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Organizations
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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, this is held in the Danube Swabian Central Museum in Ulm.
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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).
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A Transylvanian church fur from South Africa
Among the numerous pieces of traditional costume at the Transylvanian Museum in Gundelsheim is one whose change of ownership and the resulting journey render it a fitting symbol of the collective fate of entire families, indeed entire Saxon village communities from northern Transylvania in the 20th century.
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Library holdings
Collection of the Martin Opitz Library
The Martin Opitz Library is the central library for German culture and history in Eastern Europe. It collects literature from all areas of East-Central, Eastern and South-Eastern Europe. The main focus of the collections is on the regions that today form western Poland and the Kaliningrad region –...
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Library holdings | Archive
Collections and holdings of the Institute for German Culture and History in Southeastern Europe (IKGS)
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Library holdings | Archive
Collections and holdings of the Kunstforum Ostdeutsche Galerie
With its collection and in-house art library, including an artists’ archive, the Kunstforum Ostdeutsche Galerie (KOG) pursues a unique mission within Germany: to preserve, communicate and research the artistic heritage of the formerly German-influenced areas in Central, Eastern and Southeastern...
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Object story
Down the Danube in the Ulm Box
A flat-bottomed wooden boat with a hut on top, sides painted in black and white stripes, and two very long oars at the front and back – that's an "Ulmer Schachtel" (Ulm box). This vessel, which seems curious today, was once an important means of transport on the Danube.
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Introduction
Emigration, Forced Migration, and the Iron Curtain
Eastern Europe has been a "migration hot spot" since the late 19th century: Initially as a core area of overseas emigration, then of ethnic forced migration after the end of World War I. Emigration during the Cold War was nearly impossible. Today, many countries in this region benefit from the European Union's Freedom of Movement policy.
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Biography
Fritz Lamm: A diary as a companion during his escape in 1936
Fritz Lamm describes his escape from the Nazi persecution of Jews from Stettin via Switzerland and Austria to Prague in his previously unpublished diary.
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Background article
Hanklich
The cultural diversity of Transylvania is reflected in the culinary culture of the region, which has been shaped by extremely varied influences, diverse ethnic groups, and their eventful histories. An exciting example of this is a flat, yeast cake called hanklich.
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Holding
Holdings and collections of the Danube Swabian Museum
From a refugee’s suitcase to a popcorn maker, from the jacket of a forced laborer to a perennial Christmas tree: the holdings of the Danube Swabian Museum convey Danube-Swabian culture and history in a multifarious and eclectic way. An unexpected and special feature of the collection is that many...
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Home in a trunk of clothes - the Garlik family's traditional costume suitcase
This suitcase has traveled far – not, as one might expect, after the Second World War, but rather in the decades after the flight of the Nessner family. It was used to transport the traditional costumes of a Danube Swabian dance troupe from Baden-Württemberg as they toured to enclaves of Danube Swabians scattered around the world.
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How did a German Emigrant find his Way in Eastern Europe at the Beginning of the 19th Century?
How someone finds their way in a foreign country can be explored in different ways. In the case of Franz Xaver Bronner's travels from Switzerland to Kazan in 1810, and his return in 1817, a geographical approach is used to provide a fact-based foundation.
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Hungarian – Communist – Jew?
This article sheds light on some facets of the life of the philosopher Ernő Gáll, who as a Jew, a communist, and a Hungarian was both politically persecuted and a perpetrator. A committed intellectual, he acted as a mediator between different political factions and hostile ethnic groups throughout his life. In doing so, he developed an ethic of dignity and responsibility and coined the phrase "the dignity of individual character," which also has relevance for today's debates around the issue of identity.
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In Copernicus’ name
These days, there are a whole host of organizations in Poland, Germany, and the USA bearing the name Copernicus. Although they all relate to the same historical person, they have quite different goals.
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Not a Moment to Lose
In 1944, the entire German-speaking population of the village of Novo Selo in Yugoslavia flee for their their lives as the Red Army approaches. Among them is the Neuburger family, who travel by horse-drawn wagon via Hungary to Austria.
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Post-War Jewish Migration from the USSR and the refuseniki movement
The post-WW II Jewish migration from the Soviet Union (and also after its dissolution) is one of the largest in modern history. Altogether 2.75 million Soviet Jews left the USSR for Israel, the United States, Germany and elsewhere. The position of the Soviet state with respect to emigration was remarkably ambivalent: in some cases, it was allowed and even encouraged, in others, others; it was controlled and strongly limited. The Jewish emigration movement that arose in the late 1960s and continued throughout the 1970s-1980s became an example of resistance and activism within the authoritarian system, which increasingly alerted international attention. In one way or another, it affected the lives of hundreds of thousands of people and changed the appearance of many cities and towns within the Soviet Union and outside it.
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Introduction
Religious Migrations
What do the Canadian songwriter Leonard Cohen, the American director Woody Allen and the French chansonnier Charles Aznavour have in common?
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Background article
Russian-German history as migration history
Russian Germans are a global minority. Their history is often characterized by migration within and outside the Russian Empire spanning several generations. In the last third of the 19th century, popular migration destinations included North and South America as well as new settlement areas in Siberia and Kazakhstan. It was here that all Russian Germans were then exiled during and after the Second World War. Since the latest period of resettlement in the 1980s and 1990s, most Russian Germans have settled in Germany.
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Swimming to Freedom
On the night of May 22-23, 1979, 36-year-old Gernot Eamandi swims across the heavily guarded Danube from Romania to Yugoslavia. His destination: the Federal Republic of Germany. With him: a backpack from his army days.
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