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).
