(P)Ostkolonialismus – Postcolonial Perspectives on Poland, Ukraine and Eastern Europe - Instytut Pileckiego

During our conference researchers from various academic disciplines will discuss the potential benefits and challenges of postcolonial and decolonial perspectives on the historical and contemporary entanglements of the areas under study.

Organizer: Pilecki Institute Berlin 

Date: October 23-25, 2024

Location: Pilecki Institute Berlin, Pariser Platz 4A, 10117 Berlin

Register here until 22/10/2024

Find the full agenda further down below or here

What contribution can postcolonial theoretical approaches provide to the development of new perspectives and a better understanding of the entangled history of Germany with Poland, Ukraine, and Eastern Europe? Which colonial paradigms can be found, for example, in historical narratives and Erinnerungskulturen (cultures of remembrance), as well as in artistic approaches such as literature, film, etc.?

A representative study recently commissioned by Pilecki Institute Berlin has revealed the prevailing stereotypes and knowledge gaps in German society regarding the history and present of Poland, Ukraine, and Eastern Europe. In light of the study results, the Pilecki Institute Berlin is organizing a three-day conference, titled "(P)Ostkolonialismus - Postcolonial Perspectives on Poland, Ukraine and Eastern Europe". Researchers from various academic disciplines will discuss the potential benefits and challenges of postcolonial and decolonial perspectives on the historical and contemporary entanglements of the areas under study. Our aim is to create a discursive space to illuminate and question the continuities of colonial traditions of thought in Germany, their impact on the German history of violence, and their influence on contemporary Erinnerungskulturen.

In the 19th century, Poland, the so called “Wild East”, already formed part of Germany's colonial aspirations (Kopp 2012). Both Prussia and the German Empire, as well as the Nazi state, repeatedly attempted to fulfill their colonial settlement ambitions in Eastern Europe. The German mass crimes in the region during the Second World War were based on these continuities of anti-Slavic policies and convictions. 

These patterns of thought and behavior towards Eastern Europe continue to have an impact in many respects to the present day. Colonial traditions of thought are also reflected in Erinnerungskultur and historical debates. The gaps and absences in German collective memory of the National Socialist war of extermination in Eastern Europe have come to light, not only in the wake of 24 February 2022 and corresponding discourse on the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine.

By integrating diverse interdisciplinary and interpretative perspectives and initiating a constructive dialogue between them, we address the following question: How can postcolonial and decolonial approaches dismantle prevailing stereotypes and address knowledge gaps as well as absences in German Erinnerungskultur?

The event is open to the public and takes place on site. 

Admission is free. Registration is required. The deadline is 22/10/2024.

contact for questions:

Dr. Elisabeth Katzy

e-mail: e.katzy@pileckiinstitut.de

phone: +49 157 805 822 30

Lukas Wieczorek

e-mail: l.wieczorek@pileckiinstitut.de

phone: +49 151 646 734 67

Conference Agenda 

Day 1: Wednesday, October 23, 2024

12:00 - Registration

13:00 - Welcome Speeches: Lukas Wieczorek (Berlin) /  Dr Elisabeth Katzy (Berlin) / Dr Wojciech Kozłowski (Warszawa)  

13:30 - Hanna Radziejowska (Berlin)/ Mateusz Fałkowski (Berlin), The German society's historical self-image with regards to the 20th Century, and its perception of Poland

14:00 - Commentary by Prof. Dr. Felix Ackermann 

14:20 - Keynote lecture by Dr Franziska Davies: Postcolonial Perspectives on Poland, Ukraine and Eastern Europe

15:00 - Coffee Break

15:20 - Professor Dirk Uffelmann (Giessen), Polish Perspectives on German “Ostkolonisation"

15:40 - Professor Francis Harvey (Leipzig), Are place names shibboleths? Decoding coloniality in mapped place names

16:00 - Ihor Usatenko (Warszawa), Nazi Colonialism in Interwar Polish Reportage

16:20 - Discussion

16:50 - Coffee Break

17:10 - Professor Beata Ociepka (Wrocław) / Dr Christian Noack (Amsterdam) / Professor Pierre-Frédéric Weber (Szczecin), Germany-Poland-Ukraine: ‘The Colonial’ as a Factor Influencing Foreign Policyn(Panel Discussion)

