Mehrzahl Moderne III – Polish-Jewish-Prussian Heritage. Poznań as a Contested Space
New lecture series: Mehrzahl Moderne. An Introduction to the Intertwined Histories of Central and Eastern Europe”
Third event: lecture titled “Polish-Jewish-Prussian Heritage. Poznań as a Contested Space”
PD Dr. Agnieszka Pufelska (Nordost-Institut Lüneburg) followed by a commentary from Prof. Dr. Max Welch Guerra (Bauhaus-Universität Weimar)
21 MAY, 18.00 | Pariser Platz 4A, 10117 Berlin
The event will be held in German.
This lecture examines Poznań as an urban space where German, Polish, and Jewish conceptions of modernity competed with one another in the 19th and 20th centuries. The focus is on the question of how architecture, the economy, and institutions were used to make national identity visible and to symbolically shape the urban space. Using examples such as the Bazaar, the Cegielski Company, the New Synagogue, and the Imperial Palace, the lecture demonstrates that the conflict between nationalities extended far beyond politics and was deeply inscribed in the cityscape. Particular attention is paid to the upheavals of 1918, 1939, and 1945, as well as to the shifting meanings of central buildings and spaces. Poznań thus emerges as an exemplary site of competing modernities in East Central Europe.
PD Dr. Agnieszka Pufelska is a research fellow at the Northeast Institute at the University of Hamburg (Lüneburg) and a Privatdozent at the University of Potsdam. The cultural historian focuses on the history of German-Polish cultural ties and modern Jewish history. Her publications address topics such as antisemitism, historical narratives, and the construction of national identity. She is currently conducting research on the appropriation of Prussian cultural heritage in Polish museums.
Lecture series “Mehrzahl moderne: An Introduction to the Intertwined Histories of Central and Eastern Europe”
The Pilecki Institute Berlin and the Public History department at the FernUniversität in Hagen are jointly exploring how the recent histories of Poland, Ukraine and Belarus can be narrated as part of European history. How can the historical experiences of these societies be recounted without perpetuating historical notions of asymmetry, backwardness and superiority? One answer to this question is to understand modernity as a plurality of diverse, interwoven processes. An awareness of the region’s polyphony, complexity and interdependence enables us to sharpen our focus on the so-called periphery. By placing its past at the centre, we remind ourselves that the future of Europe is being decided today in Ukraine.
Curators of the Mehrzahl Moderne series are Prof. Felix Ackermann and Dr. Małgorzata Jędrzejczyk.
