William Connor

William Connor studied German, English literature, and Theatre at Victoria University in Wellington, where he completed his Master’s in creative writing in 2016. He lives between Berlin and Greytown, New Zealand, and works as a translator, editor, writer, and puppeteer. He has published numerous poems and short stories in several anthologies and journals, has written and performed in a number of plays that have toured New Zealand and Germany, and is the writer and cocreator of the intercultural comedy web-series Lifeswap, which explores and celebrates the differences between the German and New Zealand cultures. In his work as a translator, William focuses on striking a balance between the “science” of finding word-for-word equivalents of the information in an author’s original work and the “art” of creating an authentic, engaging, and beautiful text in the target language.

Translated into english

Background article

Hungarian – Communist – Jew?

The many lives of Ernő Gáll (1917-2000), the philosopher without a homeland

This article sheds light on some facets of the life of the philosopher Ernő Gáll, who as a Jew, a communist, and a Hungarian was both politically persecuted and a perpetrator. A committed intellectual, he acted as a mediator between different political factions and hostile ethnic groups throughout...

Background article

Jewish Postcard Publishers and the Imagery of the Urban

In numerous cities across eastern Europe, Jewish publishers enjoyed notable success on the newly established postcard market. This article presents a socio-historical background of this topic and asks whether their social positioning influenced the depictions of the urban world they chose to feature...

Introduction

Jews in Poland in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Times

The article offers an overview of Jewish history and the development of Jewish settlement in medieval and early modern Poland from the first recorded mentions of Jewish centers in the 11th century through to the end of the 18th century. As in the neighboring countries of Hungary and Bohemia, the...

Background article

Places of commemoration of the Shoa in Szeged, Hungary

The Jewish community of Szeged in Hungary has a rich heritage dating back two centuries. Many of their descendants perished in the Holocaust, when Szeged was made the main deportation center for the region. The purpose of the following post is to showcase the Holocaust memorials erected by the...

Background article

The Białystok Ghetto Cemetery as a Setting of Historical-Political Disputes

The history of the necropolis in eastern Poland acts like a burning glass, a focal point of the upheavals of the 20th century and Polish-Jewish relations after the Shoa. Today, remembrance of this historically significant site alternates between disinterest, urban image cultivation, and a ritualized...

Background article

Synagogue, Workers’ University, Cultural Center

The Il Kal Grande in Sarajevo

Once the largest Sephardic synagogue in Yugoslavia, the Il Kal Grande was built in 1930 in the center of Sarajevo. After its partial destruction by german soldiers in 1941, the building has fulfilled a number of different functions and had a varied history, that is little known to this day.

Introduction

Jewish History in Eastern Europe: The 19th Century

In Jewish history, the 19th century stands for a time of comprehensive change in all areas of life. Jews, who had previously seen themselves primarily as a religious group, now became supporters of various political or national movements. This gave rise to a range of new, constantly contested Jewish...

Background article

Kharkiv–The Capital of Ukrainian Modernity

Kharkiv was the capital of Soviet Ukraine from 1919 to 1934 - a place of bold architectural experiments and the center of Ukraine's cultural avant-garde. The expert on urban history Mikhail Ilchenko provides an insight into this period.

Background article

A divided city?

The entertainment and pleasure culture in Posen around 1900

Around 1900, the city of Posen (now Poznań) was divided into a German Posen and a Polish Poznań. This is at least the impression given by the sources on population and spatial politics in the city. A look at everyday life and especially urban entertainment culture, however, gives us a more...

Picture gallery

A City Inside the City

Warsaw's Miasteczko Wilanów – between urban utopia, imaginary construct and concrete reality

Some disdain it as an enclave of a consumerist, unthinking middle class. Others sing its praises and consider it a one-of-a-kind urban development project. No other urban district in Poland has been written about and discussed as much as the Miasteczko Wilanów. But where do the roots of this...

Background article

Wilderness without borders?

Nature conservation and the border in the Bavarian Forest and Šumava

A boundless wilderness – or a mountain range divided both politically and culturally? The neighboring Bavarian Forest and Šumava National Parks on the German-Czech border share a complicated history in which the state border plays a key role.

