Conference: Displaced persons, (homesick) tourists and "new settlers" in the border areas of the GDR, Czechoslovakia and the People's Republic of Poland
The three-day conference will examine the history of the displaced persons, (homesick) tourists and 'new settlers' in the socialist "brother countries" of the GDR, Czechoslovakia and the People's Republic of Poland up to 1989. Scientists, contemporary witnesses and practitioners from cultural work will gain new insights and talk about the future of understanding.
The situation of displaced persons and refugees from the former German eastern provinces and settlement areas of East Central Europe who had settled in the Soviet occupation zone/the GDR differed in important respects from that of their compatriots in the West. One crucial aspect was that the states in which their former homeland was located were among the "friendly brother countries" of the socialist camp and the people living there were considered friendly peoples. Refugees and displaced persons in the GDR were thus able to return to their old homeland in Bohemia or Silesia somewhat earlier and against a different political background than those in the Federal Republic.
Hundreds of thousands more GDR citizens traveled to Czechoslovakia and Poland on holiday or for business and met people there who often only arrived after 1945. For the refugees and displaced persons, such trips were always also trips into the past, to their former homeland, to the graves of their ancestors, to the houses in which they once lived and where other people now lived. Later, this was also possible for people from the Federal Republic, who - unlike those from the GDR - were able to speak publicly about it after their return and often did so in writing, which is why a lot of information is already available on this. Since this was not possible in the GDR, less is known about it.
This fact, often mentioned by those affected, has so far received little attention in research and in public. Encounters with Czech and Polish "new settlers" and their views on the former residents have also been sparsely investigated in this context. The conference is dedicated to these stories in the previously predominantly German-populated areas of Czechoslovakia and takes a comparative look at the situation in the People's Republic of Poland. More than 35 years after the fall of the Iron Curtain, we also want to take a look at previous reconciliation initiatives from Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic and talk to practitioners of cross-border cooperation about the future of understanding.
(This is an automatic translation by Google Translator.)
program
Sunday, June 9
16:00 - 17:00
Registration
17:00 - 17:10
Welcome
17:10 - 17:30
Movie
17:30 - 18:15
Lecture and discussion: Lutz Jahoda from Brno - a popular entertainer in the GDR and also known in Czechoslovakia
PhDr. Kristina Kaiserová, CSc., Institute for Slavic-Germanic Studies, UJEP, Ústí nad Labem
18:15 - 19:15
Dinner
19:15 - 21:00
Contemporary witness talks
Moderation: Ralf Pasch, Author, Berlin
Afterwards
Possibility for individual discussions with the contemporary witnesses
Monday, June 10
09:00 – 09:30 am
greeting
NN, Representative of the Federal Ministry of the Interior and Home Affairs
Hartmut Koschyk, Deputy Chairman of the German Society e. V.
Dr. Agnieszka Pufelska, Northeast Institute (IKGN e. V.)
Dr. Jens Baumann, Commissioner for Expellees and Late Repatriates of the Free State of Saxony
Jiří Řehák, Vice-Hejtman of the Ústí District (requested)
09:30 – 10:00 am
Lecture: “Come with us to build the border region!”
Dr. Andreas Wiedemann, historian, Prague
10:00 – 10:30 am
Lecture: Refugee – resettler – new citizen? Positioning between state-enforced integration measures and individual adaptation strategies
Prof. Dr. Ira Spieker, Institute for Saxon History and Folklore
11:00 – 11:15 am
Break
11:15 – 11:45 am
Lecture: Little Iron Curtain. The Czech-Saxon border 1945 to 1966
Mgr. Petr Karlíček, Ph.D., Archives of the City of Ústí nad Labem
11:45 – 12:30
Panel: Flight and expulsion vs. resettlement – a controversial comparison?
Dr. Andreas Wiedemann, historian, Prague
Prof. Dr. Ira Spieker, Institute for Saxon History and Folklore
Mgr. Petr Karlíček, Ph.D., Archives of the City of Ústí nad Labem (requested)
Moderation: Steffen Neumann, Euroregion Elbe/Labe
12:30 – 14:00
lunch break
14:00 – 14:30
Lecture: “Borders of friendship”. Tourism between the GDR, Czechoslovakia and Poland
Dr. Mark Keck-Szajbel, Centre for Interdisciplinary Polish Studies
14:30 – 15:00
Lecture: Home as a travel destination during the Cold War. Nostalgic tourism of Germans expelled from Czechoslovakia after 1945
PhDr. Sandra Kreisslová, Ph. D., Faculty of Philosophy, Charles University/Ethnological Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences
3:00 p.m. – 3:30 p.m.
