Special exhibition "Skoro damoi!" Hope and despair Starting in January 1945, large numbers of Transylvanian Saxons were deported to the Soviet Union to do forced labor. The exhibition showcases personal objects, photographs and documents that shed light on this central chapter of the recent history of Transylvanian Saxons.
Background Article "Wait till the Scots come!" This old Prussian proverb exhorts us to be patient and wait for the right opportunity. But what does this have to do with the far north of Great Britain? The answer leads us to Gdansk. In the early modern era, the port city attracted numerous merchant ships from the Baltic region and beyond. Some even came from as far away as Scotland to seek their fortune there.
"We have woken up in a different world today" (Annalena Baerbock) Statement of Copernico editorial staff on the war in Ukraine with some references where you can get information about background of the war.
Webdocu "We, too, are stepping down from our role" Web documentary about the German Drama Theater in Temirtau and the Germans in the Soviet Union between staying and leaving.
Object Story "What you can carry on your own" On 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, it is held in the Danube Swabian Central Museum in Ulm.
Background Article "Wherever the Russian Settles in Asia, the Country Immediately becomes Russian." (Dostoevsky) The Russian Empire's conquest of Central Asia began with the capture of the city of Tashkent in 1865. Numerous reasons have been put forward for the gradual but continual expansion that followed, but the term “civilizing mission” stands out in particular. What was the intention behind this conquest in the second half of the 19th century and how did it relate to colonization efforts?
Research project "Whoever is not for us is against us": The New Order and the Russian-German Youth in the Soviet Union (1917–1941) What role did the Communist Youth League play in the politicization of German youth? What methods were used to influence the young people?
Research project (Self)-Images of a Habsburg Periphery in High Modernity What roles did picture postcards play in the nationality struggle of the late 19th century? How were the different ethnic groups portrayed? What did the (self)-images of the crown land, which together with Galicia was considered the poorhouse of Cisleithania, look like? These and other questions...
Special exhibition 1920 - A province disappears The First World War was an important caesura in the history of the province of West Prussia. The cornerstones negotiated in the Treaty of Versailles ended the integration of West Prussia into Prussian territory and incorporated the region into the newly founded Polish Second Republic. This led to...
Publication project | Conference project | Research project 300 Years Immanuel Kant (1724–2024) 2024 marks the 300th anniversary of the birthday of Immanuel Kant, the philosopher from Königsberg. In preparation for the Year of Kant 2024, the BKGE is coordinating and organizing numerous activities around the topic of Immanuel Kant
Overview article 9 May 1945 in the memory culture of the Baltic States The Baltic States actively counter the Russian symbolism of May 9, 1945, as a day of victory, remembering instead the beginning of Soviet occupation and the loss of their own independence. Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania each present distinct national perspectives on this matter.
Special exhibition A Breath of Valkyrie on the Baltic Sea. Nationalism and Romanticism in the Literature of East Prussia What do a knight of the Teutonic Order, the Song of the Nibelungs and Hermann the Cheruscan have in common? They were all intended to legitimize the founding of the German Empire in 1871, which celebrates its 150th anniversary this year. This was a "unification from above" for which Prussia waged...
Background Article A City Inside the City Some disdain it as an enclave of a consumerist, unthinking middle class. Others sing its praises and consider it a one-of-a-kind urban development project. No other urban district in Poland has been written about and discussed as much as the Miasteczko Wilanów. But where do the roots of this discussion lie? What part do literature and other art forms play in the reproduction of those narratives? And what does the reality behind the stereotypes and urbanistic homages actually look like?
Object Story A Doctor and his Military Case In March 2015, a military case from the First World War was donated to the Transylvanian Museum. It accompanied Dr. Wilhelm Hager during World War I to the southern front – to Bosnia and the Isonzo, and then to the eastern front, to Galicia, Bukovina, Bessarabia and, finally, in 1918 to South Tyrol. Also as a Romanian citizen after 1918, Dr. Hager once again had to fight, this time on the side of the Romanian army. In 1919-1920 he took part in the campaign on the Tisza River as a medical officer of the reserve (medic cǎpitan).
Biographical Portrait A Failed Mission In 1946, Ben Zion Goldberg traveled through the Soviet Union as a journalist. But his journey was part of a personal mission as well: he was determined to keep the newly established dialogue with Jewish organizations in the USSR alive – hoping that, in doing so, he could contribute to a more peaceful world.
A Future in Ruins or the War on Education Education determines our future. But what happens when children are deliberately deprived of access to learning? This is the question posed by the documentary "War on Education" by the director Stefani Di Pietro, which is now also available with German subtitles.
Background Article A Latvian Valiant In 2018, Juris Bļodnieks donated a 1971 Plymouth Valiant to the Latvians Abroad Museum – it was spray-painted, inoperable and had been parked under a tarpaulin for two decades. The car tells the story of Latvian exile culture in North America, of protest, patriotism and the creative expressiveness of the second generation abroad.
Background Article A Little Mole and So Much More What role did children's media play in Czechoslovakia? 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.
Background Article A Region Divided into Three In the year the war ended, the division of East Prussia into areas later annexed by the Soviet Union and Poland had, in effect, already taken place. While the developments in the region shared many parallels, they also revealed key differences—differences that would prove to be defining for the decades that followed.
