translation funding for the humanities and social sciences from ...

GBO
NONFICTION
RIGHTS
LIST
2013
FEATURING
GEISTESWISSENSCHAFTEN
INTERNATIONAL:
TRANSLATION FUNDING
FOR THE HUMANITIES
AND SOCIAL SCIENCES
FROM GERMANY

table of contents
art & literature
BACKLIST: In the Light of Darkness. On Proust by Anita Albus . . . . . . 4
history
In the Shadow of World War. The Ustaša’s Mass Violence
against Serbs, Jews, and Roma in Croatia, 1941–1945 by Alexander Korb . . . 5
The Warsaw Ghetto by Markus Roth & Andrea Löw . . . . . . . 5
Ideology and the Rationality of Domination:
Nazi Germanization Policies in Poland by Gerhard Wolf . . . . . . 7
BACKLIST: The price of freedom The history of Europe in Our Time by Andreas Wirschung . . 6
politics & philosophy
The Decline of Order: Hannah Arendt and the Paradoxes
of the Nation-State by Christian Volk . . . . . . . . 6
technology
The systemic picture. Iconicity as it relates to
computer-based simulation by Inge Hinterwalder . . . . . . . 4
2

GBO
NONFICTION RIGHTS LIST
The Humanities are fueled by a variety of intellectual and cultural impulses, even across national boundaries. Thus
“Geisteswissenschaften International” was started to assist inquisitive English-language publishers in their search for authors
and topics from Germany.
With the present rights list, the jury of “Geisteswissenschaften International” wants to draw your attention specifically
to some titles which may be of particular interest to the North American book market – because the authors have already
been established, the subject of the book is equally important on this side of the Atlantic – or simply because the books are
extraordinarily interesting.
Most of the titles proposed in the featured rights list have been awarded with the “Geisteswissenschaften
International” title some years ago but have not yet found a licensee. This is not because of the quality of the books, but is
due to the difficulties of conquering the English language market. Most books have been published by small and independent
German publishers. In Germany, these books are gems in the field of Humanities and Social Sciences, but regretfully the books
are largely unknown in North America. Read more below about the German Book Office New York, Geisteswissenschaften
International and other translations funding opportunities.
[Anke Simon, Geisteswissenschaften International]
GEISTESWISSENSCHAFTEN
INTERNATIONAL
Geisteswissenschaften International: Translation
Funding for Humanities and Social Sciences from
Germany, the German Publishers & Booksellers
Association (Börsenverein des Deutschen
Buchhandels), the Fritz Thyssen Foundation, the
VG Wort Society, and the German Foreign Office
are rewarding innovative academic works on
humanities and social sciences written in German
by providing funding for translation into English.
The aim is to support a wider international
dissemination of academic research results from
Germany and at the same time to uphold German
as an academic language and the language of first
publications of works on humanities and social sciences.
For more information, please contact:
Anke Simon
Geisteswissenschaften International
Phone: +49 (0) 69 1306-517
E-mail: simon@boev.de
GERMAN BOOK OFFICE NEW YORK
The German Book Office (GBO), a nonprofit initiative
of the Frankfurt Book Fair, serves as a bridge
between the North American and German publishing
industries. Its primary role is to establish contact
between members of these industries and to increase
the awareness of new German titles and authors in
both the North America book industry and among
the reading public. The GBO organizes literary events,
recommends German readers and translators to
American publishers, and provides information on
translation funding. For more information about
the GBO’s activities, visit www.newyork.gbo.org
TRANSLATION FUNDING
In addition to Geisteswissenschaften International,
Germany, Austria and Switzerland also offer seperate
translation funding.
For further information please contact
Riky Stock: stock@newyork.gbo.org.
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IN THE LIGHT OF DARKNESS
ON PROUST
backlist - art & literature
Anita Albus shows us things never before seen in Marcel Proust’s remembrance of things past; its great variety of layers of
meaning that lie within the work. Albus, a poet herself, understands Proust’s representention of the visibility of the invisible
amidst a forest of symbols, beneath a sky spangled with ideas.
ANITA ALBUS
Im Licht der Finsternis. Über Proust
S. Fischer Verlag GmbH, 224 pages
Rights Contact: Katrin Meerkamp
Katrin.meerkamp@fischerverlage.de
Anita Albus’ study sheds light on the significance of the religious in Proust’s main work À la recherche du temps perdu. In a
unique way, she brings together perspectives from natural science and the history of ideas, linking botanical, architectural,
historical art, philosophical, and historical religious knowledge. On the basis of numerous symbols within the text, Albus
breaks down to what extent Proust’s work can be understood as a religious work.
