On October 7 and 8, a cohort of scholars interested in objects on the move gathered in the Willy Brandt Center for German and European Studies in Wrocław to discuss their findings. One of them was also Karolina Ćwiek-Rogalska who presented her initial findings on how the second generation of settlers handles the heritage of their parents who collected receipts for the formerly German properties.

It was an occasion to meet old friends, such as Anna Kurpiel and Katarzyna Maniak, who were guests at our internal seminar and were talking about their fascinating book “Porządek rzeczy”. Also, Kerstin von Lingen whom we met in Vienna, and who was one of the organizers of this meeting, presented her work in progress on the Baltic German objects in Wielkopolska and then during the flight and expulsion.

The workshop showed a wide range of topics connected to the formerly German objects in a very wide understanding of the word. Also, because of how it was organized, everyone had enough time to present and then listen to the comments, which is a scholarly practice we admire.