Background article

Malbork Castle, the Knights of the Teutonic Order and the "German East" in the 19th and 20th Centuries

Changes through time and space

How far did the “German East” extend? With recourse to Malbork Castle, which was “rediscovered” around 1800, German historical policy in the 19th and 20th centuries found very different answers to this question.

Background article

Between Polish Metropolis and Provincial Prussian Town

The educational landscape of Warsaw around 1800

The period of Prussian rule in Warsaw has traditionally received little attention and is usually interpreted as an early climax of Prussian-German expansionism in Poland. Yet it was also a time when, under the influence of the Enlightenment, a number of important educational initiatives developed in...

Background article

"Wait till the Scots come!"

Scots in early modern Gdansk

This old Prussian proverb exhorts us to be patient and wait for the right opportunity. But what does this have to do with the far north of Great Britain? The answer leads us to Gdansk. In the early modern era, the port city attracted numerous merchant ships from the Baltic region and beyond. Some...

Background article

The History of the Creation of the Austro-Hungarian Border After the First World War

The border demarcation between Austria and Hungary after 1918 is considered a prime example of the general post-war turmoil in East-Central Europe. The article traces the lengthy border-drawing process of the heterogeneous area, which initiated a slow disentanglement.

Background article

The Changing Landscape of Place Names

Systems of geographical knowledge in the history of German-Polish border regions.

The Republic of Poland has a turbulent history – as do its many place names. Hardly any town or village has only one, which makes the matter very complicated, especially for historical research.

Object story

A Steinway for Eugen d'Albert?

In the “Eichendorff Hall” of Haus Schlesien in Königswinter there is a Steinway grand piano made of lemon wood. It is a noteworthy museum object not only because the famous Steinway & Sons lettering is emblazoned on it, but also, and above all, because it was owned by Gerhart Hauptmann, the...

Biography

A celebrated conductor from Liegnitz

Benjamin Bilse (1816–1902)

He is considered the ancestor of the Berlin Philharmonic: Benjamin Bilse, born in Liegnitz, Silesia, was one of the most famous conductors of the 2nd half of the 19th century.

Biography

Wife Gone, Money of Course Too

Richard Wagner on his Way to Riga

An important stop for the young Richard Wagner is Riga at the end of the 1830s. However, there are no artistic reasons that lead the upcoming composer to the northeast of Europe.

Biography

Artist and Art Figure

Life Concepts and Reception of the Musician and Writer Monika Hunnius

Monika Hunnius is generally known as a Baltic German author. She, however, saw herself as a musician – and was part of a network of musicians that extended all over Europe, to which Julius Stockhausen, Johannes Brahms, and Clara Schumann belonged as well.

Background article

Gdansk’s “Soundscape” and Music Culture between 1800 and 1945

Can soundscapes of the past be reconstructed? What did cities actually sound like in centuries gone by? And do we associate certain sounds and soundscapes with the history of particular cities? This text introduces some possibilities of soundscape research, using the city of Gdansk as an example.

Background article

The Uprooted Ones – Lemkos in Galicia and abroad

The small, private Museum of Lemko Culture in Zyndranowa is situated on the far periphery of southeastern Poland, yet it is a destination for many travelers, mainly from western and northern Poland, but also from other parts of the country and from abroad. For many, a visit here is connected with...

Background article

Summer 1941: Jews from the Baltic States flee for their lives

The long shadow of the past. Only a few Jews from Lithuania and Latvia managed to escape the Holocaust in the Baltics. Here are some of their accounts and the reasons for their difficult escape.

Editorial

The Sounds of Bukovina

Music cultures of a multi-ethnic region

A region with many voices: The cultural diversity of Bukovina is particularly evident in its little-known music and singing culture – past and present. Twelve musical contributions provide an insight into the musical history of a multifaceted landscape on the northeastern edge of the Carpathians.

