WBZ

It started here! The historic transformation of 1989 had its beginning in Poland –nobody doubts that in our country. And what about Germany? Was there a reaction to the events in our country just behind our western border, in the then GDR, and if so, in what way? May Gdańsk and Magdalenka have contributed to the restitution of the Free State of Saxony?

The Willy Brand Centre kindly invites to a meeting with the activist of the democratic opposition in the former GDR and current President of the Saxon State Diet, Matthias Röβler PhD, and to participate in the discussion entitled "The turning point of the year 1989 – a peaceful revolution and the re-founding of the Free State of Saxony", dedicated to the Saxonian experience of the German road to freedom.

The meeting takes place on 25th March (Tuesday) in the Willy Brandt Centre for German and European Studies of the University of Wrocław at 5 p. m..

As a witness to the past revolutionary reality of the years 1989 and 1990, Matthias Röβler PhD ties the establishment of the first Saxon State Diet into the events that took place in autumn 1989. He pays particular attention to the tradition, which is an essential factor in the formation of perspectives and the creation of the future. Only in this way historical continuity of democratic aspirations and freedom movements can be created.
Entry is free.

Welcome!

Place: CSNE, ul. Strażnicza 1-3, Wrocław
Time: 25th March, 2014, 5 p. m.

Prof. Krzysztof Ruchniewicz of the WBZ UWr. has been elected as a member of the curatorship of the Documentation Centre "Culture and History of Poles in Germany". The curatoship is formed of representatives of the Polish community, from culture and the media.
For many years, it has been the aim and the wish of the Centre to preserve and document the fates of Polish immigrants in Germany.
The main task of the curatorship is to form, to support and to counsel the Centre. This is one of the most important projects dedicated to the German Polonia in recent years.
The founding act creating the Documentation Centre "Culture and History of Poles in Germany" was solemnly passed in late June 2013 and thus the Polish cultural and educational landscape in Germany has been enriched by a new, important branch.

The decision to found the Centre was made on the 20th anniversary of the Polish-German treaty on good neighborliness and cooperation.
Director of the Centre is the cultural scientist and exhibition curator Jacek Barski PhD.

By collecting, studying and conveying documents and historical items, the Centre will contribute to fulfill a gap that existed so far in the field of research and to popularize Polish history and culture in Germany. It is to be a forum for the exchange of information about Polish history, culture and organizations in Germany.
In order to achieve this end, it is planned to found an internet portal named "Porta Polonica", which is formed of several modules (for example an atlas of places of remembrance, a data bank containing biographical information about Poles in Germany and their organizations).

The seat of the Centre is in Bochum, in the oldest rooms of the Polonia-Organization in Germany, in the highly symbolic Polish House. This building, to be found under the address Am Kortländer 6, is seat of the Association of Poles in Germany, the so-called "Rodło" since 1922. With Porta Polonica, the Polish house will once again become a house of open doors, a place where Poles and Germans meet.

CSNE im. Willy'ego Brandta i Miejska Biblioteka Publiczna we Wrocławiu serdecznie zaprasza na spotkanie autorskie

z dr. Dariuszem Wojtaszynem, autorem książek poświęconych tematyce sportowej: "Kibice w socjalizmie.
Trybuny piłkarskie w NRD – studium historyczno-społeczne" oraz „Sport w cieniu polityki. Instrumentalizacja sportu w NRD".

Spotkanie poświęcone będzie zagadnieniom związanym z funkcjonowaniem sportu w dzisiejszym świecie oraz w przeszłości,

a także roli i znaczeniu kibiców piłkarskich w przestrzeni społecznej.

Wszystkich pasjonatów sportu zapraszamy do Miejskiej Biblioteki Publicznej, filia nr 18, ul. Grabiszyńska 236 a we wtorek 18.03.2014 r. o godz. 14.00

In the series „Germany – Media – Culture", launched by the CSNE in 2011, a new book, the seventh in this series, has been published: "National Socialism in the cinema of united Germany", written by Joanna Trajman.

