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Organizations
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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...
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Editorial
A Wounded City
What was the first day of the war like in Kharkiv? How has the city changed as a result of the devastating attack on Ukraine? How do people experience the war? Kharkiv residents were asked about this in the first months after February 24, 2022.
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Background article
Agata, Dorota, Iwona, Jolanta
"What luck that we had this kindergarten!" All four say. That was in the early 1970s. Agata and Jolanta now live in Germany, Dorota and Iwona have stayed in Masuria. Lehndorff Castle, the "Pałac", was a place they all felt happy. In those stately rooms they had a feeling of security and comfort, they played among the old oaks, went swimming in the lake. It was a microcosm away from the adult world with its worries and traumas.
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Background article
Antje Vollmer
She is known as a Green Party politician and for her longstanding role as Vice President of the German Bundestag. After retiring in 2005, she became a freelance author. Her first book project “Doppelleben” (Double Life) tells the story of Heinrich von Lehndorff, one of the conspirators of the events of 20 July 1944 , and his wife Gottliebe. It is a moving biography of two young aristocrats that tells of their daring and their love.
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Location portrait
Barabashovo Market
The Barabashovo Market is located in the Saltivka district, the part of the city that has been most devastated by the war. This vast retail complex is considered the largest industrial and household goods market in Ukraine and, with an area of over 75 hectares, is the largest in Eastern Europe and one of the largest markets in the world.
On March 17, 2022, during the fighting for Kharkiv, Russian troops shelled Barabashovo with Grad multiple rocket launchers, which sparked numerous fires throughout the market. Within a very short time, an inferno had engulfed almost the entire retail area and spread to nearby private residences. The burning market was shelled a second time, killing one firefighter, and on March 25, it was shelled again. The numerous attacks destroyed a large part of the market, while the fumes produced by burning materials, especially plastic, caused massive environmental damage, estimated by the State Environmental Inspectorate of Ukraine at a cost of almost 2 billion UAH.
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Holding
Bestandsbeschreibung Westpreußisches Landesmuseum
The collections of the West Prussia State Museum are aimed at audiences interested in cultural history, including local historians and school classes. The library and archive offer possibilities for in-depth study and can provide basic information for local history and family researchers.
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Biography
Bettina Bouresh
"I’m a typical post-war child," says Bettina Bouresh. Born in 1950, she grew up burdened with German guilt and the traumas of her mother's family, who had lived in Allenstein until 1945. She herself felt homeless for a long time. Until one day she found her place: in Masuria. Here she found a home – and in Steinort Palace her life’s work. Today she is vice-chairwoman of the Lehndorff Society.
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Location portrait
Burevisnyk Sports Complex (NSK Karazinskyi)
Construction of the Burevisnyk Sports Complex began in 1959. The facility comprised a games hall, a sports hall, and a rowing pool, as well as three volleyball courts, two basketball courts, and a soccer pitch. After Ukraine gained independence, the site was renamed. A range of sports can be played and practiced here.
The complex was badly damaged during the major offensive by Russian troops. A heavy air raid on March 5, 2022 caused the roof to collapse. Windows and halls were also destroyed, and the entire communications system was damaged.
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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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Cultural office
Cultural Office for Pomerania and East Brandenburg
Rivers run through the old maps like veins. For Pomerania and East Brandenburg, the Oder is the main artery. Anyone who is curious about the past and present of these historically developed regions (which lie either side of the Oder) will discover a wide range of services and resources provided...
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Location portrait
Derzhprom
Derzhprom, the House of State Industry, is the first Soviet skyscraper. Built in the constructivist style between 1925 and 1928, it stands 13 storeys high as an enduring architectural monument on Maidan Svobody (Freedom Square) in central Kharkiv.
The Derzhprom itself is 63 meters high, and together with the television tower, built in 1954, it reaches 108 meters. The usable area of the building is 60,000 m², and the entire plot covers 10,760 m².
Derzhprom was the first building in the world to be built from monolithic reinforced concrete, using 1,315 wagonloads of cement, 9,000 tons of metal, 3,700 wagonloads of granite and 40,000 m² of glass. The building has 4,500 window openings and 17 hectares of exterior glazing. The skyscraper features 12 elevators, 7 of which have been in operation without replacement since it was opened in 1928.
The building was damaged during the Second World War. Before the German troops withdrew in August 1943, a series of bombing raids and arson attacks damaged the parquet floors and window frames and resulted in the doors being burnt down. The restoration of the tower block took until 1947 to complete. The Derzhprom is a candidate for the provisional list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
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Documentation center
Documentation Center for Displacement, Expulsion, Reconciliation
The Documentation Center offers exhibitions, a library and a testimony archive, tours, workshops and events. The Center provides information about the causes, dimensions and consequences of displacement, expulsion and forced migration in the past and present. Particular focus is on the displacement...
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series of seminars
Educational partnership between the Martin Opitz Library and Mulvany Vocational College in Herne
The Martin Opitz Library teaches media competence. Both successful information research and a critical approach to media are becoming increasingly important, whether at school, university, work or in private life. In order to impart these skills successfully and practically, the MOB cooperates...
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Document repository
Electronic Reading Room (eL) of the Martin Opitz Library
Would you like to browse selected holdings of the Martin Opitz Library from your own PC? In the MOB's electronic reading room, you will find thousands of digitized documents – from historical address books to monographs, journals and much more.
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Encounters with a German-Polish cultural landscape
The history of West Prussia is very multi-faceted. It is an example of a cultural landscape on the Baltic Sea that has benefited from its advantageous location in the heart of Europe for centuries, but has also frequently become the political plaything of rulers. The permanent exhibition in the West...
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Biography
Eva Anna Therese Puschke
As far back as the 19th century, the Puschke family worked as teachers in Steinort and in the neighboring church village of Rosengarten. They played an important role in village life and had close ties to the noble Lehndorff family. The last teacher of the dynasty was Eva Puschke, a "lay teacher" in Rosengarten from 1940 to 1944. After the Germans were expelled, she lived in Hamburg. She left behind a suitcase full of family documents.
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Forgotten, but not lost
The seizure of power by the National Socialists in 1933 led to a major wave of migration out of Germany. Over 500,000 people left the Third Reich, among them numerous artists and cultural professionals. The exhibition presents works by artists in exile who came from former West Prussia and other...
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Object story
From Sample Case to Museum Piece
Over 100 years, and it's still on the move – despite its rather plain appearance, this old brown case has had a rather impressive "career". It was once a sample case for woolen fabrics, a trusted companion on vacation trips, a means of transportion on the run and a piece of furniture in the bare dreariness of a home for refugees. Today, on loan from HAUS SCHLESIEN, it is an exhibit in the Museum of the Lubuskie Region in Grünberg (Muzeum Ziemi Lubuskiej w Zielonej Górze), and a silent witness to a hundred years of history.
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Holding
Holdings and collections of the Documentation Center for Displacement, Expulsion, Reconciliation
The scientific library of the Documentation Center for Displacement, Expulsion, Reconciliation includes German and foreign language books, newspapers and magazines as well as digital media on the topic of forced migrations in the 20th and 21st centuries in Europe. In addition to a contemporary...
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Immanuel Kant Scholarship
The fellowship is aimed at doctoral students working on transnational and transcultural references or interconnections in Eastern Europe from the Middle Ages to the present, with a special focus on the German-speaking population. The application deadline for the new call is December 31, 2023.
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