Musical rendition

Resemnare (Resignation)

Ciprian Porumbescu (music and text) / Mia Jakob (soprano), Denise Maurer (piano)

Musical rendition

Lied der Doina (Doina Song)

Georg Ritter von Onciul (Music and text) / Mia Jakob (soprano), Denise Maurer (piano)

Musical rendition

Über Gipfel (Over Mountaintops)

Carmen Petra Basacopol (music), Mihai Eminescu (text) / Mia Jakob (soprano), Denise Maurer (piano)

Introduction

The National Opera in Central and Eastern Europe

Today it is the passion of a select few music lovers – but in the 19th century, opera was a major social event, an expression of national consciousness, or even the musical declaration of national independence. But how did this happen? What role does the national opera play in Eastern Europe? And...

Introduction

Jazz in the Eastern Bloc

A Playing Field for Nonconformists and Propaganda Strategists

More than just music: During the Cold War, jazz suddenly found itself between all fronts – at the same time, it served as a propaganda weapon, a symbol of freedom and a musical bridge between East and West.

Interview (video)

Pandemic and Migration in Eastern Europe

An interview

Copernico asked: What role have epidemics and pandemics actually played in history, especially in Eastern Europe? How were they combated in the past? What impact did they have on the course of history? What role do they play, for example, in the context of human migration movements?

Musical rendition

Six Celan Songs – 5. Nächtlich geschürzt

Michael Nyman (music), Paul Celan (text) / Mia Jakob (soprano), Denise Maurer (piano)

Musical rendition

Schön Schätzchen, ich wünsch dir ein‘ schöne gute Nacht (My dearest, I wish you good night) / Oh du mein grüner Haselstrauch (Oh you my green hazel bush)

Two folk songs / Mia Jakob (soprano)

Musical rendition

Mazurka f-minor op. 4

Karol Mikuli (music) / Denise Maurer (piano)

Musical rendition

Ein Lied geht um die Welt (A Song Goes Around the World) / Die tote Stadt op. 12 – Glück, das mir verblieb (The dead city – Joy, that remained to me)

Hans May (music), Ernst Neubach (text) / Erich Wolfgang Korngold (music), Paul Schott (text) / Richard Resch (tenor), Lutz Landwehr von Pragenau (piano)

Musical rendition

Tragik (Tragedy) / Schlaflied (Lullaby)

Lutz Landwehr von Pragenau (music), Selma Merbaum-Eisinger (text) / Martina Swandulla (alto), Lutz Landwehr von Pragenau (piano)

Musical rendition

Sonatine für Klavier (Sonatina for piano)

Lutz Landwehr von Pragenau (music) / Lutz Landwehr von Pragenau (piano)

Webdocu

Neumann Family

An East Upper Silesian Story of Flight and Integration

The web documentary invites you to explore a family history between farewell and a new beginning.

Background article

Migration to Southeast Europe in the 18th Century

A German Master Miller in a Hungarian Village

Migration stories can be success stories. Migration is often associated with people’s desire to improve their living situation. However, this wish does not always come true, and so migration stories are often marked by disappointments and failures – like that of Michael Kreutzer.

Background article

Post-War Jewish Migration from the USSR and the refuseniki movement

The post-WW II Jewish migration from the Soviet Union (and also after its dissolution) is one of the largest in modern history. Altogether 2.75 million Soviet Jews left the USSR for Israel, the United States, Germany and elsewhere. The position of the Soviet state with respect to emigration was...

Picture gallery

Emil Orlik

A Multi-talented Artist

Emil Orlik (1870–1932) was one of the most famous and versatile Czech artists of the turn of the century. He was known primarily as a graphic artist and draftsman whose artistic work ranged between realism and art nouveau. His extensive oeuvre includes drawings of famous contemporary musicians and...

Webdocu

"We, too, are stepping down from our role"

Between staying and leaving – the German Theater in Temirtau and the Germans in the Soviet Union

Web documentary about the German Drama Theater in Temirtau and the Germans in the Soviet Union between staying and leaving.

Background article

The History of the German-speaking Volhynians as Part of a Global Migration History

From the mid-nineteenth century onward, innovations such as steam navigation and the advent of the railroad led to a sharp increase in global migration movements. The German-speaking Volhynians were part of this development, which moved between the ideal-typical poles of voluntary and forced...

Introduction

Migration

The term migration refers to spatial movements of people. But not every change of location is considered migration. Exactly which phenomena and processes of regional mobility are understood as migration in scientific, political, media or public debates is contested and subject to constant change.

