Thesis--Munich. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 369-398).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2005. / Available online via OhioLINK's ETD Center; full text release delayed at author's request until 2010 Aug 16.

Thesis (doctoral)-Universität, Oldenburg, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 293-307) and index.

Thesis (doctoral)--Universität, Giessen, 2004.

The generic term national cinema implies that, viewed in their totality, the films of a country promote notions of collective and cultural identity. Most studies of post-war German cinema, however, focus exclusively on the former Federal Republic of Germany and concentrate on issues of authorship and the influence of literature on film rather than examining East and West German films in relation to the antagonistically opposed social systems in which they were produced. Thus, under the title The split screen: Cinema and national identity in a divided Germany (1979-89), a comparative analysis is undertaken of the political, economic and ideological determinants shaping East and West German feature films during the so-called established phase of the two states between 1979 and 1989. The overall framework of the study is a discussion of German film culture within the climate of post-war ideological conflict, covering three main objectives. The first part of the thesis provides a theoretical framework for comparing the two German film cultures on an abstract ideological level. The second part of the project analyses the extent to which, during the eighties, the political systems of the FRG and GDR shaped production, distribution and exhibition in order to establish a particular type of film culture. The breadth of reference thus provided is combined with greater analytic depth in the third part of the project, where the goal is to investigate in greater detail how political, economic and cultural debates surrounding the question of an East and West German identity were translated into filmic discourse. Based on such a relational perspective, the thesis comes to three major conclusions. First of all, there was a greater interaction or confrontation between the two German film cultures with regard to their dissemination of a distinct national identity than it has commonly been assumed. Secondly, there were recurring cycles of liberalism and orthodoxy in the film policies of the two states - which can be linked to varying degrees of internal stability and external confrontation. And thirdly, the 'officially approved' and promoted films constituted an artificially created high culture mainly produced for an international market and hardly ever finding wide-spread public support among the German audience. Thus, an all-German film culture between 1979 and 1989 can be perceived, metaphorically, as a 'split screen': an imaginary space which projects, through its polarised division, the search of the divided German nation for a specific national-historical identity during a period which later proved to be the concluding phase of the Cold War.

This thesis examines the emergence, and then development, of what I call 'monetary mythology', a historical narrative, or version of history, concerning the inter-war period of Germany. Following the Second World War, it was left to West German elites to establish a new federal central bank, the Deutsche Bundesbank. A three-way power struggle emerged between the existing West German central bank - the Bank deutscher Länder - the federal government and the various state governments, all vying to influence the institutions and structure of this new monetary authority. In justifying their arguments, West German elites used various lessons derived from the turbulent experiences of the inter-war era. Monetary mythology, for its part, emphasised the lessons of Germany's two inflations; and the Bank deutscher Länder, and its allies, explicitly tied these lessons to the need for an independent central bank. And though it was once challenged by other competing historical narratives in the period 1949-51, monetary mythology emerged by 1956 triumphant in the public sphere in terms of framing the parameters through which West Germans viewed their monetary history. The doctoral project at hand approaches economic history from a cultural angle. In doing so, it offers an alternative history of the Bundesbank, as well as an alternative explanation for the cultural preoccupation surrounding inflation in West Germany. The thesis explains this cultural preoccupation in institutional terms. In providing for a central bank that was independent of political instruction, the Bundesbank Law of 1957 allowed for conflicts between the federal government and central bank to emerge. These conflicts often became 'dramatised' in the public sphere, creating controversies surrounding the Bundesbank's independence, and, in turn, giving rise to circumstances in which the lessons of the two inflations continued to remain relevant, geared in support of central bank independence.

Seit Ende der sechziger Jahre wird mit unterschiedlicher Intensität auf die Innovationskrise und auf den Rückgang der Investitionstätigkeit deutscher Unternehmen hingewiesen. Zur Zeit wird dieses Thema vor allem im Zusammenhang mit der abnehmenden Wettbewerbsfähigkeit der deutschen Unternehmen im internationalen Vergleich wieder intensiv diskutiert. Mangelnde Innovationen und daraus resultierende Investitionslücken führen danach nicht nur zu einem verringerten Wirtschaftswachstum, sondern erschweren darüber hinaus auch den noch immer nicht vollständig bewältigten Strukturwandel. Dabei scheinen Innovationen und Investitionen auch für die neuen Bundesländer von besonderer Bedeutung zu sein, wenn sie ihren Anschluß an die internationale Wettbewerbssituation bewältigen wollen. Die vorliegende Untersuchung fragt auf der Basis des Risk-/Return- Paradoxon, ob sich das Innovationsverhalten in den neuen Bundesländern von dem in den alten Bundesländern unterscheidet.

Even after 10 years, countries under transition are still on their way to becoming developed, internationally competitive countries. At this stage it is helpful for business cooperation to know whether managers in countries undergoing transition are behaving like socialists or Western managers, or somewhere in between. Many joint ventures and other alliances between Western companies and companies in countries in transition are seeking to establish new markets with new products or new technologies (i.e., new processes). They are risky because the returns are uncertain. Understanding the risk attitudes of managers in countries in transition can explain different investment behavior and provide vital information for installing the right incentives. This study compares the risk attitudes of Chinese, eastern, and western German managers. Chinese managers'' risk attitudes seem to be more similar to the attitudes of western German managers than to those of their counterparts in eastern Germany. Some of the reasons and consequences are discussed in this article.

The reunification of West Germany and East Germany occurred in 1990 and had a great impact on the country. This essay investigates the impact that reunification had on the poverty structure of West Germany on the long-run. The results indicate that reunification had a negative impact on poverty since it increased the poverty rate by 4.88 percentage point in 2000 and by 6.16 percentage point in 2005. The structure of the poor population slightly changed the year following the reunification. Five years later, the structure of the poor population was similar to what it was before the reunification. However, during this period, the income transfer became more efficient since it decreased poverty by 6 percentage point to 16 percentage point more after reunification than it used to do before.

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