German-Belorussian-Lithuanian relationships

Looking for ideas of scientific excursions? I recommend you to go to Lithuania. I took part on the excursion for German, Lithuanian and Belorussian students „Lithuania During a Period of The Two World Wars“ (05.10.2014 – 17.05.2014, Vilnius and Kaunas, Lithuania), organised in cooperation with the Vilnius University and European Humanities University.

Here you can  get to know our seminar's programme, so you can organise it for you and your group.

Urban Spaces of L'viv

On May 29-31, 2014 the 12th International Conference "Lviv: City – Society – Culture" took place at the Ivan Franko National University of Lviv and the Center for Urban History.

The conference, dedicated to Lviv’s urban space in both its physical and symbolic dimensions, is called "Urban Spaces of Lviv/Lwów/Lemberg: Imagination, Experiences, Practices."

More informations.

Memory places of Kraków

I helped to conduct the seminar about history of and memory places in Kraków (13-19 May 2013) of Prof. Jürgen Angelow and (this time) Prof. Zdzisław Noga. The participants were students of the Freie Universität Berlin und Pedagogical University in Krakow. The topics of speeches were related as always to historical places (monuments, public places, churches etc.).

The development of the seminar's concept and the seminar organistation were very important to me since my Ph.D is dedicated L'viv's remembrance from 1867 till 1939.

Polish Eastern Borderland in Węgliniec

Commemoration of an expulsion can help to overcome the trauma of expelled. This is the case with the Museum of the Polish Eastern Borderland in Węgliniec, which I visited.

The history of the Museum you can read and see here. It's of course a very emotional and not professional museum, but it's interesting to see and to listen what the whole equipment, documents and photos mean for the museum's founder Alfred Janicki.

Memory places and culture of remembrance in L'viv

Remembrance culture and memory places in L'viv are more and more interesting as a research topic.

To give the students the opportunity of researches on the topic Prof. Jürgen Angelow (University Potsdam/University of the Saarland) organised a seminar on this topic in L'viv 2007 and 2012.

The topics were divided into 6 sessions:

Monuments as a medium of remembrance

European Network Remembrance and Solidarity established in Warsaw supports since 2011 researches on genealogies of memory in Central and Eastern Europe.

It's first conference was dedicated to theories and methods. I gave there a paper on "Monuments and memory constructs in L'viv between 1867 and 1939". The programme of the conference you can download here.

Memory places of the regions

Comparisions of regionals researches and finding a broader geographical context can be also very inspiring.

So the conference „Regional memory places: Western Bohemia and Middle Germany - a comparision" (Regionale Erinnerungsorte: Westböhmen und Mitteldeutschland im europäischen Kontext) in November 2011 was for me a great possibility to see the bigger picture.

Fluctuating memory

Collective, individual, cultural or communicative memory are very well known in the science. But what is fluctuating or ambiguous memory?

I came to this conclusion in regard to my analyse of monuments in L'viv between 1867 and 1939. "Ambiguous memory" means that the memory on one person or event is differential for different society groups and even individuals.

Vienna - city as museum

In October 2006 I took part on a seminar Vienna - city as museum. Fin de Siecle of Vienna.

Is the church a work of art or not?

Escape, expulsion after the World War II and its commemoration

In September 2006 I took part on German-Polish seminar about escape, expulsion after the World War II and their commemoration. We were listening to memories of Sybiracy. We had a discussion with a member of German Association of German Displaced Persons (Bund der deutschen Vertriebenen). We've visited Cedynia to watch the monument of a battle by Cedynia and to discuss about myth of Piast dynasty.