Playing not only creates joy, but also allows a different view of the world as well as new insights. Therefore, it is a stroke of luck when considered as a holistic didactic method. In his interview with the psychiatrist Ekkehardt Kumbier, the philosopher Dr. Christian Klager develops a theory of playing and considers man as a playing being.

Dr. Ekkehardt Kumbier is private lecturer of psychiatry and psychiatry history at the clinic and polyclinic for psychiatry and psychotherapy.

Dr. Christian Klager (Institute of Philosophy), author of the book: Play as access to the world: philosophical dimensions of play in methodological terms, Weinheim 2016.

Nowadays, there is nothing unusual about women being ambassadors or ministers of foreign affairs. But formerly, as princesses, queen regents, court ladies, mistresses, and spouses of ambassadors, they exercised considerable influence in diplomatic relations due to their gender. In an interview with political scientist Nikolaus Werz, the historian Hillard von Thiessen discusses the "gender of diplomacy".

How can German readers get an easier access to foreign-language poetry, in translation or in a bilingual edition? Prof. Dr. Rafael Arnold (Institute of Romance Studies), editor and translator of the Portuguese writer Luís de Camões, discussed with Prof. Dr. Christiane Reitz (Latin Studies, Heinrich Schliemann Institute for Ancient Studies) risks and the side effects of bilingual editions.

The cabarets in the GDR were subject to numerous state restrictions and censorship interventions. Nevertheless, they were among the few places where public criticism of the existing conditions could be practiced and experienced. The study "Controlled freedom: the cabaret in the GDR between the Ministry for State Security and the SED party " by the Rostock historian Dr. Christopher Dietrich, for the first time, addresses the entire spectrum of the political satirical cabaret in the GDR. Instead of a fixed system of political control, a complex and dynamic interrelationship is revealed between artists, cultural policy and the Ministry of State Security.

In the context of the joint event "Talking about knowledge" of the Department "Knowledge - Culture - Transformation" and the bookstore Hugendubel, Mr. Dietrich will present his book on January 14, 2016, and will answer the questions of Prof. Dr. Franz-Josef Holznagel (Institute of German Studies) The book is launched as part of the new series of publications of the research and documentation center of the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern on the history of the dictatorships in Germany under the title "Dictatorship and Democracy in the 20th Century". The editors of the series - Prof. Dr. Stefan Creuzberger and Dr. Fred Mrotzek - will also introduce the series and explain the concept behind it.

The next event of the "Talking about knowledge" series will take place on Tuesday, December 8, 2015 in the winter term 2015/16. In the bookstore Hugendubel (Kröpeliner Str. 41), Prof. Dr. Stefanie Arend (Institute of German Studies) and Prof. Dr. Albrecht Buschmann (Institute for Romance Studies) will discuss the question "Why rhetoric?". For over 2000 years, great speeches and arguments have been taught as indispensable. However, rhetoric has always been criticized as a guide to seduction. The question remains: Why is rhetoric fascinating and provoking to this day? The discussion is based on the book "Introduction to Rhetoric and Poetics" (Darmstadt 2012) by Ms. Arend.

On Tuesday, June 30, 2015, the next event of the "Talking about Knowledge" series in the summer term 2015 will take place. In the bookstore Hugendubel (Kröpeliner Str. 41), Prof. Dr. Christiane Reitz and the translator Dr. Klaus Binder will speak about "Lucrez - The Nature of Things - or: Why an old text is so modern". Lukrez's The Nature of Things - a text over 2000 years old whose beauty seduces us to see the world completely new: with all our senses. And this is highly up to date, because it gives us an impression of what went wrong in the project of modernity. In a conversation with Prof. Dr. Christiane Reitz, the Lukrez translator Dr. Klaus Binder explains the ideas behind his prose translation, which this spring became a surprising success.

