Data

Within the historiographical field of “political architecture”, ministerial office buildings have always been a somewhat marginal subject, undeservedly deemed of secondary importance in relation to more “representative” types of political buildings. Dwelling on the insights of the nineteenth-century essayist Bagehot and the office historians Duffy and Gardey, my contribution postulates that from the early twentieth century onward, ministerial office architecture has become an essential functional

This dissertation consists of two parts. In the first part, the focus lies on the study of trade and transport networks in the Gaulish and German provinces during the Roman Empire based on inscriptions. Different approaches are used to tackle this topic, e.g. networks between different people and families, organisations and cities. The results show that networks between merchants or merchant families likely existed with the aim of securing and improving one’s own position in the business world.

Vladimir Peninsky was a Russian refugee, spy, collaborator and composer in Luxembourg. His unknown and notable biography is the focus of the article.

Although the voice of migrants and minorities has increasingly being heard in migration research, studies of past narratives of migration remain comparatively rare. The reason for this lies in the fact that accessing historical records of migrants’ personal accounts is technically difficult. Voicing the experiences and ‘inner life’ of migrants, the immigrant press represents a suitable compromise.

Stefan Krebs uses the case of Germany to investigate maintenance and repair as a central part of automobility. The chapter will look at two sides of car repair as the need to maintain the mobility function and the practice of a hobbyist consumer activity that promised status, community and identity. It highlights four aspects that framed repair as a necessary part of car consumption: the (un-)reliability of automobile technology; the emergence of a car repair infrastructure; repair costs, which determined to a large extent whether one could afford to drive a car; and DIY repair practices.