News

The second day of the Spectral Recycling Team’s stay in Vienna (May 23rd) was dominated by the interactive workshop. Thanks to the Scientific Centre of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Vienna we could meet in a beautiful Lanckoroński hall in the 3rd district to discuss, analyze, and interpret together with a wonderful group of researchers. 

In the first part of the meeting, led by Karolina, we delved together into theoretical aspects, such as how one can analyze ghosts, and how we can define them within the project and in a broader context. Recycling was also discussed, one of the examples was the Viennese monument to Karl Lueger, the pre-WW1 mayor of the city. The monument became controversial after the anti-Semitic views of Lueger were reminded to the inhabitants of the city by the waves of protests regarding the commemoration. Thus, the monument is regularly doused with paint and covered with inscriptions as a form of protest. This act repurposes the monument as a platform for expression. The latter sparked debate on whether certain actions could be considered as recycling, prompting participants to question and differentiate the phenomenon in their analyses. 

The method of exchanging ethnographic postcards was presented by Karina Hoření. It is a methodological experiment developed by Endre Dányi, Lucy Suchman, and Laura Watts that our team also adopted. Besides sharing within the team photos accompanied by a brief written commentary in the form of a postcard, we also show them to outsiders and ask them to find a common trace for chosen examples. The goal is to assess how different groups interpret the postcards. We were astonished by the brilliant interpretations that stemmed from this part of the workshop, as well as the rich and robust discussion between the participants on the individual postcards.

Michal Korhel led the final part of the workshop, drawing on the experiences of all team members and addressing challenging and intriguing issues in their work, focusing on what it means to work within the scope of spectral ethnography. He used the theme of the coal mine in Handlová and the German past present in the area, referring to stone houses, the language used in mines, or remnants of fruit orchards hidden in the forest that he frequently encountered in Handlová. 

Overall, the workshop provided a platform for insightful discussions and critical thinking on the project’s key concepts. We would like to express our gratitude to all the guests and workshop participants who joined us in exploring the possibilities hauntology provides for research. Your active participation, insightful suggestions, and engaging discussions truly enhanced the overall experience for everyone involved. We look forward to further opportunities to collaborate with you in the future!

On May 22nd, we had the pleasure of presenting our project at the Scientific Centre of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Vienna. We were very happy to welcome invited commentators from the Department of History at the University of Vienna, Professors Claudia Kraft and Kerstin von Lingen, who kindly agreed to provide their insights about our presentation. 

The gathered guests were welcomed by the director of the Center, Piotr Szlanta. After a brief introduction by our PI, Karolina Ćwiek-Rogalska, the presentation began with an explanation concerning the research design, terminology, and team composition. What followed was the four parts where we delved into the details concerning the chosen case studies we decided to present to the Viennese audience.

Firstly, Karina Hoření presented her fieldwork in Liberec, formerly German Reichenberg, in Northern Bohemia. She tackled the question of the attitudes of individuals towards the objects left behind and presented how we understand ghosts within the project. She recounted stories of families and institutions using formerly German villas while seeking to attain the status once held by the German bourgeoisie. The story of the instruments stored in one of the villas in Liberec during the war, confiscated and subsequently asked to be returned in 1947 is a fascinating tale of how the regulations concerning the redistribution in Czechoslovakia looked like. Karina followed the attempts of the Austrian owner to recall the fate of the instruments and showed how archival research is complemented by ethnography. Thus, she presented her attempts to trace where one of the instruments, namely a piano, may have been stored. If you are interested in Karina’s research, please visit our blog where she recently presented (in Czech) an intriguing case of another confiscated piece of property, a Sinti wagon.

What followed was Karolina highlighting the post-war history of recycling various items and objects in the Central Pomerania region in Poland, in Wałcz county (formerly German Deutsch Krone) reminding that their acquisition and modification were often carried out with the consent of the authorities at that time, in accordance with the decree of 1946 regarding abandoned and formerly German properties. She focused on how the cemeteries in the town were reused, showing how recycling can be understood as a literal strategy of living with remnants. If you are interested in what happened to the German heritage in the years following the incorporation of Central Pomerania into Poland, you can read Karolina’s blog post (in Polish) about the fate of the monument of the lion, erected as a war memorial in Deutsch Krone in 1925, and toppled down in the postwar Wałcz. 

Third part of the presentation was Magdalena Bubík discussing the transformation of former Protestant churches and objects in Piła (formerly German Schneidemühl) in the Northern Wielkopolska region. These church properties were repurposed as elements in private homes, such as a baptismal font being used as an ashtray. This demonstrates a shift in the use and significance of religious artifacts in the community. Magdalena’s presentation shed light on the fate of these objects and the impact of cultural and historical changes on their perception and value. It prompts reflection on the evolving religious and social landscape in the region. If you want to see what other ghosts Magdalena has traced since she joined our team, look at her blog post  (in Polish) about ghosts on the Most Przyjaźni [the Friendship Bridge] connecting the towns of Český Těšín and Cieszyn.