Object story

A Doctor and his Military Case

In March 2015, a military case from the First World War was donated to the Transylvanian Museum. It accompanied Dr. Wilhelm Hager during World War I to the southern front – to Bosnia and the Isonzo, and then to the eastern front, to Galicia, Bukovina, Bessarabia and, finally, in 1918 to South...

Object story

Farewell after 500 years

The Niebelschütz family flees Gleinitz

A document in the Silesian Museum in Görlitz testifies to the acquisition of the village of Gleinitz by the brothers Nikolaus, Georg and Ladislaus von Niebelschütz in 1446. It was only by chance that the descendent of the Niebelschütz family, Harald von Niebelschütz, then 15 years old, saved the...

Introduction

Emigration, Forced Migration, and the Iron Curtain

Migration History in Eastern Europe since the Late 19th Century

Eastern Europe has been a "migration hot spot" since the late 19th century: Initially as a core area of overseas emigration, then of ethnic forced migration after the end of World War I. Emigration during the Cold War was nearly impossible. Today, many countries in this region benefit from the...

Introduction

Religious Migrations

What do the Canadian songwriter Leonard Cohen, the American director Woody Allen and the French chansonnier Charles Aznavour have in common?

Background article

Adam Mickiewicz

Polish pilgrim and European migrant

Adam Mickiewicz, the Polish romantic, poet, translator and journalist, was a migrant for most of his life. He also travelled to Berlin, Rome, Constantinople and other places for pleasure, scientific purposes and on political missions. These frequent changes of location show a mobile and...

Object story

From Sample Case to Museum Piece

Over 100 years, and it's still on the move – despite its rather plain appearance, this old brown case has had a rather impressive "career". It was once a sample case for woolen fabrics, a trusted companion on vacation trips, a means of transportion on the run and a piece of furniture in the bare...

Object story

Moving Piety

History of a Silesian crib

The family crib was so important to his father that he took it with him when he emigrated to the USA. The report of a donor reveals what happened between its production in Waldenburg and the return to Europe, which made its donation to Haus Schlesien in Königswinter possible.

Object story

Silent witness

A baby's cardigan and two certificates

Nothing is more closely connected with the circumstances of flight and expulsion than the experience of loss. Three touching objects from the years 1944/1945, which are now in the East Prussian state museum with German-Baltic department in Lüneburg, bear witness to this.

Object story

A Transylvanian church fur from South Africa

Among the numerous pieces of traditional costume at the Transylvanian Museum in Gundelsheim is one whose change of ownership and the resulting journey render it a fitting symbol of the collective fate of entire families, indeed entire Saxon village communities from northern Transylvania in the 20th...

Object story

Wroclaw - Shanghai - Munich

A wardrobe trunk testifies to the fate of a Wroclaw Jew

A special object was donated to the Silesian Museum in Görlitz in November 2014: a large, solidly built wardrobe trunk. This imposing piece of luggage and furniture bears the markings of long journeys and intensive use. In 1939, it accompanied Herbert Schneidemann on his escape to Shanghai.

Object story

Symbols of enduring hope

A bunch of keys from Marienburg

When they fled, many refugees hoped that they would be able to return later. A bunch of keys from Marienburg, which has been preserved in the West Prussian State Museum, bears witness to this hope.

Object story

With Grandma's Laundry Basket, Running for our Lives

A nondescript woven wicker basket stands in the storeroom of the Martin Opitz Library in Herne. The handles on either side indicate that it might once have served as a laundry basket. With its four rather makeshift wheels, however, the basket tells more than just a family story; it also tells of...

Background article

Abraham Hannibal

How a black African became a nobleman in the time of the slave trade in the Russian Empire

Abraham Petrovič Hannibal (circa 1696-1781) was a central figure during the early stages of the African Diaspora in Russia. He was one of the first Russian Enlightenment thinkers and the great-grandfather of the most important poet and creator of the modern Russian language, Alexander Pushkin.

Background article

Russian-German history as migration history

Russian Germans are a global minority. Their history is often characterized by migration within and outside the Russian Empire spanning several generations. In the last third of the 19th century, popular migration destinations included North and South America as well as new settlement areas in...