As well as its unique methodology and new findings, the study is also distinguished by the scholar and artist Anita Albus’
stylistic brilliance. Due to its linguistic elegance and 
close reading of Proust’s text, the study is of interest not only to an
academic readership, but also to lovers of Proust and literature in general. The colour illustrations clarify the argumentation
and render the work as an attractively designed book.
ANITA ALBUS IS A PAINTER AND WRITER, AND LIVES IN MU-
NICH AND BURGUNDY. HER MINUTELY DETAILED NATURE
STUDIES OF PLANTS, BIRDS AND BUTTERFLIES HAVE BEEN
WIDELY EXHIBITED. SHE HAS WRITTEN SHORT STORIES (IN-
CLUDING “LIEBESBANDE”), NOVELS (FARFALLONE) AND A
NUMBER OF VOLUMES OF ESSAYS ON ART HISTORY INCLUDING
“DIE KUNST DER KÜNSTE.” HER MOST RECENT PUBLICATION
WAS THE BOOK VON SELTENEN VÖGELN. SHE HAS RECEIVED
VARIOUS AWARDS FOR HER WIDE RANGE OF ARTISTIC WORK.
THE SYSTEMIC PICTURE
ICONICITY AS IT RELATES TO COMPUTER-BASED SIMULATION
What does it mean for researchers and artists to design on the basis of computer simulations?
technology
Inge Hinterwalder writes about the iconic aspects (acoustic as well as haptic) of interactive real-time simulations from
different disciplines. The simulation of complex imagery can be explained through several telescoped instances from
differentiating fields: the general systemic-cybernetic perceptions, the shaping of perceptions, the iconic nature of these
perceptions, and the inclusion of the audience.
INGE HINTERWALDER
Das systemische Bild. Ikonizität im Rahmen
computerbasierter
Wilhelm Fink GmbH & Co. Verlags-KG, 504
pages, 2010
Rights Contact: Dr. Alexandra Schmidt
E-Mail: schmidt@fink.de
Applications that allow interactions in real time are just a very small and specific segment of the computer-based production
of simulations. The specific idea is that the data produced with the simulation model has to be sensualized immediately
in order to grant a meaningful interaction with the users.
HINTERWALDER STUDIED ART HISTORY AT THE UNIVERSITY OF
INNSBRUCK. IN 2000, SHE CONDUCTED RESEARCH FOR THE
EXHIBITION ICONOCLASH AT THE CENTRE FOR ARTS AND MEDIA
TECHNOLOGY IN KARLSRUHE. SHE RECEIVED A SCHOLARSHIP
FROM HANS BELTING IN 2003 AND WROTE HER DISSERTA-
TION ON “THE SYSTEMIC PICTURE. ICONICITY AS IT RELATES
TO COMPUTER-BASED SIMULATION” AT THE UNIVERSITY OF
BASEL. SINCE 2008 SHE HAS BEEN A RESEARCH ASSISTANT AT
UNIVERSITY OF BASEL.
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IN THE SHADOW OF WORLD WAR
THE USTAŠA’S MASS VIOLENCE AGAINST SERBS, JEWS, AND
ROMA IN CROATIA, 1941–1945
history
ALEXANDER KORB
Im Schatten des Weltkriegs. Massengewalt der Ustaša
gegen Serben, Juden und Roma in Kroatien 1941–1945
Hamburger Edition, 510 pages, 2013
Rights Contact: Paula Bradish
Paula.Bradish@his-online.de
ALEXANDER KORB IS A HISTORIAN AND LECTURER IN MODERN
EUROPEAN HISTORY AT THE UNIVERSITY OF LEICESTER AND ACT-
ING DIRECTOR OF THE UNIVERSITY’S STANLEY BURTON CENTRE
FOR HOLOCAUST AND GENOCIDE STUDIES. HIS STUDY HAS WON
THE WIENER LIBRARY’S FRAENKEL PRIZE, THE HERBERT STEINER
PRIZE 2012, THE IRMA ROSENBERG AWARD, AND THE ANDREJ
MITROVIC PRIZE.
