Eckhard Bernstein – författare

After more than a decade of reunification, it is time for a fresh update on the ever-important nation of Germany. Bernstein, a German native, judiciously surveys the German way of life in an historical context. The information on the former East Germany brings their integration and struggles into a well-rounded portrait. Highlights of the narrative chapters also include discussion of the immigrant population and its effects on the national image, little-known customs for students, the shifting roles of women, and, of course, the magnificent cultural achievements of Germans past and present.Students studying German and European History, as well as tourists and Europhiles, will find this the best one-stop resource to understand the new Germany. Photos, a chronology, and a glossary complement the narrative.

Imago Triumphalis: The Function and Significance of Triumphal Imagery for Renaissance Rulers examines how independent rulers in fifteenth-century Italy used the motif of the Roman triumph for self-aggrandizement and personal expression. Triumphal imagery, replete with connotations of victory and splendor, was recognized during the Renaissance as a reflection of the glory of classical antiquity. Its appeal as a powerful visual bearer of meaning is evidenced by its appearance as a dominant theme in literature, architecture, and art. Rulers such as Alfonso of Aragon, Federico da Montefeltro, Sigismondo Malatesta, and Borso d’Este chose to incorporate the triumphal motif in major artistic commissions in which they were represented. They recognized that the image of the triumph could retain its classical associations while functioning as a highly personalized commentary.

Natural Law, Constitutionalism, Reason of State, and War: Counter-Reformation Spanish Political Thought (Volumes I and II) aims at understanding how Spanish thinkers in the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries approached the emerging institution of the state. Both volumes are divided evenly into four distinct but related parts that cover the Spaniards’ central concerns. In the first part, a fundamental question is asked: Is the state a natural institution? In the second, the theme is determining the best form of government. The third part is concerned with the imperative need to define the ethical boundaries beyond which the state must not trespass. Finally, the fourth part examines the question of war as an instrument of policy.

Thomas Mann nannte den Thüringer Humanisten und Theologen Johannes Crotus Rubianus (1480 bis etwa 1540) einen Mann "von der gebildetesten Friedensliebe". Trotzdem geriet Crotus immer wieder in die geistigen und religiösen Auseinandersetzungen der Zeit. So ergriff er im sogenannten "Reuchlin-Streit" mit seiner genialen Satire der "Dunkelmännerbriefe" Partei für den umkämpften Hebraisten Johannes Reuchlin. 1521 empfing er, der leidenschaftliche Anhänger Martin Luthers, als Rektor der Erfurter Universität den damals bereits gebannten Reformator. In der zweiten Hälfte der zwanziger Jahre diente er in wichtiger Funktion dem preußischen Herzog Albrecht, der das ehemalige Deutschordensgebiet in einen Staat lutherischer Prägung umgewandelt hatte. Desillusioniert von der Entwicklung jedoch, die die lutherische Reformation genommen hatte, kehrte er 1530 zum alten Glauben zurück und wurde Rat und Kanoniker in dem vom Mainzer Erzbischof gegründeten Neuen Stift zu Halle. Von den Lutheranern wurde er als "Dr. Kröte, des Kardinals Tellerlecker" geschmäht.Eckard Bernstein hat die zeitgenössischen Briefe von und an Crotus sowie zahlreiche andere Dokumente aus dieser an religiösen Umbrüchen und Verwerfungen reichen Zeit ausgewertet. Ihm gelingt so die erste fundierte, den zeitlichen Kontext berücksichtigende Biografie des genialen Thüringer Satirikers hochgebildeten Humanisten und Theologen Johannes Crotus Rubianus.

The highly condensed and often coded philosophical messages of some of Silesius' epigrams are translated into English and reinterpreted in a way that they reveal their universality and relevance to modern times. The «Word» is a recurring topic in the Cherubinischer Wandersmann. The «Word» (Logos) is closely related to the idea of creation. In Angelus Silesius, creation, both divine and human, is a central issue. The topic of creation is of keen interest to the contemporary reader as well, for it ties in with current theories of mind-matter connections of both post-Einsteinian physicists and contemporary psychoanalysis. Thus the Silesian «Angel» of seventeenth-century Germany has much to say to the modern reader in all places.