It depicts how Nazism is dealt with in film in the context of changes occurring in the German culture of remembrance, trying to explain the causes for recurrence of the discourse on German victims. The lengthy publication of 500 pages consists of two parts. In the first one, the way how Germans settled with the Nazist past in history (until 1989, dealing with GDR and Federal Republic separately) and contemporary times (after 1989) is presented synthetically. The second, fundamental part of the book, concerns the specific recognition of the problem in the cinema of the united Germany, focusing on specific works of film, grouped into six chapters: The insurmountable past, the return of Hitler in film, the German catastrophe, German heroes, the Third Reich in the convention of melodrama, the seduced generation.
A trump of the publication is that it localize the presentation of the topic in a broad social-cultural context, evocating the most important historical debates and disputes around the films that often aroused controversy in Germany. The author utilized an impressive stock of sources; films (the filmography contains more than 340 titles) as well as extensive literature on the topic, press reviews and interviews with authors. The interdisciplinary character of the work makes it possible, that the momentum goes far beyond the horizon of films, making an important contribution to the debate on the difficult heritage of Germans. In view of the limited availability of German films in Poland as well as disputes around the selected productions (for example "The Downfall"), recalling the rich discourses, the publication can be a valuable aid for the Polish reader (and viewer) who wants to understand the identity processes of our western neighbor.

The book is accompanied by a DVD of the film "Winter father" (Germany-Poland 2010) by Johannes Schmid. It is one of the few German productions portraying the Polish victims of the war, not shunning the difficult topics of the Polish-German past, but also carrying hope for a new, peaceful dimension. Despite funding by the Polish Film Institute and the Culture Center in Gdynia, the film failed to make regular theatrical distribution in Poland. This very publication corrects this omission, as Schmid's movie – both due to the subject and the way it was shot – fully deserves.

"If you consider that Joanna Trajman first courageously went beyond the insufficient earlier attempts to synthesize the research field, first and foremost note the impressive cognitive aspirations of the scale of this project. Its implementation required multilateral competences: Knowledge about Germany, political science, culture and also about the history of film. However, these very competences, although worthy to recognize, would help little, if they did not go hand in hand with the scientific talent and the intellectual imagination of the author, merits, to which her book owes its harmonious, coherent, cognitively effective and extensive vision of the undertaken subject."
From Prof. Tadeusz Szczepański's review

Joanna Trajman is absolvent of international relations and cultural sciences at Wrocław University. Currently, she works as an associate professor at the Chair of International Studies at this university. She has written articles devoted to the German cinema and social issues of women in international politics.

By initiative of Prof. Krzysztof Ruchniewicz, director of the CSNE, he and the director of the Public City Library of Wrocław (MBP), Andrzej Ociepa signed an agreement establishing close cooperation. The agreement stipulates the implementation of educational and popular scientific ventures through regular exchange of information about planned conferences, exhibitions and publications. The aim of the agreement are joinedly organized cultural events (for example exhibitions, book promotions, discussion panels, film shows, conferences) in the field of Polish-German relations and in the areas: history, sociology, culture and film, literature and politics, including those of most recent times, taking into consideration local history.

Additionally, the partners will promote the project sides and their staff, and in the context of librarian exchanges pass doublets and publications issued by both institutions. The Centre will be incorporated into the partnership program OK City Libraries. This agreement allows for the active involvement of the Centre in the mainstream popularization of knowledge about Polish-German relations, which is extremely important considering the historical cultural heritage of Wroclaw and its significance as a European Capital of Culture 2016, begins a long and fruitful cooperation of CSNE and MBP and opens new perspectives for both institutions.

The first joined venture of the CSNE and the MBP in Wrocław will be the organization of a meeting with the author Dorota Danielewicz-Kerski on 31st March, 2014 at 5 p.m., where she will present her book "Berlin. Guide to the soul of the city". The meeting will be chaired by Prof. Krzysztof Ruchniewicz (CSNE, Wrocław University).

More information about the meeting on the website: http://wbz.uni.wroc.pl/pl/aktualnosci/item/1080-berlin-przewodnik-po-duszy-miasta-spotkanie-autorskie-z-dorota-danielewicz-kerski.html
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