In World War II, Croatia was nominally an independent state, but was in fact divided into German and Italian occupation
zones, and was one of the most multi-ethnic regions in Hitler’s Europe. Ending this diversity was the goal of the
Croatian Ustaša, founded in 1929 as a militant, “völkisch-nationalistic” organization by Zagreb attorney Ante Paveli.
The civil war initiated by the Ustaša militias was intended to transform Croatia into an ethnically homogenous national
state. To date, the Ustaša have been generally perceived either as Hitler’s henchmen or as irrational, murderous
nationalists who were responsible for the deaths of half a million people.
Korb challenges both interpretations to explore how and why mass violence evolved in Croatia, when it accelerated,
and how it declined. An introductory chapter on the Ustaša, their ideology, plans, and relations with the Germans and
Italians is followed by in-depth analysis of violence as part of “ethnic homogenization,” massacres perpetrated as
part of civil war, and mass violence within camps.
Korb shows how the Ustaša skillfully played the Germans and Italians against each other and how civil war served
them as a means of promoting their own independence. Violence against Serbs, Jews, and Roma, he argues, were
closely intertwined; persecution of the Jews cannot be fully understood without consideration of the radicalization
of anti-Serbian policies. Moreover, the micro-regional context, local warlordism, geography, and factors such as crop
harvests played a significant role in determining the trajectory of violence. But as this prize-winning book also
reveals, the Ustaša were increasingly controlled by the dynamics of the violence they unleashed. The mass murder
of Serbs, Jews, and Roma were as much a result of the Ustaša’s loss of control in a disintegrating state as it was the
manifestation of a policy of ethnic purity.
THE WARSAW GHETTO
history
In the same way that Auschwitz represents the mass murder of European Jews, Warsaw represents the Ghetto of the
Holocaust. Here, about 500,000 people were penned in, more people than in any other ghetto in occupied Europe.
And here the persecuted Jews resisted against their German tormentors. The SS was not able to defeat the Jewish
rebellion for several weeks in the spring of 1943.
MARKUS ROTH & ANDREA LÖW
Das Warschauer Getto
Verlag C.H. Beck, 240 Pages, 2013
Rights Contact: Susanne Simor
susanne.simor@beck.de
Andrea Löw and Markus Roth describe the ghetto’s and the people’s history powerfully. They starved, got sick,
suffered, and were scared. But these people reacted very differently to the persecution and humiliation. Many
fought a heroic fight without weapons as well: against hunger and sickness, for the education of their children,
for a cultural life, and physical as well as psychological self-assertion. Their efforts to organize a life that included
culture and music, to help others, and to maintain love and friendship are the focus of this book. Those who were
persecuted are given a chance to speak for themselves through their diaries and memories. For the first time, the
reader can view a living picture of everyday life in a ghetto.
DR. MARKUS ROTH IS VICE-DIRECTOR AND THE CHAIR
OF HOLOCAUST LITERATURE AT THE UNIVERSITY OF
GIESSEN. DR. ANDREA LÖW IS RESEARCH ASSISTANT AT
THE INSTITUTE FOR CONTEMPORARY HISTORY IN MUNICH.
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politics & philosophy
THE DECLINE OF ORDER
HANNAH ARENDT AND THE PARADOXES OF THE NATION-STATE
Hannah Arendt’s political thinking is concerned with how to think during a crisis. Hardly any other work in the 20th
century has reasoned out the consequences of the breakdown of civilization with such intensity and consistency. Confronted
with a crisis, Arendt’s thinking does not pull back from politics. On the contrary: For her, the breakdown of the
political public was an important factor leading to the rise of the National Socialism party. Therefore Arendt turned
towards the question: What is politics? But not before dealing with the elements of total regiment.
CHRISTIAN VOLK
Die Ordnung der Freiheit. Recht und Politik im
Denken Hannah Arendts
Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG,
299 Pages, 2010
Rights Contact: Ellen Victoria Reinold
reinold@nomos.de
Today the dispute over her work won’t stop. It’s not just continuing, but also getting more intense, covering more and
more phenomena. Considering this, it is astonishing that one aspect was left so far behind: the question of character
and the significance of rights. This work draws on that point. The question of rights is a main question in the thinking of
Arendt. Right enables every kind of realization for cooperation.
CHRISTIAN VOLK IS ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF POLITICAL
THEORY AT UNIVERSITY OF TRIER. HIS MAIN RESEARCH
FIELDS ARE THE POLITICAL THINKING OF HANNAH ARENDT AS
WELL AS POLITICAL PROTEST, RESISTANCE, AND DEMOCRACY.
