Drawing on in-depth interviews with Romanian workers posted in the German construction and meat-pro-cessing industries, with representatives of German unions and with migrant advisers, and on ethno-graphic work, this study examines precarity in posted employment. Firstly, the paper describes the precarious circumstances of Romanians posted in the construction and meat-industry sectors in Ger-many. Secondly, analysing the Romanians’ own perspectives, it shows that low wages in the country of origin, often associated with insecurity and poor working conditions, drive these workers to engage in posted work. Their lack of knowledge of the German language prevents them from finding and carrying out standard jobs in Germany and, thus, determines that they remain in posted employment. Finally, the paper argues that posted workers experience different layers of precarity in the country of destination. It shows that those under contract with various companies for short periods of time are more precarious than de facto posted workers and workers with long-term informal agreements with one single employer.
This study investigates the possible errors related to Mandarin tone perception and production by German speakers. In a preliminary test, 23 German listeners should identify the tones of 186 monosyllables. Results show that exposure to Mandarin Chinese can help to discriminate lexical tones as highly expected. In the main experiment, 17 German subjects were asked to take part in a perception and production test. Stimulus of perception involves 48 monosyllables uttered by a standard professional Chinese speaker; acoustic measures were conducted to analyze the production of 72 monosyllables for each subject. It is found that German speakers have much smaller f0 range than Chinese native speakers. Findings can provide implications for cross language studies and teaching practices.
The question of what is the difference between borrowing and code-switching has attracted the attention of scholars far and wide and gave at the same time rise to a plethora of publications in order to draw a boundary between these two terms. In the most recent of these publications (Grosjean 1982, Poplack & Meechan 1995 & 1998; to name but a few), it has been often argued that borrowings are donor-language items that are integrated in the grammar of the recipient language at a community level, while code-switches take place at individual level and they retain the grammar of the language from which they derive. However, the current political and economic uncertainties in various regions of the world have been found to cause mass refugee movements to conflict-free places, where contact between newcomers and locals usually lead to some kind of linguistic interinfluencing. The current study discusses the contactinduced German-origin lone lexical items used by Iraqi-Arabic-speaking refugees in Germany. It is the aim of this study to show whether or not these lexical items can be considered as code-switches or established borrowings. The data I am analyzing come from spontaneous and elicited conversations of the first and second wave of Iraqi- Arabic-speaking refugees and asylum seekers to Germany as well as from online- and paper-pencil-questionnaires.
The aim of this study is to analyse the geopolitical position of independent Poland after World War I and the state of her relations with neighbour states, and the policy of building alliances with France and Romania. In view of border conflicts with Lithuania and Czechoslovakia as well as the constant German and Soviet threat, the reborn Polish state was forced to seek for allies in the West. The alliances with France and Romania could not however reduce the danger for Poland emerging from Soviet-German cooperation basing on the treaty of Rapallo from 1922. Also the treaty of Locarno from 1925 in which Polish borders were left without guarantee was seen as a failure of Polish diplomacy. The inconvenient geopolitical position of Poland, and the aggressive policy of the Third Reich and the Soviet Union resulted in the Hitler-Stalin Pact from 23rd of August 1939 and the partition of Poland.
A microfauna of small shelly fossils (SSF) is reported here for the first time from middle Cambrian (Series 3, Stage 5) subsurface strata of the Torgau-Doberlug Syncline (TDS), Central Germany. Considering that this microfauna is strongly limited and poorly preserved the material is quite abundant and diverse. The assemblage consists of molluscs (pelagiellids, bivalves), coeloscleritophorans (chancelloriids, halkieriids), poriferids, protoconodonts, cambroclaves, hyoliths, brachiopods, and disarticulated echinoderm remains. Additionally, a probable pterobranch hemichordate is noted. The assemblage is dominated by epifaunal suspension feeders from mid- to outer shelf depositional settings. Stratigraphically it represents (together with rare trilobites) the oldest middle Cambrian (Series 3, Stage 5) fauna known from Central Germany and the entire Saxothuringian Zone. Regardless the taphonomic problems related to the SSF occurrence, close palaeobiogeographic relations are indicated with the Mediterranean shelf of West Gondwana (especially with the areas of southwestern Europe and Morocco). The reported microfauna coupled with recent trilobite and palynomorph research supports assumptions that the Cambrian succession in the TDS is by far more complete than hitherto suggested, emphasizing its importance as a region yielding Cambrian rocks in Central Europe.