Background article

Spoon Stories

An everyday object as an anchor for personal memories

What do you take with you when you are forced to flee your home empty-handed? Which object will be indispensable in everyday life and vital for emergencies? An exhibition project by the consultant for cultural affairs Magdalena Oxfort shows the role that spoons, of all things, can play in people's...

Object story

Swimming to Freedom

Gernot Eamandi's Backpack

On the night of May 22-23, 1979, 36-year-old Gernot Eamandi swims across the heavily guarded Danube from Romania to Yugoslavia. His destination: the Federal Republic of Germany. With him: a backpack from his army days.

Object story

Down the Danube in the Ulm Box

A flat-bottomed wooden boat with a hut on top, sides painted in black and white stripes, and two very long oars at the front and back – that's an "Ulmer Schachtel" (Ulm box). This vessel, which seems curious today, was once an important means of transport on the Danube.

Object story

"What you can carry on your own"

The school suitcase of little Elsa Beck

On November 18, 1944, nine-year-old Elsa Beck flees the Hungarian village of Máriakéménd with her mother and sister. Elsa's mother allows her to take with her what she can carry herself. Elsa decides to take her school suitcase. Today, this is held in the Danube Swabian Central Museum in Ulm.

Object story

Edina's beach bag

"I felt the uprooting and horror in Edina's soul."

A blue and white striped bag with white handles - at first glance an inconspicuous beach bag. But it tells the moving story of the then 33-year-old Edina Rizvanović's flight from what is now Bosnia and Herzegovina to Ulm.

Object story

Home in a trunk of clothes - the Garlik family's traditional costume suitcase

This suitcase has traveled far – not, as one might expect, after the Second World War, but rather in the decades after the flight of the Nessner family. It was used to transport the traditional costumes of a Danube Swabian dance troupe from Baden-Württemberg as they toured to enclaves of Danube...

Object story

Max Mannheimer and his silver-gray Tatra 87

Max Mannheimer (1920-2016) was an institution, as a painter and storyteller, as a Holocaust survivor and chairman of the Dachau Camp Community.

Object story

A toolbox with a secret compartment

An object in the Museum of Russian-German Cultural History in Detmold is a bearer of secrets in several respects

Many museum objects hold secrets: Not infrequently, their origin and maker, their age, or their various owners are hardly known, if at all. Often, one has to rely on assumptions and guesses. A toolbox from present-day Kazakhstan, however, is a bearer of secrets in more ways than one.

Biography

Liberation from forced labor and the search for a new home

21-year-old Janina Jagodzińska describes the arduous beginning of 1945 in Poland's new western territories.

Biography

Expulsion from Wünschelburg in Silesia to Bredelar in Sauerland

A diary transcript documents the stations on the journey of Eva S.

Biography

On foot and by train from Silesia to West Germany

In a report, 24-year-old Hilda J.-S. describes her resettlement from Rohnstock (Silesia) to Rosellen on the Lower Rhine area in the summer of 1946.

Object story

The Odyssey of a Rococo dresser

What became of the interior of Steinort Palace

For more than 150 years, the Rococo dresser stood on the upper floor of the Steinort castle, in the so-called "Simson room". It bears witness to the lifestyle of an East Prussian noble family. Behind it lies an adventurous journey that began after the failed assassination attempt on Hitler on July...

Background article

Antje Vollmer

“Double Life” – following the footsteps of Heinrich and Gottliebe von Lehndorff

She is known as a Green Party politician and for her longstanding role as Vice President of the German Bundestag. After retiring in 2005, she became a freelance author. Her first book project “Doppelleben” (Double Life) tells the story of Heinrich von Lehndorff, one of the conspirators of the...

Background article

Agata, Dorota, Iwona, Jolanta

The kindergarten in the Pałac – memories of a little paradise

"What luck that we had this kindergarten!" All four say. That was in the early 1970s. Agata and Jolanta now live in Germany, Dorota and Iwona have stayed in Masuria. Lehndorff Castle, the "Pałac", was a place they all felt happy. In those stately rooms they had a feeling of security and comfort,...

