Angelika Zanki

Recently, our project manager and facilitator, Angelika Zanki, participated in a project management training in Brussels, focusing on fundraising, budgeting, and reporting. The training emphasized international projects within the EU framework programs, similar to our own.

The 3-day training, held from November 4-6, 2024, featured presentations by representatives from the European Commission, experts from liaison offices, and academic centers. Participants also had the chance to network and exchange experiences. Angelika found the opportunity to meet key Polish stakeholders in Brussels particularly valuable, including Magdalena Kula, Research Attaché at the Permanent Representation of Poland, and Waldemar Dubaniowski, director of the NCBR Brussels office. Additionally, there was a session on the PM2 methodology, conducted by Marc Berghmans.

Angelika was thrilled to attend this event. As she regularly participates in various trainings to improve her competencies for the ERC StG grant, we encourage you to frequently visit our website and Facebook profile, which she manages.

The “V4 Training” was co-organized by the Polish Science Contact Agency “PolSCA,” the Czech Liaison Office for Education and Research in Brussels (CZELO), the National Office for Research, Development and Innovation in Hungary (NRDIO), and the Slovak Liaison Office for Research and Development in Brussels (SLORD).

Our team has been dedicated to conducting extensive field research in post-displacement regions over the past few months. Each team member has completed multiple research trips in order to gain a deeper understanding of the challenges and opportunities within these areas. Following each trip, we come together to collectively review, analyze, and share the insights gathered, which has been the primary focus of our most recent seminars.

The team has been actively engaged in fieldwork, delving into the complexities of displacement, memory, and the interwoven histories of people and places. Karin’s presence in Nové Město pod Smrkem allowed her to experience the lives of those living among formerly German belongings, tracing the fragmented histories of objects and uncovering mysteries that seem to lead nowhere – such as the mystery surrounding an old window or door in her photograph below.

Similarly, Michal’s exploration in Voerde, Germany, focused on the memories of German people displaced from Handlová, and the stories of those who returned to visit this place years later. His work shed light on how individuals perceive the region today, providing valuable insights into the enduring impact of displacement.

Magdalena’s attendance at the 25th anniversary of the Evangelical-Augsburg parish in Piła provided an opportunity to search for connections to the German Lutheran legacy in the region, further enriching our understanding of the enduring ties between communities.

Meanwhile, Karolina’s work not only involved gathering the narratives of resettlers but also using them as the foundation for a temporary exhibition at the Wałcz Land Museum, amplifying the voices of those whose stories might otherwise go unheard.

The team’s fieldwork continues to to bring unexpected stories to light, deepening our understanding of the intertwined relationships between places, objects, and people.

We want to congratulate Karolina on her recent book, “Ziemie. Historie odzyskiwania i utraty”, published by the Wydawnictwo RN in September. It is a book that zooms the Polish readership to the history of the Polish “Recovered Territories” and how it can be told. The publication is not the result of a grant, but it will certainly be a great source of information for readers interested in the history of the so-called Recovered Territories.

At the premiere, a special video episode of the podcast Radio Naukowe was broadcasted. We invite you to watch it, as some German ghosts are also mentioned!

You can watch mentioned episode here.

How do contemporary inhabitants of cities such as Wrocław treat the material remains of the German presence? This was one of the questions in Magdalena Skawińska’s audio nonfiction “Historia ze śmietnika” (“History from the garbage can”), and our PI, Karolina, was a guest at the audition hosted by Anna Dudzińska at the Polish Radio “Trójka”, focused on this issue precisely. Together, they discussed how the formerly German objects in Poland play various roles in today’s society. They also reflected on how these objects also hold personal and sentimental value for individuals and families in the “Recovered Territories” . The discussion shed light on the significance of these everyday items and the stories they hold, providing a deeper understanding of their impact on our lives. 

More information you can find here.

In the latest issue of the Nationalities Papers you can find an article written by Karina Hoření titled “A Brave New World Out of the Same Old Pieces: Property Confiscation and Distribution in Postwar Czechoslovakia”.

