergence of populist leaders during the economic crisis. It became clear that neither expansionism nor racism were genuine German ideologies. In fact, the American Manifest Destiny served as a role-model for German plans in the East. Even the racist concepts of the Third Reich were strongly influenced by American scientists. The main difference seems to be the experience with the First World War and the diversity of American protest during the crisis.

Marie Ogden's Home of Truth colony—a religious community that was located in southern Utah during the 1930s and 40s—was part of a segment of the American religious landscape that has largely been overlooked. As such, her movement points to a significant gap in the historiography of American religion. In addition to documenting the history of this obscure community, I situate Marie Ogden as part of what I call the early new age of American religion, an underdeveloped part of the broader categories of metaphysical religion or Western esotericism. This thesis also points to several other overlooked figures from the same era, suggesting several avenues for further study.

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Diese Dissertation besteht aus vier eigenständigen Aufsätzen. Das erste Kapitel liefert eine Einleitung uns einen Literaturüberblick. Im zweiten Kapitel schätzen wir die Effekte eines geldpolitischen Schocks in einer Bayesianischen faktorerweiterten Vektorautoregression. Als ein Identifikationsschema schlagen wir theoretisch fundierte Vorzeichenrestriktionen vor, welche auf die angemessenen Impuls-Antwortfolgen auferlegt werden können. Der Vorteil der faktorbasierten Vorzeichenrestriktion liegt in der Möglichkeit sehr viele theoretische fundierte Restriktionen zu setzen um so exakter zu identifizieren. Im dritten Kapitel untersuchen wir die Rolle der Geldpolitik während der Weltwirtschaftskrise in den USA. Die besondere Rolle der Geldpolitik gilt seit Friedman and Schwartz [1963] als gängige Meinung. In diesem Papier versuchen wir die entscheidenden Dynamiken der Zwischenkriegszeit mit dem BFAVAR Modell abzubilden und die Effekte geldpolitischer Schocks zu analysieren. Weiterhin schauen wir uns die Effekte der systematischen Komponente der Geldpolitik an. Wir finden heraus, dass der Anteil der Geldpolitik insgesamt zwar präsent allerdings recht gemäßigt vorhanden. Im vierten Kapitel werden die makroökonomischen Dynamiken innerhalb des Euroraumes untersucht. Hierbei schlage ich einen neuen Ansatz vor um die vielen relevanten Interrelationen effizient und sparsam zu vereinbaren. Ein faktorbasiertes DSGE Modell wird gemeinsam mit einem dynamischen Faktormodell geschätzt. Hierbei wird explizit ökonomische Theorie zur Datenanalyse verwendet. Zur Identifikation makroökonomischer Schocks verwende ich sowohl Vorzeichenrestriktionen wie auch die DSGE Rotation. / This thesis consists of four self-contained chapters. The first chapter provides an introduction with a literature overview. In Chapter 2 we estimate the effects of monetary policy shocks in a Bayesian Factor- Augmented vector autoregression (BFAVAR). We propose to employ as an identification strategy sign restrictions on the impulse response function of pertinent variables according to conventional wisdom. The key strength of our factor based approach is that sign restrictions can be imposed on many variables in order to pin down the impact of monetary policy shocks. Thus an exact identification of shocks can be approximated and monitored. In chapter 3 the role of monetary policy during the interwar Great Depression is analyzed. The prominent role of monetary policy in the U.S. interwar depression has been conventional wisdom since Friedman and Schwartz [1963]. This paper attempts to capture the pertinent dynamics through a BFAVAR methodology of the previous chapter. We find the effects of monetary policy shocks and the systematic component to have been moderate. Our results caution against a predominantly monetary interpretation of the Great Depression. This final chapter 4 analyzes macroeconomic dynamics within the Euro area. To tackle the questions at hand I propose a novel approach to jointly estimate a factor-based DSGE model and a structural dynamic factor model that simultaneously captures the rich interrelations in a parsimonious way and explicitly involves economic theory in the estimation procedure. To identify shocks I employ both sign restrictions derived from the estimated DSGE model and the implied restrictions from the DSGE model rotation. I find a high degree of comovement across the member countries, homogeneity in the monetary transmission mechanism and heterogeneity in transmission of technology shocks. The suggested approach results in a factor generalization of the DSGE-VAR methodology of Del Negro and Schorfheide [2004].

This thesis focuses on the theme of the journey and the changes that occur in the socio-historical context of the Great Depression as well as in John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath. The thesis is an expository piece on road literature, its features and how the chosen novel has earned its rightful place in the American oeuvre, specifically that of road literature. The thesis is separated into two major parts. The former part provides the reader with a socio- historical context of the Great Depression as well as a background on the historical patterns of the 'journey' in America and how these two aspects are interrelated in the context of this thesis. The latter part constitutes the analysis of John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath by including the authorial relationship to the novel and the many aspects of the novel as studied through the scope of road literature. This part is further expanded by a close-up analysis of the changes in identity of characters in The Grapes of Wrath. The primary focus is on the notion of change and how it is connected to the notion of the road, including how the human being stands between these notions and is transformed in the process. Keywords: change, mobility, flight, escape, John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath, American Dream, hope, depression, 1930s, Great...

This diploma work is about the Great depression in 1930s and the World financial crisis. The aim of this work is to find both identical and different aspects which led to the crises and which could be observed in the course of the crises. Based on word description and analysis of macroeconomic indicators, in the diploma work is compared the pre-crisis situation and development in selected economies during the crises. Special attention is paid to the economic development in Czechoslovakia (Czech Republic).