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Contemporary witness
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Thementexttyp
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.
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Thementexttyp
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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Veranstaltungsreihentyp
series of lectures
Bohemian Biographies
Biographies are treasure troves of history. They often span several political eras and offer a personal perspective of history, shaped by individuals’ experiences of day to day life.
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Projekttypen
Research project
Bucovina – Jewish Perspectives
Until the Second World War, the historical Bukovina was known as an extremely multi-ethnic and multi-religious region. Nevertheless, the (German-speaking) public perception is often dominated by accounts published in the context of the "Landsmannschaft der Buchenlanddeutschen" (Landsmannschaft of...
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Projekttypen
Research project
Bukovina Germans: Inventions, Experiences and Narratives of an (imagined) Community
The Bukovina Institute at the University of Augsburg has set itself the task of preserving the history of Bukovina and its inhabitants. Inextricably linked to this are narratives of relocation and settlement, of flight and expulsion, and of integration processes in the later Federal Republic, the...
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Einrichtungstyp
Research institute | Cultural center | Library | Archive
Bukovina Institute at the University of Augsburg e.V.
The Bukovina Institute at the University of Augsburg is an affiliated institute of the University of Augsburg and is dedicated to researching and communicating knowledge about the culture and history of the historical region of Bukovina as well as about Eastern, East Central and Southeastern Europe.
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External Image
Recherchetooltyp
Online publication
Contemporary witness finding aid at the Federal Institute for Culture and History of the Germans in Eastern Europe (BKGE)
Contemporary eyewitness reports like life and family stories, diaries and reports of escapes, travel notes and interviews are all important doors into the past. But where can I find contemporary eyewitness reports?
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Einrichtungstyp
Museum
Danube Swabian Museum
Migration has always been an important part of European history and continues to be an issue of great significance today. The Danube Swabians are a German minority in Eastern Europe, whose ancestors emigrated to Hungary in the 18th and 19th centuries. The Danube Swabian Museum in Ulm is not only...
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Einrichtungstyp
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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Projekttypen
Oral history project | Film project
Donauschwäbische Zeitzeugen erzählen ("Danube Swabian eyewitnesses tell their stories")
Multiethnic coexistence, war and loss are formative experiences that affect a whole generation of people and can have a lasting impact on their children and grandchildren. The four-part film series "Donauschwäbische Zeitzeugen erzählen" ("Danube Swabian eyewitnesses tell their stories") gives...
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External Image
Europe in miniature?
Buko...? - what was it again? Bukovina is not a familiar name to you? Don't worry, because the permanent exhibition of the Bukovina Institute at the university will introduce you to this diverse and fascinating yet little-known region. Learn more about the history of this historic cultural landscape...
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Bestandstyp
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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External Image
Bestandstyp
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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Thementexttyp
Biography
Liberation from forced labor and the search for a new home
21-year-old Janina Jagodzińska describes the arduous beginning of 1945 in Poland's new western territories.
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External Image
My name is Eugen
"Thirteen young Russian Germans bear the name Eugen. They have never met each other, yet they share a striking experience: they were all formerly called Evgenij. Their stories and experiences are unique. The author Eugen Litwinow travelled with them into the past, sharing long conversations about...
Teaserbild
External Image
Recherchetooltyp
Online publication
Research contributions – Contemporary witness reports on the culture and history of the Germans in Eastern Europe in the 20th century
Contemporary eyewitness accounts are generally considered to be a particularly authentic way to access history. They make history comprehensible, even 'alive'. But is this really true? Aren't eyewitness accounts in their subjectivity, formedness and incompleteness rather a problematic...
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Thementexttyp
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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Thementexttyp
Biography
The Four Lehndorff Daughters
"I lost my home," Vera von Lehndorff once said, "but lost childhood is a better description." When her father was executed on September 4, 1944, she was five years old. Her sister Eleonore, "Nona," was six and a half, and Gabriele was two. Catharina was only 19 days old; she was born in the Torgau prison hospital. The Nazis had taken the girls and their mother Gottliebe into custody, a practice known in German as "Sippenhaft” or “kin liability". It was a traumatic time and was by no means over when the war ended in 1945.
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Thementexttyp
Background article
The History of the German-speaking Volhynians as Part of a Global Migration History
From the mid-nineteenth century onward, innovations such as steam navigation and the advent of the railroad led to a sharp increase in global migration movements. The German-speaking Volhynians were part of this development, which moved between the ideal-typical poles of voluntary and forced migration and was significantly influenced by the enforcement of the ethnonational principle. This article focuses on the emigration movements of this group from the Russian governorate of Volhynia in the period between the 1860s and the First World War. The subsequent forced migrations of the German-speaking Volhynians are also briefly discussed.
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Förderprogrammtyp
Writer in residence
Writer-in-residence scholarship
Bavarians in Odessa, US soldiers in Pilsen, Bora in Rijeka: some of the phenomena that our city writers describe in their blogs. For five months, they live and work as ambassadors with notebooks and cameras in attractive cities in Eastern Europe.