On Tuesday, May 05th, the first event of the series "Talking about knowledge" will take place in the summer semester 2015. In the bookstore Hugendubel (Kröpeliner Str. 41), Prof. Dr. Stephanie Wodianka addresses the questions of Prof. Dr. Stefan Creuzberger on the topic "Myths today: god mountains of modernity?". On the basis of "Metzler's encyclopedia of modern myths", published in 2014, the discussion will reflect how everything can become a myth in the modern age, but ultimately does not turn into one, how people, characters, events, places and concepts form parts of a new mythology. What does the mythical in modernity has in common with ancient myths and how can its lasting vitality be explained?

The bible translation of Martin Luther is one of the most important individual elements of German language and culture. In this translation, Luther has implemented the basic principle of the Reformation, i.e., that all believers should have access to the Bible in their mother tongue. In an effort to make the biblical message comprehensible in the readers' world, he has found a form of language that was pioneering in the development of the High German. In doing so, as he himself wrote, he had "looked at how real people talk", but at the same time created words for the Germans, which we still use today. For the 500th Reformation Anniversary in 2017, a further revision of the Lutheran Bible is prepared, where Prof. Dr. Martin Rösel from the Faculty of Theology is majorly involved. Together with Prof. Dr. Ursula Götz from the Institute of German Studies he will give an insight into the complex project and present some of the changes that will be made to Luther's Bible in the future.

On December 2nd, 8pm, Prof. Dr. Elizabeth Prommer (Institute for Media Research) and Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Bernard (Heinrich Schliemann Institute for Classical and Ancient Studies) discuss the "giggling from the off" - i.e. address questions of production and reception of comedy and humor on television. On the basis of the book "Television Taste, Lifestyle and Comedy" (Prommer, Elizabeth: Television Taste, Lifestyle and Comedy. An analysis on theoretical action, Constance 2012 (everyday life, media and culture 12)) the talk is about what is a comic effect to the TV audience, and how to reliably produce a 'funny' TV program and how its production and reception can be scientifically analysed.

Edward Snowden has shown to the world that many surveillance procedures for secret services are not only technically conceivable, but are actually used on a large scale every day. The discussion on surveillance has thus entered a new phase and is addressing the following questions: How much surveillance do we consider necessary and justifiable?

How can privacy and dignity be protected? Which social institutions should and can answer such questions, set limits and ensure their compliance? The panel discussion is part of the 4th Interdisciplinary Summer Academy of Rostock (ISAR) of the University of Rostock, where a group of international students, together with Rostock lecturers, discuss the topic of "Surveillance and society" from a scientific perspective for two weeks.

Participants in the panel discussion:
Prof. Clemens H. Cap (Institute of Computer Science)
Robert Brumme, M.A. (Institute of Sociology and Demography)
Reinhard Dankert (State Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern)
Dr. Uwe Hornauer (Director of the Medienanstalt Mecklenburg-Vorpommern)
Moderation: Prof. Albrecht Buschmann (Institute of Romance Studies)

In times of PISA, "Education" is above all a measurable quantity for learning material, which schools or universities can fill into their clientele. In this context, education means, above all, self-education and the most harmonious development possible for the entire personality. On June 3rd, 2014, the philosopher Prof. Dr. Heiner Hastedt, publisher of the book "What is education?" (Reclam Publishing House), and the education scientist Prof. Hans-Jürgen von Wensierski discuss the up-to-dateness of a more comprehensive concept of education.

The first event of the series "Talking about knowledge" will take place on April 8th, in the summer semester 2014, with the title "Reconstruction of the national myth? A comparison between Germany, France and Ukraine".

Dr. Ludmila Lutz-Auras and Prof. Dr. Yves Bizeul, discuss nationalism and patriotism after 1954 at the Hugendubel university bookstore. The discussion refers to Prof. Dr. Yves Bizeul's publication in 2013, a collection of "The reconstruction of the national myth? A comparison between Germany, France and Ukraine".

