This paper introduces a dynamic theory of ministerial appointments in coalition governments, arguing that party leaders reward members of parliament (MPs) who fulfilled their expected roles in the prior government–opposition conflict. Using all speeches from the German Bundestag of six decades (1961–2021), we estimate MPs’ expressed positions on the government–opposition conflict dimension and assess their effect on cabinet selection. Contrary to the expectation that party leaders prefer moderate ministers to foster cooperation, we find that more loyal MPs—strong government defenders or fierce critics—are more likely to be appointed. These findings highlight how past parliamentary behavior affects future cabinet formation and suggest that ministerial appointments are shaped by partisan loyalty and role fulfillment.

Some early modern Europeans believed that illness was caused by an act of harmful magic perpetrated against a sufferer by another person. This attribution of magical blame was not inevitable, however, although historians’ understanding of the social and emotional dynamics of the process by which illness might be linked to bewitchment remains patchy. This article deepens our understanding of this ‘witch-making’ process and how it was gendered through in-depth analysis of a seventeenth-century German sorcery trial involving two urban craftsmen. It explains how two men who had previously had a socially intimate relationship reached a point at which one began to suspect the other of bewitching him into ill-health. It also establishes when and why the moments of greatest social and emotional tension were reached between the men and their families. This article argues that the sickbed constituted a particularly important temporal stage and spatial context in this process. As a site of bodily suffering, caring expectations and practices, and intense emotions, it required visitors and caregivers to manage their interactions carefully to maintain peace between neighbours. In the trial examined here, those efforts failed.

This paper reviews a purposive sample of doctoral dissertations in second-language education, completed between 2019 and 2023 at universities in Germany. Among the 79 relevant dissertations found from this period, 18 thematic strands were identified, of which 7 were chosen as being particularly relevant for a more in-depth review: (1) evaluation of specific teaching approaches, (2) (partial) language skills, (3) individual variables, (4) special learner groups, (5) multilingualism pedagogies, (6) digital media, and (7) literature and film pedagogy. We identify relevant topics and relate these to trends in research methodology (qualitative/quantitative/mixed methods). We also discuss the depth and breadth of these dissertations and situate their scholarly contributions within German and international research on additional language education. A comparison with the three previous review articles reveals methodological developments and thematic shifts, highlighting both progress and persistent challenges in German-language doctoral research across nearly two decades of scholarship.

Party youth wings (PYWs) are often portrayed as marginal actors within political parties, yet we know little about how they themselves pursue policy-seeking strategies inside their mother parties. This article presents a qualitative case study of PYWs in Germany, examining how German PYWs advance policy-related positions within their parties and how their strategic repertoires are shaped by organisational conditions. It develops a conceptual framework for analysing PYW policy-seeking strategies centred on three party-organisational dimensions: formal organisation, mobilisation potential, and leadership. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with selected PYW leaders across Germany and an analysis of official documents, the study compares different PYWs within a single national party system to explore how formal and informal channels for articulating youth interests are combined. Rather than assessing the effectiveness of these strategies, the study highlights how distinct organisational constellations are associated with different modes of policy-seeking within parties. The findings suggest that mobilisation capacity and leadership-based informal access feature prominently in PYWs’ strategic self-understandings, often taking precedence over formal participatory rights. While empirically grounded in the German case, the article contributes to research on intra-party democracy, youth representation, and party change by clarifying how PYWs navigate opportunities and constraints within party structures.

Over the past decade, high rental prices have become an increasingly serious problem in major Western European cities. While political science research has started to explore the broader political consequences, the local effects on renters in particular remain understudied. Furthermore, little is known about the influence of additional local characteristics that potentially impact the political consequences of high rental prices. This study addresses these research gaps by examining how local rental prices affect renters’ satisfaction with the local public administration, using large-N geocoded survey data collected in forty neighborhoods across ten major German cities. Multilevel regression results reveal a negative relationship between high rental prices and satisfaction with the local public administration that is not offset by greater rental housing availability or the provision of public services. In practical terms, these findings highlight the far-reaching consequences of high rental prices for the political satisfaction of renters, underlining the need for policies that ensure affordable urban housing.

This study analyses the role of selected Catholic, Protestant, and Islamic faith-based organizations (FBOs) as political actors in the context of local refugee politics in Germany. We conducted 30 semi-structured interviews with leaders from local FBOs and examined the data via structured content analysis. The empirical material provided information on three aspects: the self-perceived role as political actors, contacts with political decision-makers, and the perception of the FBO’s means in and influence on (local) political decision-making. Most religious leaders do ascribe a political role to their activities in refugee aid. However, the goals and strategies of this role vary markedly, revealing patterns across the three religious groups. We argue that these differences can be interpreted against the background of the historically evolved role of different faiths in Germany. The study offers new insights into how FBOs engage in politics, advocating for their positions in local refugee and integration policies.

Crises intensify and affect the work of civil society organizations (CSOs). This paper looks at three moments of crises—austerity and budget cuts, right-wing surge, and the war in the Middle East—and analyzes their impact on CSOs working in the field of anti-discrimination and diversity promotion in Germany. Situating the study within debates on shrinking civic space and the concept of “post-migrant alliances,” the paper demonstrates that multiple crises create a spectrum and complexity of restrictions and reactions. Based on data on 74 CSOs from a longitudinal mixed-methods design carried out between 2020 and 2024, we show that the crises amplify each other. Restrictions are caused by both state- and non-state actors, occur directly as well as indirectly, and latently. The CSO responses range from paralysis to internal coping strategies and the formation of new alliances. The study contributes empirical evidence on shrinking and changing civic space in Western democratic countries. It offers insights into the contested character of post-migrant society, where actors in favor of a pluralist society face growing challenges in a situation where diversity is increasingly challenged.

Parliaments at all levels of government do not necessarily resemble the society they represent. Such parliaments are generally more masculine, less diverse in terms of ethnicity and region, and older than the population. Focusing on youth’s underrepresentation, we are interested in why young people do not get elected. Using the German local elections as a case and looking at a random sample of 100 German municipal elections comprising more than 6400 candidates, we find that youth’s underrepresentation stems to a large degree from their underrepresentation in the candidate pool. In addition, we also discover that youth face some disadvantages in the electoral process. However, these disadvantages are subtle, in that parties are less likely to put young candidates on the top and most electorally advantaged list positions. Voters, in turn, do not generally vote less for young candidates, but they vote less for them if youth occupy a top list position.

In federal systems where multiple orders of government share authority, do citizens care about which order makes a policy? To investigate whether citizens place importance on the order of government and whether if they do, this reflects principled preferences or implicit assumptions about policy performance, we conducted a vignette experiment in Germany. The design of the study disentangles the effects of policy adoption and financing from the expected effectiveness of a policy and its impact on regional differences. Our findings show that citizens are largely indifferent regarding the order of government that adopts a policy, but they show a modest preference for financing by the federal government. These results suggest that previously observed preferences for federal policy-making in other studies may reflect citizens’ implicit assumptions about policy performance rather than principled support for centralization.