Thorvald Stoltenberg Ambassador Chairman of the Editorial Advisory Board Most of us have been overwhelmed by the speed and extent of the changes that have been taking place in Europe since the late 1980s. Over the span of a few years, we have witnessed the collapse of the Soviet Union and the unification of Ger many. This process has had far-reaching implications for Northern Europe: the Baltic states have attained independence, and with the establishment of the Baltic Sea regional co-operation and the Barents co-operation, a new type of East-West relations has come into being. The process of change continues. Its latest manifestation is the agreement between Russia and NATO, and NATO and EU enlargement is expected to take place over the next few years. With such far-reaching transformations, we need to reflect on what is hap pening. We need a more coherent picture of the new situation in Northern Europe and of where we are heading. This Yearbook is an attempt to fulfil this need. I would like to thank the editors for taking this initiative, which has been long awaited by those of us who have been actively interested in the improved relations between the former East and the old West that have been made possible by the end of the Cold War - and particularly in the new opportunities for cross-border co-operation and integra tion in the North European and Baltic space.

In a systematic section, this volume introduces the design, technical, and planning fundamentals of building churches, synagogues, and mosques. In its project section, it also presents about seventy realized structures from the last three decades.

Across six generations and two hundred years, this book tells the story of a German- Jewish family who emigrated from Rawicz, Poland, first to Prussian Berlin, and finally to America. In Berlin they found success in politics, medical science, theatre, and aviation and considered themselves German patriots. With the catastrophe of the First World War and its aftermath, they suffered rejection, threats, and persecution as their fellow citizens became unhinged by Nazism, forcing Strassmanns into exile abroad where they again made their mark and rebuilt successful careers. This book is populated by extraordinary characters, such as Wolfgang, the convicted revolutionary of 1848 who nevertheless led urban reform; by Ernst, who directed the only liberal anti-Nazi resistance movement; and by Antonie, a celebrated actress and transatlantic sports pilot. Strassmann highlights both the large-scale and the very personal dramas of this period in world history. The book is enhanced by many photographs, offering a fascinating document of the fate of a remarkable family.

Mutual Perceptions and Images in Japanese-German Relations, 1860–2010 examines the mutual images formed between Japan and Germany from the mid-nineteenth to twenty-first centuries, and the influence of these images on the development of bilateral relations. Unlike earlier research on Japanese-German relations, which focused on the similarity of these countries’ historical trajectories, this publication presents a more nuanced picture. It relativizes perceptions of a special “spiritual relationship” between Japan and Germany as well as their commonalities of “national character” through an exploration of previously untapped historical visual and textual sources. With essays by sixteen leading scholars in the field, this collection is an invaluable contribution to the historiography of modern Japan and Germany, and to the field of international relations. Contributors are: Hans-Joachim Bieber, Fukuoka Mariko, Hakoishi Hiroshi, Iwasa Takurō, Katō Yōko, Kawakita Atsuko, Gerhard Krebs, Kudō Akira, Heinrich Menkhaus, Danny Orbach, Peter Pantzer, Sven Saaler, Satō Takumi, Volker Stanzel, Suzuki Naoko, Tajima Nobuo, Tano Daisuke, and Rolf-Harald Wippich.