Biography

Eva Anna Therese Puschke

The last of a dynasty of teachers

As far back as the 19th century, the Puschke family worked as teachers in Steinort and in the neighboring church village of Rosengarten. They played an important role in village life and had close ties to the noble Lehndorff family. The last teacher of the dynasty was Eva Puschke, a "lay teacher" in...

Biography

Bettina Bouresh

New life for Steinort Palace and an unexpected homecoming

"I’m a typical post-war child," says Bettina Bouresh. Born in 1950, she grew up burdened with German guilt and the traumas of her mother's family, who had lived in Allenstein until 1945. She herself felt homeless for a long time. Until one day she found her place: in Masuria. Here she found a home...

Biography

Wolfram Jäger

A professor in overalls. The Steinort Palace construction site

One day, Wolfram Jäger heard on the radio about the catastrophic condition of Lehndorff Palace. The well-known specialist in the restoration of historic buildings had recently completed a major project for UNESCO in Barcelona and immediately made his way to Masuria. In the spring of 2011, he made a...

Biography

Hannah Wadle

Social anthropologist and cultural activist. Telling the story of Steinort together – an experiment

In 2009, Hannah Wadle settled in Sztynort to do research for her doctoral thesis – and stayed for a whole year. Gradually, her cautious explorations turned into familiarity and what began as a purely academic interest became a dedicated personal commitment to the town and its people. She learned...

Biography

Marek Makowski and Piotr Wagner

Harbor, village and palace – a tangible vision

Two passionate sailors, raised in Giżycko, not far from Sztynort. Marek Makowski (b.1984) and Piotr Wagner (b.1986) left at a young age, took advantage of the opportunities on offer in a united Europe and later returned to the world they grew up in. Marek, an entrepreneur and owner of a sailing...

Object story

The linen dresser

and other everyday objects that survived

A simple chest of drawers, which came from the Steinort manor house, probably from the servants' quarters. In 1945 it was still quite new, made of pine, unpainted. Ten years ago, an old gentleman donated it to the Museum of Folklore in Węgorzewo, formerly Angerburg, along with other things he had...

Background article

The Lehndorff Hunting Lodge

A place of German-Polish friendship

This charming wooden building was once the hunting lodge of the Lehndorff counts. Here they would gather after the great hunts to feast and celebrate together. Later, the building was leased to an innkeeper. After 1945 it was used as a storehouse, and for a while it served as a village store. It...

Object story

Papierówki – “Paper Apples”

The journey of an old apple variety

A summer apple. The first to ripen. In Polish, it is called "papierówka", in German "Papierapfel" (paper apple). It once grew almost everywhere in Masuria and Warmia, including in the garden of Stefan Tymiec's grandmother, Gertrud. "It smelled and tasted delicious," he remembers. "And that yellow!"...

Introduction

Steinort/Sztynort Migration Stories

Steinort Palace in northern Masuria was the seat of the noble Lehndorff family until 1945. The last Count, Heinrich von Lehndorff, was one of the conspirators of July 20, 1944. These stories tell of the fate of the East Prussian noble family and follow the lives of people who lived in the village,...

Podcast

Wenzel

A Poet’s homage to Heinrich and Gottliebe von Lehndorff

Hans-Eckardt Wenzel, or "Wenzel" as he calls himself, is a poet and singer with Bohemian roots, born in Wittenberg in 1955. In GDR times, he studied farewell letters of young communists who lost their lives in the resistance against Hitler. Through his friendship with Antje Vollmer, he became...

Podcast

Hanna Schygulla

My friend Gottliebe Lehndorff

The actor Hanna Schygulla was 30 years old when she first met Gottliebe von Lehndorff in 1973. The scene of the encounter: the artists' colony in the old Peterskirchen vicarage, east of Munich. They lived there for thirteen years, their apartments backing onto each other. Despite their age...

Editorial

Steinort – a European place of remembrance

Steinort is a European place of remembrance, because it is a place where the most diverse stories and memories intersect, intertwine, and overlap. The interview project by Ulla Lachauer and Agata Kern explores these subjective strands of memory and reveals a number of different cultures of...