Ármin(ius) Vámbéry and the problem of antisemitism. In his article the author deals with the problem of antisemitism Á. Vámbéry was confronted with. The author has narrow his survey to some topoi and their reflections in contemporary German-speaking newspapers as well as statements of German-speaking academics concerning his “Jewishness”.
Based on the reinterpretation of gravimetric, magnetic, seismic and magnetotelluric studies, new features of the sub-Permian basement in the area between the Dolsk Fault and the Middle Odra Fault, SW Poland, are identified. Among numerous faults and lineaments indicated in the article, those limiting both the Wolsztyn–Pogorzela High and a positive anomaly in the Lower Silesian Basin, as well as the faults in the vicinity of the Odra River are particularly prominent. N-S oriented structural elements are also visible in the gravity image. One of them separates the Pogorzela High from the Wolsztyn High. In light of the obtained results, according to refraction seismic surveys, the Polish equivalent to the Mid-German Crystalline Rise is located farther north from commonly accepted position within the Middle Odra Metamorphic Complex. The study results, supported by data from the neighboring area of Germany, may be important for further prospecting for sediment-hosted Cu and other metal deposits. The reprocessing of archival geophysical data using method of effective reflection coefficients (ERC) enabled the creation of more accurate structural model of ore series within the area of the Nowa Sól deposit in SW Poland. In terms of mineral resource prospects, this creates the possibility of applying new results from the study area to the similar zones in the corresponding part of Germany, which is the area between the phyllite zone and the Harz Mountains hosting very diverse and rich mineralization.
Fennoscandinavian erratics found in the glacial deposits till and in the glaciofluvial sediments within the main limit of the Odra glacier lobe (NW Poland and NE Germany), have been examined in two fractions: of 4-10 mm and 2060 mm. The most numerous in the fraction of 4-10 mm are: crystalline rocks (Cr; 35-40%) originating in the Protero zoic Baltic Shield as well as Lower Palaeozoic limestones (LPL; 35-40%) - from the sedimentary sheet covering the Proterozoic Baltic Shield in the area of central Baltic Sea. Percentage of sandstones (S) amounts to 10-15%. The re maining rock types (several percent each) are: Palaeozoic shales (PS), the outcrops of which are localized in Scania (Skane) and on Bornholm, Cretaceous limestones (CL) and flintstones (F) originating from the western part of the southern Baltic Sea as well as quartz (Q), milk quartz (MQ) and isolated grains of Devonian dolomites (DD). From the analysis of indicator erratics, which was carried out in the 20-60 mm fraction, it appears that mainly the outcrops localized in Smaland (e.g. red and grey Viixjo granites, Paskallavik porphyries or Tessini and Kalmarsund sandstones) as well as in Scania (Hoor and Hardeberga sandstones) and Region Blekinge-Bornholm (e.g. Karlshamn and Halen granites as well as Nexo and Bavnodde sandstones) had been subjected to the glacial plucking. Theoretical boulder centres (TBC, German: TGZ das Theoretische Geschiebezentrum, Uittig 1958), which were calculated for 23 samples, are localized mostly in a small area in Smiiland, between 15°E-16°E and 56.5°N-58.5°N. Apart from indicator erratics the statistical ones are numerous, that are first of all grey and red Lower Palaeozoic limestones with their outcrops localized at the bottom of the central Baltic Sea. Taking into account the TBC values of indicator erratics as well as high percentage of statistical erratics it can be pronounced that the section of central and western Baltic Sea as well as the one of south-eastern Sweden had been subjected to the heaviest glacial plucking by that part of the Pleistocene ice-sheet which reached the studied area during the Pomeranian Phase.