18:40 - Summary of first day

19:00 - Reception & Get-together

Day 2: Thursday, October 24, 2024

09:00 - Dr Anna Damięcka-Wójcik (Warszawa), Orientalisierung der Masuren als ethnische Gruppe: Eine Studie zur Wahrnehmung des Anderen im 19. Jahrhundert in Preußen

09:20 - Dr Mateusz Maleszka (Bydgoszcz), The theory of "Restgermanen" as a basis for German territorial or political claims in the period 1890-1945

09:40 - Benedikt Putz (Berlin), Colonial Narratives and Continuities in the Weimar Republic in the Context of the Struggle for Upper Silesia 1919-1921

10:00 - Discussion

10:30 - Coffee Break

10:50 - Dr Paweł Kubicki (Kraków), The Tales of Three Cities. The postcolonial question in Central and Eastern Europe through the lens of the city and urbanity

11:10 - Dr Bartłomiej Krzysztan (Warszawa), From Recovered to Uncovered. Colonialism and Imperiality in the Eastern Borderlands and the Recovered Territories in Comparative Perspective

11:30 - Professor Hermann Mückler (Wien), Wir haben nie Kolonialismus betrieben“. Die habsburgischen kolonialen Ambitionen in Osteuropa – Amnesie und der rezente Umgang mit einem verklärten Erbe

11:50 - Discussion

12:20 - Lunch Break & possibility to attend guided tours of the permanent exhibition Witold Pilecki. In resistance to Hitler and Stalin

Workshop 1 - Jakub Niewiński (Zielona Góra)
Decolonial approaches in educational work. Intercultural sensitivity and the pyramid of alliance

Workshop 2 - Eva Yakubovska (Berlin)
Decolonizing Soviet war memorials in Berlin. Reflections on current legal and political challenges

Workshop 3 - Milena Khomchenko (Kyiv)
Reassembled Temporalities: Two Artistic Methods to Work with History, Contemporaneity, and the Future

15:20 - Presentation of Workshops Results

15:50 - Coffee Break

16:10 - Kateryna Botanova (Basel), The Russian Revolution and its Western Friends – Analysis of four art exhibitions dedicated to the centennial of the October Revolution

16:40 - Dr Alla Petrenko-Lysak (Kyiv) / Dr Svitlana Shlipchenko (Kyiv), Museums, Decolonization, and Rethinking the Symbolic Landscapes (Panel Discussion)

17:40 - Summary of second day

Day 3: Friday, October 25, 2024

9:00 - Agata Czaja (Münster), Postcolonialism and violence. Questions about Polish context

9:20 - Dr Rüdiger Ritter (Bremerhaven), Postkoloniale Perspektiven auf die europäische Musikgeschichte

9:40 - Dr Aleksandra Naróg (Kraków), Witold Gombrowicz in Berlin – Postcolonial Perspectives

10:00 - Discussion

10:30 - Coffee Break

10:50 - Jan Kuśmirski (Warsaw), The Image of Poland in German History Textbooks

11:10 - Dr Marek Jan Wasiński (Lódz), The Politics of Knowledge Production: Poland as Post-Colonial and Liminal Space in the International Legal Order

11:30 - Dr Tereza Hendl (Augsburg/München), Refusing inter-imperiality towards Europe's East: A shift to anti-oppressive research

11:50 - Discussion

12:20 - Lunch Break

13:50 - Professor Polina Barvinska (Odessa/Regensburg), Deutsche Osteuropastudien, deutsche Politik und die Erinnerung an den Zweiten Weltkrieg sowie den Holocaust in der Ukraine

14:10 - Professor Polina Barvinska (Odessa/Regensburg) / Professor Annette Werberger (Tübingen) / Professor Alexander Wöll (Potsdam) / Dr Aleksandra Konarzewska (Tübingen)
Dekolonisierung der Slavistik in Deutschland: Perspektiven und Herausforderungen"(Panel Discussion)

15:20 - Summary of third day and the conference and final discussion

Past Conferences (a selection)

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