Introductory Texts Is there such a thing as an Eastern European childhood?External ImageIntroductionMartina WinklerChildren and childhoodsExternal ImageIntroductionThe 20th century brought many changes in the way many people experienced and thought about childhood and also many changes for children in terms of their living environments, life circumstances and educational spaces. Furthermore, it was a period that produced a wide range of scientific findings in...Kristina Schierbaum Of Moles and Fairy Tales: Media by and for Children and Adolescents “Widdewidde wie sie uns gefällt” – “Just how we like it”.External ImageHow authors from Kazakhstan are creating new identities through children's booksBackground articleChildren’s and young adult books play a special role in their young readers’ search for identity. The example of Kazakhstan shows how positive social visions for a country and its diverse society can be created and communicated especially in fantastic and fairytale-like works.Nina Frieß“Naš puć” (Our Way)External ImageA youth magazine and its Sorbian editors in the Czech border region 1947-1949Background articleIn the fall of 1947, a group of Sorbian school students in Varnsdorf in the Czech Republic launched a bold initiative to voice their political views. They began publishing a magazine, which became an appeal to young Sorbs – to join forces and help build a new society.Jana PiňosováA Little Mole and So Much MoreExternal ImageChildren’s Media in Socialist CzechoslovakiaBackground articleWhat role did children's media play in Czechoslovakia – and to what extent were socialist views of the individual and society, or even political events, reflected in them? A small creature living in the soil can provide information about this.Martina Winkler Practices and Discourses External ImageBackground article “Feminine virtues” and “untamable masculinity” Sex education for Polish youth, as it was and as it is todayHistorically, sex education has primarily been a subject that teaches important basic knowledge about human reproduction and health. However, by making both indirect and direct statements on gender roles, it also acts as a lens through which we can examine underlying societal values and images that...Elisa-Maria Hiemer External ImageBackground article Dreams Beyond the Cow Pasture What “memoir competitions” tell us about life as a young person in rural regions of the People's Republic of Poland The People's Republic of Poland brought radical change to the lives of children and young people living in the Polish countryside. Though many still had the task of herding cows, their expectations and visions for the future were now very different. In texts written and submitted as part of...Laura Clarissa Loew External ImageBackground article Flirting on the ice German-Baltic memoirs about ice-skating in the 19th and early 20th centuryBy the 19th century, ice skating had developed into a fashionable pastime for the upper classes. The skating rink became an important public space, where social hierarchies, moral values and notions of gender manifested themselves. In the Baltic states, too, skating was an integral part of the lives...Anja WilhelmiExternal ImageBackground article A Russian aristocratic childhood set out in three columns Adolphe Pascault's diary about Iurii Samarin's upbringing in the early 19th centuryA diary discovered in the archives gives a detailed insight into aristocratic parenting practices in 19th century Russia and shows that helicopter parenting is not just a modern phenomenon.Katharina Kucher Childhoods in War and Crises Still a Child or Already an Adult?External ImageExperiencing Childhood and Youth in Upper Silesia during the Second World WarBackground articleFor children and adolescents, growing up during a time of armed conflict often means a loss of innocence and facing difficulties on various levels. The role of young Polish people in Upper Silesia changed significantly during the Second World War and often involved abstaining from education and...Izabela PaszkoNational Socialist policy and everyday school life in BudapestExternal ImageHow young people were ideologically indoctrinated by National Socialism in the years 1940–1944 at the schools and educational institutions of the Volksbund der Deutschen in UngarnBackground articleThe “Wiener Volksgruppenabkommen” (Vienna Ethnic Group Agreement) of 26 August, 1940 enabled the unhindered spread of National Socialism in Hungary and meant that the German “Volksgruppe” (ethnic group) in Hungary, which had now been brought into line with Germany’s politics, was able to...Viktória MukaInnocent but sentenced to deathExternal ImageChildren in the Warsaw GhettoBackground articleDuring the Shoah, over a million Jewish children were mercilessly murdered by the National Socialists and their accomplices. Their extermination was preceded by processes of marginalization, disenfranchisement and deportations to camps and ghettos under indescribable conditions. But what was...Stephan Heinrich Nolte "What you can carry on your own"External ImageThe school suitcase of little Elsa BeckObject storyOn November 18, 1944, nine-year-old Elsa Beck flees the Hungarian village of Máriakéménd with her mother and sister. Elsa's mother allows her to take with her what she can carry herself. Elsa decides to take her school suitcase. Today, this is held in the Danube Swabian Central Museum in Ulm.DZM-TeamWith Grandma's Laundry Basket, Running for our LivesExternal ImageObject storyA nondescript woven wicker basket stands in the storeroom of the Martin Opitz Library in Herne. The handles on either side indicate that it might once have served as a laundry basket. With its four rather makeshift wheels, however, the basket tells more than just a family story; it also tells of...André WilbrandtSilent witnessExternal ImageA baby's cardigan and two certificatesObject storyNothing is more closely connected with the circumstances of flight and expulsion than the experience of loss. Three touching objects from the years 1944/1945, which are now in the East Prussian state museum with German-Baltic department in Lüneburg, bear witness to this.Jörn Barfod