THE PRICE OF FREEDOM
THE HISTORY OF EUROPE IN OUR TIME
backlist - history
When the Berlin Wall fell in 1989 and the Soviet bloc began to crumble, the co-ordinates of world politics shifted. The
most palpable consequences, however, were felt in Europe. Andreas Wirsching identifies here the first patterns in our
most recent history and provides an important contribution to the understanding of current developments.
ANDREAS WIRSCHING
Der Preis der Freiheit. Geschichte Europas in
unserer Zeit
CH Beck Verlag, 489 Pages, 2012
Rights Contact: Susanne Simor
susanne.simor@beck.de
In the last twenty years, Europe has experienced massive growth in freedom – in politics, society, and economics.
In a certain sense the present crisis presents us with the bill for this development. The democratic transformation
of Eastern European nations has come at a price, as did the introduction of the Euro, which led to unprecedented
freedom in the flow of goods, services, and capital. The deregulation of financial markets has imposed costs for which
the continent will pay dearly. And will Europe, as a world power, be able to afford intervention on behalf of freedom
and human rights elsewhere in the world? Andreas Wirsching offers here an impressive synthesis of political, social,
and economic developments in Europe since 1989, making it the first history of a unified Europe.
ANDREAS WIRSCHING, BORN IN 1959, IS PROFESSOR
FOR MODERN AND CONTEMPORARY HISTORY AT LUDWIG
MAXIMILIAN UNIVERSITY IN MUNICH AND DIRECTOR
OF THE INSTITUTE FOR CONTEMPORARY HISTORY.
C.H. BECK PUBLISHED HIS DEUTSCHE GESCHICHTE IM
20. JAHRHUNDERT (GERMAN HISTORY IN THE 20TH
CENTURY) IN 2011.
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history
IDEOLOGY AND THE RATIONALITY OF DOMINATION:
NAZI GERMANIZATION POLICIES IN POLAND
Researchers who have studied Nazi policies in occupied Poland, especially in the western regions annexed by the Third
Reich, seem to agree in their findings: not only did the occupiers rule with extreme brutality, the SS succeeded in
implementing its radical program of installing a new “racial order.”
GERHARD WOLF
Ideologie und Herrschaftsrationalität.
Nationalsozialistische Germanisierungspolitik in Polen,
Hamburger Edition, 528 Pages, 2012
Rights Contact: Paula Bradish
Paula.Bradish@his-online.de
DR. GERHARD WOLF IS LECTURER IN GERMAN HISTORY AT
THE CENTRE FOR GERMAN-JEWISH STUDIES, UNIVERSITY OF
SUSSEX. HIS RESEARCH IN THE HISTORY OF NAZI GERMANY
FOCUSES ON OCCUPATION POLICIES IN EASTERN EUROPE,
POPULATION POLICIES, AND THE CAUSES OF RACISM AND
ANTI-SEMITISM.
Gerhard Wolf has taken an in-depth look at how the various institutions involved in the occupation in Poland—including
the SS, the civil administrations, and the Reich Ministry of the Interior—formulated programs and policies and how
these operated in practice. His findings reveal a more complex and, at times, astonishing reality, fraught with conflict
and dissent between the actors involved. The SS indeed insisted on allowing only a chosen few of the inhabitants of
these territories to be Germanized and based their selection primarily on “racial” criteria; local administrators opposed
this. A key motive was their intention of pacifying and integrating a large part of the Polish majority under Nazi
rule. Consequently, they applied broader cultural or political definitions of who was to be considered German.
Moreover, economic interests were of increasing importance in determining what policies were implemented for Poland
and its population. With the attack on the Soviet Union, it became clear that the war could only be won if the German
economy received a steady supply of laborers to replace the German men who were being drafted. Thus, rather
than deporting Poles to the East as originally planned, more and more people were sent westward to work in factories
and on farms within the “Altreich.”
Wolf demonstrates how racist ideology and the demands of attempting to establish a viable system of domination while
sustaining a war economy clashed and ultimately led to a surprising and hitherto barely recognized result. In practice,
the SS and its adherence to strict racial criteria when dealing with the population in the occupied territories more often
than not gave way to policies shaped by other Nazi authorities, who chose instead to adopt more flexible strategies.
Although neither the goal of persecuting and annihilating the Jewish population, nor the aim of extending German
domination to all of Europe was questioned, the ways in which these goals were to be reached diverged significantly.
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