Finally, Michal Korhel discussed the town of Handlová and how we can follow human-nonhuman relationships in post-displacement Slovakia. To do this, he focused on a natural catastrophe of the 1960s, namely the landslide, that happened in the town. He emphasized the changes brought about by these events that are still visible in the landscape.  Michal argued that it was a result of the negligence of the know-how and skills cultivated by the resettled German community of Handlová (formerly German Krickerhau). Suppose you want to know how the settlers and the generations of their children and grandchildren recycled the formerly German things according to their needs and beliefs in West Pomerania, where Michal carries out Polish part of his research. Then you should read his blog post (in Polish) about the (former) monument to the fallen soldiers of the First World War in Maszewo.

After the presentation, our esteemed guests Claudia Kraft and Kerstin von Lingen shared their thoughts on the research examples presented earlier, as well as asked general questions about the project. Thanks to their valuable insights, we were able to elaborate on the Central European context of our research, or selected methodologies we use, as well as attempts to describe the quality of being formerly German in Czechia, Poland, and Slovakia.

We are grateful for the opportunity to collaborate with the Scientific Centre of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Vienna. We are especially grateful to Monika Gromala and Marcin Kaim who facilitated our visit. We believe that our cooperation will bring positive outcomes for all participants. We appreciate the insightful input from our guests and value the enriching discussion that took place during the event and afterwards.

May was a busy month for our team. In the mid of the month, our PI Karolina Ćwiek-Rogalska and researcher Karina Hoření attended the conference “Postcolonial, Decolonial, Postimperial, Deimperial” organised by the ERC CoG “Revenant—Revivals of Empire: Nostalgia, Amnesia, Tribulation”, affiliated at the University of Rijeka.

In their presentation titled “Industrial Specters Interwoven with a Carpet: a Story of Post-Imperial Nostalgia in Northern Bohemia”, Karina and Karolina presented a case study of a carpet produced in Vratislavice/Maffersdorf in the 1920s, that was lost after World War II but recently found. Currently, it is displayed in the new local library. They argued that the story of the carpet, seen as a ghost of the past, could be interpreted as a story of forgetting and remembering not only the Austro-Hungarian, but also German heritage in Central Europe. They pointed out both physical patterns on the carpet and its meanings but also the patterns of remembering the carpet and its producers, showing how the stories of success and missing glory, comprised with this object, are entangled with one another. 
The conference hosted many acclaimed scholars who shared our interest in the entangled history of European empires and their material remnants. You can watch keynote speeches on the YouTube channel of Center for Advanced Studies of University of Rijeka.

Our team members participated in lively discussions after each presentation. You can browse presentation summaries (including ours) in the booklet available here.

PhD students are obliged to present a prospectus of their individual research plan in an open seminar, which is intended to be a public defence of that prospectus, including an exercise in discussion and argumentation skills. Our collegue, Magdalena Bubík, is going to have such presentation in Polish on May 28, from 3 to 5 PM on Zoom, her subject is: Protestanckie przedmioty kultu w regionach post-przesiedleniowych słowiańskiej Europy Środkowej (Protestant Objects of Worship in the Post-Displacement Regions of the Slavic Central Europe).

If you would like to join the seminar and the discussion, please send us a message here.

When Polish settlers arrived in the so-called “Recovered Territories” after World War II, they encountered unfamiliar items, such as the monument to fallen soldiers of the First World War in Maszewo, West Pomerania. Michal Korhel demonstrates how the settlers and subsequent generations repurposed these former German possessions to suit their own needs and beliefs. This cultural adaptation and reuse of historical artifacts reflects the enduring impact of the settlers on the region’s identity and landscape.

Link to the text you can find here.

SpectralRecycling Team in cooperation with the Scientific Centre of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Vienna invites you to 2 day event: Exploring post-displacement regions in Central Europe and beyond.

On May 22, 2 pm, Karolina Ćwiek-Rogalska, Karina Hoření, Michal Korhel and Magdalena Bubík will present their preliminary findings and discuss them with Claudia Kraft and Kerstin von Lingen, Professors for Contemporary History at the University of Vienna. 

On May 23, from 10 am, we would like you to join our interactive workshop, where you can learn more about our project. Based on pre-circulated readings we aim to discuss with you the hauntological approach in research on forced migrations and emerging of new cultures in post-displacement regions in East Central Europe and beyond.

To join us PLEASE FILL IN THE REGISTRATION FORM under this link.

From April 9 to 10 a conference under the title “Übersehen, vergessen, stillgestellt? Zur Latenz kulturellen Erbes” took place at the Leibniz-Institut für Geschichte und Kultur des östlichen Europa (GWZO) in Leipzig (Germany). Its aim was mainly to discuss the various cases of „silent“, hidden and overlooked cultural heritage and its status between the presence and absence. Furthermore, the participants should have reflect upon the concept of latency in the context of cultural heritage on theoretical level.