The article discusses the confiscation of property from German-speaking inhabitants of Czechoslovakia after World War II and its redistribution to new settlers in the Czech borderlands. It highlights how the national revolution, which resulted in the expulsion of German-speaking inhabitants from Central Europe, enabled a social revolution. The author uses the example of Liberec in northern Bohemia to illustrate how the Czech administration applied the Czech–German conflict to the ethnically diverse postwar society, resulting in discrimination against non-Czech minorities regarding property redistribution. The article also examines the shaping of postwar Czechoslovak society, emphasizing the material demands of workers and collectives, while individuals sought to attain a middle-class lifestyle through participation in property distribution. Overall, the article sheds light on the complexities of postwar society in Czechoslovakia and the impact of property redistribution on different ethnic groups.

Link to the article you can find here.

Karolina Kuszyk’s book “Poniemieckie” has created significant buzz since its release in Poland in 2019. Three years later, the German translation “In den Häusern der Anderen” has sparked even stronger emotions among the German audience. Our researcher, Michal Korhel, attended the author’s reading and presentation of the German version in Lüneburg and subsequently delved into the book himself. What are its strengths and weaknesses? And why should you give it a chance? Here is his review in German.

We already informed you that our PI, Karolina, became a member of the scientific council of the Wałcz Land Museum. We are thrilled to continue with the story, as in October all the members were officially appointed by the town’s mayor, Maciej Żebrowski, and Karolina was unanimously chosen to be the head of this body.

Congratulations and we are looking forward to future cooperation with the museum!

On 17-18 October, Karina Hoření attended the largest Czech conference dedicated to public history. This year, the conference took place in the North Bohemian town of Ústí nad Labem, which, like Liberec, where Karina is doing her field research, was an economic and cultural center of Czech Germans, which is visible in the materiality of the town. Perhaps this is also why several conference papers focused on remembering in post-displacement regions. Karina added to the discussion her paper titled: “There are Places We Cannot See: German Industrialists Villas as an Example of Research on the “Periphery”. She draws on Jacques Derrida’s ideas on “Spectres of Marx” and argued that post-German nostalgia is a Halloween costume of a fake ghost while remembering the post-1989 transformation is a real spectre that haunts Czech society today. 

In October, our team had the privilege of hosting Julia Gilfert, M.A., from Eberhard-Karls-Universität Tübingen for a thought-provoking seminar titled (Un)comfortable rooms, neutralised objects. Exhibiting SS history at Wewelsburg Memorial and Museum.

During the session, Julia shared the history of Wewelsburg, a medieval castle in North Rhine-Westphalia. Once repurposed during the Third Reich as a center for Nazi mysticism, the site now serves as a memorial and museum. The exhibition there explores the activities of the SS in Wewelsburg, alongside the broader history of this organization under the NSDAP rule. Importantly, the museum also honors the victims of SS violence, providing a space for remembrance and reflection.

The seminar delved into the challenging themes of “comfortable” and “uncomfortable” histories. Together with Julia, our team explored how narratives of the past are shaped, contested, and remembered. A particularly intriguing discussion emerged around the concept of the “German ghost” and its potential embodiment as a Nazi ghost—offering insights into the haunting legacies of this difficult history in Germany as well as in the regions we study.

This seminar underscored the importance of critically engaging with sites of memory and their layered meanings, fostering a deeper understanding of the ways history continues to resonate in the present. Thank you Julia for sharing your research with us!

The blog post was guest-written by Dr Izabela Mrzygłód, assistant professor at the Institute of Slavic Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences. Izabela Mrzygłód encounters the spectre of Warsaw libraries destroyed by the Germans during World War II. It is now 80 years since the destruction of the Krasiński Library in October 1944. The author describes the losses of Polish archives and libraries resulting from German colonial policy. She listens to the silence that was left behind the loss and tries to interpret it in the context of archival turn and contemporary reflections on power and silencing in archives.

Link to the blog post you can find here.