Lecture: The Sudeten Germans in the Federal Republic and the GDR
Dr. Soňa Mikulová, Max Planck Institute for Human Development
15:30 – 16:00
coffe break
4:00 p.m. – 4:30 p.m.
Lecture: Homesick tourists from the GDR in Poland
Dr. Mateusz Hartwich, historian, Berlin
4:30 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.
Panel: Nostalgia tourism from the GDR and the Federal Republic – differences and similarities
Dr. Mateusz Hartwich, historian, Berlin
Dr. Mark Keck-Szajbel, Centre for Interdisciplinary Polish Studies
Wilfried Rogasch, curator of the exhibition “Silent! – Expellees in the Soviet Occupation Zone and the GDR” (requested)
Dr. Agnieszka Pufelska, Northeast Institute (IKGN e. V.)
Moderation: Ralf Pasch, author, Berlin
18:30 – 20:00
Dinner
20:00 – 21:00
Fireside chat “Steps towards understanding in the 1980s to 2000s” (working title)
PhDr. Kristina Kaiserová, CSc., Institute for Slavic-Germanic Studies UJEP, Ústí nad Labem
Daniel Herman, former Minister of Culture of the Czech Republic/Sdružení Ackermann Community (requested)
Hartmut Koschyk, Deputy Chairman of the German Society e. V.
Richard Neugebauer, Vice-President of the National Assembly of German Associations in the Czech Republic (requested)
Moderation: Steffen Neumann, Euroregion Elbe/Labe
Tuesday, June 11
09:15 – 09:45 am
Reports from communication practice 1: Antikomplex
Terezie Vavrová-Stiborová, Board Member of “Antikomplex”
09:45 – 10:15 am
Reports from the practice of understanding 2: Ackermann Community
Marie Smolková, Managing Director of Ackermann Community (requested)
10:15 – 11:00 am
Discussion: Encounter between displaced persons and 'new settlers': Understanding after 1989
Jitka Tůmová, Teplitz/Teplice (requested)
11:00 – 12:00
Panel: “New ideas for understanding?” (working title)
Terezie Vavrová-Stiborová, Board Member of Antikomplex
Martin Dzingel, Chairman of the National Assembly of German Associations in the Czech Republic
NN, Sudeten German Association
Marie Smolková, Managing Director of Ackermann Community (requested)
Moderation: NN
12:00 – 12:15
Closing words by Rüdiger Kubsch, Managing Director of the Euroregion Oberes Elbtal / Osterzgebirge eV municipal association
12:30 – 14:00
Lunch
from 2:00 p.m.
Excursion (please register, max. 30 people) Vorderzinnwald / Přední Cínovec Mgr. Jan Kvapil, Ph.D, Germanist, Ústí nad Labem (Aussig) City tour (please register, max. 20 people) Teplitz/Teplice Jutta Benešová, Teplice Through the Schönau spa district to the spa houses and to the castle square. The tour ends in the Beuron Chapel.
(This is an automatic translation by Google Translator.)
Conference venue
The conference will take place in the Hotel Pivovar Monopol in Teplice.
The address of the conference venue is: Českobratrská 25, 415 01 Teplice.
The Pivovar Monopol Hotel stretches across an entire block, so access from the north is also possible from Masarykova třída (No. 433/42). This access is better if you arrive by train or park on this street.
Arrival by train
From the train station it is about 450 m to the conference venue on foot. The best way to do this is to go down Vrchlického Street (sometimes called Nádražní náměstí) and then take the first street on the right (Masarykova třída). The house number 433/42 on the left is the Hotel Pivovar Monopol. Once inside, you have to walk through the whole building almost to the other end.
Park
The following parking options are available nearby:
on the side of the road on Masarykova třída,
on the roadside of Kollárova,
on the roadside of Mrštíkova,
on the side of Potěminova,
on the square Benešovo náměstí.
All parking spaces in public areas cost approximately 30 CZK per hour.
(This is an automatic translation by Google Translator.)
(This is an automatic translation by Google Translator.)
Registration and accomodation
To register, please use our registration form. There you will also find information about the accommodation options available.
This event is a cooperation project of the Deutsche Gesellschaft e. V. and the Euroregion Elbe/Labe.
The project is funded by the Federal Ministry of the Interior and Home Affairs based on a resolution of the German Bundestag, the Small Projects Fund in the Euroregion Elbe/Labe (applied for) and the Institut für Kultur und Geschichte der Deutschen in Nordosteuropa (IKGN) e.V. – Nordost-Institut (funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media based on a resolution of the German Bundestag).