Our researcher, Michal Korhel, took part in the conference with his presentation „Wiederbelebung deutscher Geister in Handlová? Der Umgang mit dem Erbe der Karpatendeutschen in der Slowakei“ (Bringing the German Ghosts of Handlová Back to Life? How Slovakia is Dealing with the Heritage of the Carpathian Germans). In his contribution Michal presented the German cultural heritage or more precisely its remnants in Handlová as ghosts haunting the town’s inhabitants. While showing the audience various examples he could identify during his fieldwork Michal focused on the question, how the locals perceive these ghosts nowadays. Even though he had to conclude that the remnants of the German heritage in Handlová and in Slovakia in general are being widely ignored, he stressed the existence of few civic initiatives that aim at living with German ghosts „justly“. That means that they are trying to reinterpret and transform the German heritage in the contemporary context. In the following discussion the audience was interested in examples of „exorcism“ and the topic of ghosts from the perspective of the German expellees. Moreover, the discussion tackled the question of morality and pragmatism in regard to the recycling of German ghosts (especially German gravestones and cemeteries).

On April 17th, Karolina Ćwiek-Rogalska, was a guest speaker at the Interdisciplinary Scientific Seminar at Wrocław University of Science and Technology. She gave a lecture titled Topolgangers: the double life of the “recovered” cities. In her presentation, she explored the idea that formerly German cities remain their identity hidden underneath their Polish, Czech or Slovak one. As the vehicles of reminding the inhabitants of this double life she analyzed various objects present in the city spaces, the Spectral Recycling team found out during the fieldwork of the respective members. She clarified that the objects left behind serve as remnants of previous cultures, allowing new residents to interact with the lingering presence of the displaced.

Karolina was invited by the Academia Iuvenum (made up of young scientists from Wrocław University of Science and Technology who are successfully conducting research projects, the elite group is tasked to undertake various initiatives for the benefit of the university, provide a platform for the exchange of scientific ideas, and enable young scientists to express their opinions inside and outside the university). She wants to warmly thank Marta Rusnak and Dawid Skrzypczak from the Academia who organized her visit. It was also a great opportunity to get to know more about the research currently done at the University and explore the doppelganger side of Wrocław, formerly German Breslau.

On Monday, April 15th, our series of seminars with invited guests continued – this time Associate Professor Stanislav Holubec from the Institute of History of the Czech Academy of Sciences accepted our invitation. We have been following his work for a long time and were therefore happy to learn about the results of his project Central European Mountains Krkonoše 1890-1950: Modernity, Tourism, Nationalism where he studied the modern history of the mountain range that is situated on the Czech- Polish border and that was inhabited by German-speaking communities until 1946. 

Stanislav has done archival research on both sides of the Czech-Polish border and shared with us his findings on the different character of the postwar resettlement in the two countries and the different policies and practices of how the German past of this mountain range was rewritten into the Czech(oslovak) and Polish narrative after the Second World War. 

Furthermore, Stanislav explored the exile culture of the expelled Germans who preserved and re-created the image of the Krkonoše (Riesengebirge in German and Karkonosze in Polish) even in exile in West Germany. 

Since both Karolina and Karina are partially doing their research in the region, there was a vivid discussion not just about the findings themselves but also about methodological issues of research in the borderlands and possible future directions in the research of mountain areas in general. 

Our researcher, Michal Korhel, spent two weeks in March doing fieldwork in Slovakia. His aim was predominantly to look for the first and second generations of settlers who came to Handlová after World War II. However, during his travels he encountered more ghosts than he expected.

Michal’s first stop was Slovakia’s capital, Bratislava. There he got a meeting with the author and director of the first theatre play that tackled the topic of the forced expulsion of Germans from Slovakia – Domov! (Home!). As the story of the play took place in his home town of Kežmarok and its surroundings, in the interview Michal additionally gained a comparative perspective to his research in Handlová.

Handlová itself was Michal’s next stop. There he was able to live in a formerly German stone house (nowadays a place where the local German community regularly meets). With its thick and cold walls one could at least partly imagine how the living standards might have looked like. Right on his first day in Handlová, a narrator took Michal to the „field“: in this case almost literally, as they went to the forests and meadows surrounding the town, collecting information for the narrator’s own research. He attempts to use the knowledge of the prewar cultivation of land (such as planting fruit trees and bushes away from human housing), in order to keep the animals in the nature and use the uncultivated parts of the local environment.

In Handlová and towns in its vicinity Michal conducted interviews with settlers, who or whose ancestors came to Handlová from Belgium, Hungary and Romania. As one of them came to Handlová together with her parents already during the war, Michal got a valuable account on the time directly after the war’s end and empty German houses that were not that empty after all. Even though Michal set up some meetings already in advance based on a call for participants, he also walked through the streets of Handlová in hope to gain some information talking to people “over the fence”.

At the end of Michal’s fieldwork a narrator took him for a short road trip. It was the same route that is usually shown to German visitors, who come to Hauerland to see the home of their ancestors. From Handlová the trip went to formerly German settlements Sklené / Glaserhau, Kremnické Bane / Johannesberg, Kunešov / Kuneschhau and Janova Lehota / Drexlerhau. Additionally, in Kunešov Michal and his guide took a walk following the path the German miners from the village regularly took on their way to the mine in Handlová.