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This chapter introduced key problems related to rather understudied ties between radicals in their European, American, and thereby transatlantic contexts. It tries to highlight the issues individuals faced with regard to the genesis and the later use of existent networks of transnational radicalism. Furthermore, the introduction highlights the structure of the book that will in the first part focus on organizational ties of radical political parties as well as press networks that connected Europe with the Americas (ch. 2-5). The second part then discusses the roles of individuals who acted as mediators between the two continents in many different ways (ch. 6-10).

Rosa Luxemburg war eine der bedeutendsten Intellektuellen des »langen« 19. Jahrhunderts und ihr Wirken in der Politik sowie innerhalb der europäischen Arbeiterbewegung äußerst facettenreich. Sozialismus verstand sie – vor allem zum Unmut der Bolschewiki – als Einheit von politischen und sozialen Freiheiten. Bis heute ist sie deshalb eine Identifikationsfigur, ihre Schriften besitzen eine ungebrochene Aktualität. Luxemburgs vielgestaltiges Leben reichte von der Entstehung des Deutschen Kaiserreiches bis kurz nach dessen Ende (1871–1919) und wird im Jubiläumsjahr 2021 mit einer zweibändigen Ausgabe gewürdigt. Band 1 vermittelt einen Überblick über Biografisches und liefert eine Bestandsaufnahme ihres politischen Wirkens.

Im Jahr 2021 jährt sich Rosa Luxemburgs Geburtstag zum 150. Mal. Auch wenn sie im Zuge der Revolution von 1918/19 einen gewaltsamen Tod fand und in der Folge viel getan wurde, ihr Andenken zu schmälern, bleiben ihre Werke bis heute eine Inspiration für all diejenigen, die versuchen, eine neue, bessere und gerechtere Welt zu schaffen. Der Band versammelt Arbeiten von deutschsprachigen und internationalen Wissenschaftlerinnen und Wissenschaftlern, die sich aus unterschiedlichen Perspektiven und mit verschiedenen Fragestellungen dem Nachwirken Luxemburgs widmen. Sie unterstreichen in ihrer Gänze den bedeutenden Stellenwert, den Luxemburgs Gedanken bis heute besitzen.

The decline of the Occident is a semiotic motive and narrative that has been appearing in different forms since historians like Edward Gibbon were discussing the decline and fall of the Roman Empire. Philosopher Oswald Spengler in the early 1900s also almost prophetically declared the decline of the Occident (Untergang des Abendlandes). The present contribution shows how its narrative survived through time, used by Nazi propagandists like Joseph Goebbels, and the neo-right or alternative right movements, like PEGIDA or AfD in Germany and similar organizations in other European countries of the early twenty-first century alike. The present contribution will therefore trace a semiotic strategy to declare the menace of migration, other religions, and multi-culturalism in general through the centuries. It is an attempt to highlight some of the traditional lines for dangerous narratives that obviously gain ground again in contemporary Europe and stimulate nationalism and the fear for the decline of the Occident.

This chapter deals with the repatriation of Japanese prisoners of war taken by the Soviet Union and the discussions about their fate in the Allied Council for Japan. General Douglas MacArthur had initially planned to keep his occupation of Japan a local issue limited to the national level, but the early Cold War and its diplomacy turned him and the Japanese POWs into transnational actors in the broader East Asian and global context. The role of POWs in Japanese society was also disputed, especially since they were regarded as a possible fifth column for the communist menace in the region. These national and transnational aspects of the history of Japanese POWs who returned from the Soviet Union to MacArthur’s Japan have not received enough scholarly attention.

Friedrich Engels was one of the most important German thinkers of the 19th century and his writings are still important today. Addressing the pressing issues of his time, the broadly interested scholar Engels would write about many different topics, and thereby not only pave the way for a science-based socialism, but also for further studies in sociology, history, and philosophy. To highlight the value and impact of Engels’ work as well as emphasize its relevance for major issues that will determine the 21st century, the present anthology assembles scholars from different countries and research fields to discuss how to read and gain insights from reading his works in our time. It also attempts to stimulate further research about Engels, who 200 years after his birth deserves to be fully brought out of the shadow of his friend and colleague Karl Marx.

In Japan, communism in general and the Japanese Communist Party in particular were often considered to be a menace for the integrity of the state. Consequently, communists, who were in addition considered to act on behalf of orders from Moscow and the Communist International, were persecuted by the state, especially in times of war. The present chapter will reconstruct and describe the history of this persecution while highlighting its continuities and discontinuities from the end of the Sino-Japanese War in 1895 until the US occupation period in the 1940s and early 1950s.

Many anarchists had believed in the Russian Revolution, but the realities of Bolshevist rule would bitterly frustrate them. The German anarchist Augustin Souchy (1892–1984), retrospectively evaluat...

This study explores the motivational reasons for and against adopting curated retailing in fashion and apparel, which little extant research addresses. In curated fashion retailing, stylists create personalized outfits to assist consumers with their shopping. Because consumers vary in their demands, retailers must understand the different factors influencing individual adoption decisions. For this purpose, we conducted 54 semi-structured interviews with consumers and non-consumers of curated fashion as well as stylists. The study enhances knowledge of online shopping motivation in consulting-intensive retail sectors and provides further evidence of the influence of contextual factors on shopping motivations. Most notably, we identify unique factors of customized solutions, a characteristic feature of curated fashion retailing. From a managerial standpoint, our findings provide retailers a lens through which they can better target marketing activities and improve sales training.