Diese Arbeit befasst sich mit einem historischen Zeitraum des Wandels in China: der Qing-Dynastie (1644–1912). Dabei werden Prosawerke (xiaoshuo 小说) aus einer Zeit relativer Isolation mit denen aus einer Zeit des Semi-Kolonialismus in China verglichen, zeitlich getrennt durch das Trauma des 19. Jahrhunderts. Wie genau wurden Frauen in solchen Prosawerken repräsentiert und inwiefern spiegelten die Autoren dabei, bewusst oder unbewusst, die gesellschaftlichen Werte ihrer Zeit wider? Ist der Wandel von Tradition zu Moderne anhand der Figur der Frau zu spüren, noch vor dem radikalen Einschnitt der 4.-Mai-Bewegung? Um diese Fragen zu beantworten, werden in dieser Arbeit diverse Frauenfiguren und ihre Liebesbeziehungen aus vier ausgewählten populären Werken der frühen und späten Qing untersucht. Konkret handelt es sich dabei um die Charaktere Lianxiang 莲香 in Liaozhai zhiyi 聊斋志异, Wang Xifeng 王熙凤 in Honglou meng 红楼梦, Dihua 棣华 in Hen hai 恨海, sowie Fu Caiyun 傅彩云 in Niehai hua 孽海花. Einige dieser Figuren werden als vorbildliche Frauen präsentiert, andere hingegen als moralisch verwerfliche Widersacher, dabei rückt jedoch der zeitliche Kontext der Werke diese Charaktereigenschaften in ein neues Licht.

Price indices play a vital role in economic measurement as they reflect price levels and measure price fluctuations. Price level measures are used with macroeconomic indicators to express them in real terms. These measures are also used to index wages, rents, and pensions. Furthermore, they are used as a reference for monetary policy conducted by central banks. Therefore, the provision of accurate price indices is one of the most important goals of National Statistical Institutes (NSIs), and numerous studies have been devoted to this goal. This cumulative dissertation also contributes to this goal. It contains four chapters, each of which represents a separate research. The first two studies are devoted to the treatment of seasonal products by using different price index methods. The first research is co-authored with Ken van Loon. The third research is dedicated to finding the most accurate method to make price predictions for missing products. The fourth research is focused on the treatment of products by using different price index methods when products’ quality characteristics are available.

This article interprets Novalis' expression of spirit (Geist) across his oeuvre, ranging from his early work "On Inspiration" to his major novels "The Novices of Sais" and "Heinrich von Ofterdingen". His view of the world is based on the Christian dichotomy between "the spirit and the letter" (,,Geist und Buchstabe") and in his works he considers how we might once again achieve the spirit of nature through human written language. However, even the act of inspiration is for him not a total exchange with the spirit of nature, because it is also a moment of producing artwork, and therefore a moment of division between the human and nature. He therefore attempts to reproduce the ideal unity between nature and the human through the representation of atmosphere, which is composed of harmony between several voices in the world as well as various dimensions of times and spaces. This article interprets the above representation as a poetic experiment that seeks to express the spirit through an internally diverse written language, in other words, as an attempt to describe unity as a plurality.

Johannes Kepler's thinking represents a central turning point in the development of the modern understanding of atmosphere. Kepler takes up the ancient conception of the cosmos as a whole divided into living and animated spheres, but reshapes it using specifically modern scientific and epistemological approaches. This gives rise to a view of the Earth as an animated organism, which prefigures modern concepts of atmosphere against the background of a comprehensive vitality of nature. Furthermore, Kepler's embedding of his reflections in the context of astrological prognostics enriches the modern aesthetic discussion with a remarkable perspective: prognostic, i.e. temporal, perception of atmosphere.

The carbuncle as a Christological symbol of atmosphere in Nicholas of Cusa - with reference to the late antique and medieval gemstone allegory. In his De non aliud, Nicholas of Cusa applies the carbuncle as a Christological aenigma, which can be understood as an exemplary object of atmosphere due to its dual nature of light substance and mineral substance. The article will show that the meaning of the carbuncle image as the epistemological method is so closely linked to the character and form of thought in De non alud that an examination of the meaning of the carbuncle in its historical allegory contributes to the question of image theory in Cusanus. By that the question is answered to which extent this far-reaching meaning of the carbuncle can shed light on the anagogic dimension of the perception of atmosphere.