The whole of Eastern Europe is a kind of Pompeii. This Pompeii fascinates not only those who have lost their homeland, but also those who have had it returned to them and are reassimilating here.1
The Krkonoše Mountains are a mountain range in the Polish and Czech part of Silesia. The highest peak of the Krkonoše Mountains is 1603 meters above sea level (Polish: Śnieżka, Czech: Sněžka).
Gdansk is a large city on the Baltic Sea in the Polish Pomeranian Voivodeship (Pomorskie) with about 470,000 inhabitants. It is lying on the Motława River (German: Mottlau) on the Gdansk Bay.
Kaliningrad is a large city in present-day Russia with almost 500,000 inhabitants. It is located in the Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave between Lithuania and Poland, which roughly corresponds to the northern part of the Prussian province of East Prussia before 1945 (today excluding Lithuanian areas). Before 1945, Königsberg was not only the capital of the province and the northeasternmost major city in Prussia, but also royal capital and residence in Prussia from 1724.
Prague (population 2023: 1,384,732) is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. It is located in the center of the urban area on the Vltava River. The first Prague Castle was probably built in the 9th century. In the 10th/11th century, immigrant Jews lived alongside the local population in what were initially two neighboring castle settlements. At the beginning of the 1230s, Prague was granted city rights, followed by Malá Strana in 1257, Hradčany as a castle town in 1320 and the New Town of Prague (Nové Město) in 1348. From the very beginning, Prague was the residence of the Bohemian rulers, at the latest from the 12th century within the borders of the Holy Roman Empire. As the seat of the emperor in the 14th century, Prague developed into one of the most important centers of the entire empire, and the first university in Central Europe was founded here in 1348. In 1784, the four cities were formally united. Gradually, especially in 1920 and after the founding of Czechoslovakia in 1918, further towns were incorporated. Between 1938 and 1945, Prague became the capital of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, which was dependent on the German Reich. After the Allies broke up the Reich in 1945, Prague was once again the capital of - now socialist - Czechoslovakia until 1992. After the collapse of Czechoslovakia, Prague remained the capital of the Czech Republic and one of the most culturally, economically and politically important cities in Central Europe.
Located in the southeastern part of the Czech Republic, Brno (tsch. Brno) is the second largest city in the country after Prague, with a population of about 380,000. It replaced Olomouc as the capital of Moravia in 1641. Today Brno is the administrative seat of the South Moravian Region (Jihomoravský kraj) and an important industrial, commercial and cultural center. The university city is the seat of the Constitutional Court and the Supreme Administrative Court of the Czech Republic.
The Baltic States is a region in the north-east of Europe and is composed of the three states Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. The Baltic States are inhabited by almost 6 million people.
The village of Sztynort is located in the north of the Masurian Lake District on the Jez Peninsula between Jezioro Mamry, Jezioro Dargin and Jezioro Dobskie. Until 1928 the village was called Groß Steinort, then Steinort.
Secondly, there are memories of the later, post-war history of the Steinort estate, which, for example, focus on the kindergarten in Steinort Castle and, above all, on the arrival and integration of the Polish population after 1945. When Maria Zarębska speaks of Lehndorff, who was also present in narratives of the postwar years, the focus is not on the resistance fighter, but on the hegemonic role of the noble family and its head at the time: "He was a count, they said, very rich, and he owned many people."
The third chapter of Steinort history is probably that of the reconstruction work that has taken place since the turn of the millennium. It is the story of enthusiasts like Bettina Bouresh, Wolfram Jäger, Hannah Wadle or Marek Makowski and Piotr Wagner. Certainly, a romantic view also plays a role here, but what prevails is the sense of a shared desire to develop Steinort into a meeting place of Germans and Poles, where the diverse stories of the place are held.
The interview project has uncovered these diverse layers of Steinort's history. Hopefully it will contribute to making Steinort a living place of exchange and encounter, where people can engage with European history and stories in all their complexity. Last but not least, it is to be hoped that Steinort will indeed become a European place of remembrance with high identity relevance for various European societies.4
Info section
Authors