Background article

The Lehndorff Family and the East Prussian Nobility

The East Prussian noble Lehndorff family can be traced back to the 13th century. The history and culture of remembrance around the family are exemplary for many other noble families in Eastern Europe. Our author Hans-Jürgen Bömelburg explains the role of commemorating the nobility and calls for a...

Biography

The Four Lehndorff Daughters

A lost childhood and new worlds

"I lost my home," Vera von Lehndorff once said, "but lost childhood is a better description." When her father was executed on September 4, 1944, she was five years old. Her sister Eleonore, "Nona," was six and a half, and Gabriele was two. Catharina was only 19 days old; she was born in the Torgau...

Biography

Verus von Plotho

A grandson discovers his grandparents – and Masuria

"There was no culture of remembrance in my family," says Verus von Plotho. He grew up in a cosmopolitan world. He was born in Sao Paulo, Brazil, in 1969 and grew up in Munich. His mother is Gabriele Freifrau von Plotho, the third daughter of Heinrich and Gottliebe von Lehndorff. There was hardly any...

Biography

Maria Zarębska

Family roots in Sztynort

When Maria Zarębska was born, in July 1948, the village of Sztynort was still scarred by war. A few Masurian families had remained living there, but most of the inhabitants – like Maria's parents – were newcomers. Everyone was struggling to survive, to get along with each other, to find their...

Biography

Stefan Tymiec Junior

A childhood home in Steinort and the long road to the West

Stefan Tymiec was born in Sztynort in July 1950. “I had a happy childhood”, he says. He hardly felt anything of the tragedies that his parents had lived through. His mother was German and remained in her homeland in 1945. His father was Ukrainian, one of many people who had been forcibly...

Background article

Renate Marsch-Potocka on the Side of the Polish Opposition

Wolfgang Crasemann, a nephew of the famous journalist Renate Marsch-Potocka, has used interviews and personal documents - originally for his own family - to write down her life story and pay tribute to her contribution to German-Polish understanding. This previously unpublished text tells of her...

Background article

Lembergs’s Coffeehouse Culture Before the First World War

Poles, Ukrainians and Jews mingling and meeting over coffee and tea

The east Galician city of (Lemberg) Lviv had a lively coffeehouse culture during the Habsburg Empire. Poles, Jews and Ukrainians would gather over pots of coffee and tea. As the First World War approached, however, a growing sense of nationalism could also be felt in these otherwise convivial...

Background article

Mayonnaise

The quintessence of Russian cuisine

Russian cuisine, especially festive cuisine, is simply unimaginable without mayonnaise. Salads such as seledka pod šuboj (herring in a fur coat), salat oliv'e (olive salad), krabovyj salat (surimi salad), mimoza (mimosa salad) and many more, as well as meat dishes such as mjaso po franzuski (meat...

Biography

A diary report of deportation and arrival

Joanna Konopińska recounts her deportation by the Germans during World War II and her arrival in Wroclaw after the end of the war in 1945 in her moving diary “Tamten wrocławski rok”.

Background article

Ruthenia quasi est alter orbis

Dimensionen und Ambivalenzen von Grenzziehungen im Spätmittelalter am Beispiel der heutigen Westukraine

"Rus' is almost another world" wrote the Krakow bishop Maciej around 1150. What was the basis of this differentiation? How powerful was it and how did it play out in reality? In search of answers, this article also discusses the dimensions and ambivalences of border demarcations.

Teaching module chapter

The history of Jewish sport during the First World War

Sport creates community – even, or possibly especially, in wartime. Despite mounting crises, the First World War was a time when Jewish gymnastics and sports clubs flourished. Gymnasts and athletes took part in the war. The war, in turn, ensured the spread of the Jewish gymnastics and sports...

Ukrainian literature and culture in German-speaking countries

An interview with Maria Ivanytska and Claudia Dathe

Very few people in Germany know about Ukrainian literature and culture. In this discussion, Maria Ivanytska, Professor at the Chair of Germanic Philology and Translation at Taras Shevchenko National University in Kyiv, now MSCA4Ukraine fellow at the University of Tübingen, and Claudia Dathe, one of...

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18.04.2024