Two bloody world wars, the terrible consequences of national socialism and fascism in the post-1945 world favoured a disenchantment and deconstruction of numerous mythical national narratives. Globalization has also placed pressure on the political and economic capacities of the nations. As a result of the imposition of the great political ideologies of the twentieth century, and even more clearly after the last financial and economic crisis, a revival of nationalism and patriotism, and thus also a partial renaissance of the old national narratives, can be observed - also in Western and Eastern Europe. In this process, the nation becomes the object of some fierce struggles for interpretative sovereignty.

On 15 October 2013, the series "Talking about knowledge" will be continued under the title "Risen from ruins ..."- Church building associations, manor associations and alternative living communities in MV: New spirit in old walls ". In the university bookstore Hugendubel, Kröpelinerstrasse 41, the event focuses on decayed or dilapidated churches, monasteries and manor houses, as well as abandoned farming cooperatives and abandoned villages in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. Since the turn of the century, an astonishingly lively scene has emerged in the federal state from alternative life communities, church building associations and manor associations. But have "ruins" created a new "spirit"? Have new cultural and religious senses "risen" from the ruins? The book "Religious hybrids" presents the first results of a research project of the same name, which will be discussed with the editors at the event.

Participants of the debate are Prof. Dr. Thomas Klie (Theology) and Wulf Schünemann, provost of the Evangelical Lutheran Provost's Church Rostock. The event will be moderated and initiated by Prof. Dr. Peter A. Berger (sociology). The two scientists are also project managers of "Religious hybrids".

www.inf.uni-rostock.de/wkt/aus-der-forschung/religionshybride/

The "Talking about knowledge" series dealt with the knowledge of translation on 19 August 2013.

Without translators, without translations the modern multilingualism of the world can not be mastered. But what happens exactly when a language is learned, practiced, and translated? What cultural and technical processes accompany and determine this activity, which has always been characterized by the exercise of power and the endowment of the world? The computer scientist Clemens Cap, the philologist Albrecht Buschmann and Marcos Mendonça, teacher at the Rostock Berlitz language school, were participants of this debate.

The event entitled " How translations change the reality. Culture and Technique of an Access to the World " took place during the International Summer Academy of Rostock (ISAR). The latter was embedded in the series "Finding your way in translations. Current Methods and Perspectives of Translation ", cf. also <link typo3 www.inf.uni-rostock.de wkt veranstaltungen0 summerschoolisar0 external-link internen>www.inf.uni-rostock.de/wkt/veranstaltungen0/summerschoolisar0/.

The series "Talking about knowledge" dealt with the traces of 600 years of the University of Rostock on July 9, 2013.

In a society obsessed by the present, historiography and its results do not seem to have any greater resonance to the public. On the other hand, books and television offer quite new and very popular forms of historical knowledge transfer. How do the Rostock science historians respond to this finding?

The work group "History of Rostock University and Science" has published a series of books in the last few years that address an audience that is also interested in the history of science and its institutions. The volume, which was published in 2012, deals with the University of Rostock in the period from 1933 to 1945, while another presents a guided tour of the Rostock University and science history.

How does the historical analysis of the knowledge of past times have to be prepared when current knowledge doubles at ever shorter intervals? Do we even need to forget to create space for new knowledge? These and other questions will be addressed by the Rostock chemistry historian Dr. Gisela Boeck in an interview with the medical historian Prof. Dr. Hans-Uwe Lammel.

Escape, expulsion, exile and immigration are the current key issues: the region where today's poverty traffickers from the global South are striving to reach the centers of the world economy, politically persecuted persons in the 20th century were fleeing the country. At that time, like nowadays, the societies that are the target of such refugees are resisting the new arrivals.

Max Aub (1900-1972), a Spanish writer with a German father and a French mother, had to flee from the national socialism of Europe in 1942 and exiled in Mexico since then. From there he wrote, as sophisticated as hardly any other, how this could happen: to make strangers out of fellow men.

Questions: Nikolaus Werz, Professor For Comparative Government. Answers: Albrecht Buschmann, Professor for Spanish and French Literature Science, author of the book "Max Aub and the Spanish Literature between Vanguard and Exile“ (Berlin 2012).