20 Results
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...
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).
Object story

A Steinway for Eugen d'Albert?

In the “Eichendorff Hall” of Haus Schlesien in Königswinter there is a Steinway grand piano made of lemon wood. It is a noteworthy museum object not only because the famous Steinway & Sons lettering is emblazoned on it, but also, and above all, because it was owned by Gerhart Hauptmann, the 1912 Nobel Prize winner for literature.
Research project

Architecture of Modernism in Eastern Europe

Research into the architectural history of modernism in Eastern Europe is a long-term art historical project of the BKGE, the core of which is the cooperation with the Architekturmuseum in Breslau/Muzeum Architektury we Wrocławiu (Wroclaw Museum of Architecture). Another focus is on translations of...
Biography

Artist and Art Figure

Monika Hunnius is generally known as a Baltic German author. She, however, saw herself as a musician – and was part of a network of musicians that extended all over Europe, to which Julius Stockhausen, Johannes Brahms, and Clara Schumann belonged as well.
Series

Beiträge zur Geschichte der Deutschen in Polen und der deutsch-polnischen Beziehungen ("Contributions on the history of Germans in Poland and German-Polish relations")

In the "Beiträge" (contributions), the Martin Opitz Library publishes various works dealing with the history of Germans in Poland and German-Polish relations.
Digitalization project

Capital of Culture Project "Timisoara Collection"

Since November 1, 2021, the Digitale Forum Mittel- und Osteuropa e.V. has been dedicated to the realization of a digital collection of historical documents on the "European Capital of Culture Timisoara 2023" and thus follows on from the successfully implemented Digitalis projects (Kaschau/Košice...
Musical rendition

Ein Lied geht um die Welt (A Song Goes Around the World) / Die tote Stadt op. 12 – Glück, das mir verblieb (The dead city – Joy, that remained to me)

Hans May (music), Ernst Neubach (text) / Erich Wolfgang Korngold (music), Paul Schott (text) / Richard Resch (tenor), Lutz Landwehr von Pragenau (piano)
Research project

Enno Meyer (1913–1996)

As part of its biographical research, the BKGE is examining the multi-faceted life and work of Enno Meyer. The project will encompass a study on Enno Meyer's "47 Theses on the Representation of German-Polish Relations in History Teaching".
Background article

Gdansk’s “Soundscape” and Music Culture between 1800 and 1945

Can soundscapes of the past be reconstructed? What did cities actually sound like in centuries gone by? And do we associate certain sounds and soundscapes with the history of particular cities? This text introduces some possibilities of soundscape research, using the city of Gdansk as an example.
Editing project

Josef Pfitzner und Hans Hirsch

Source edition of the interwar correspondence between Prague-based historian and Nazi politician Josef Pfitzner and Hans Hirsch.
Background article

Laima chocolate – a Riga icon

If you’ve ever visited Latvia, you’ll probably have heard of the chocolate brand Laima. Perhaps you’ll even have seen the Laima Clock, a popular meeting point in central Riga. Laima products have been among Latvia’s most successful exports all the way back to the 1920s. What’s less well known is that the company was originally founded by Jewish entrepreneurs.
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.
Research project

Literarische Stätten in Südosteuropa (“Literary Sites in Southeast Europe”)

Kronstadt/Brașov/Brassó: The multilingualism of this Romanian metropolis is reflected not only in its name but also in the city's literary history. Also, a recurring theme in the works of local writers was the city itself, as a space for encounters and experiences. A research project of the...
Object story

Moving Piety

The family crib was so important to his father that he took it with him when he emigrated to the USA. The report of a donor reveals what happened between its production in Waldenburg and the return to Europe, which made its donation to Haus Schlesien in Königswinter possible.
Preservation Project

Paper Bridges

The project “Paper Bridges” at the Institute for German Culture and History in South-East Europe (IKGS) involved the treatment and conservation of six shelf-meters of original periodicals to ensure their permanent preservation. These German newspapers from Romania form bridges between past and...
Indexing project

Projekt zur Tiefenerschließung des Teilnachlasses Max Herrmann-Neiße ("Project for the Deeper Indexing of the Partial Estate of Max Herrmann-Neisse")

He was one of the best-known writers in Berlin during the Weimar period and later a prominent face of exile poetry – yet Max Herrmann-Neisse was largely forgotten after his early death. In order to remedy this, the Martin Opitz Library has opened up a partial estate for posterity, including...
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.
Didactic project

Volhynia. German and Czech Immigration and Minority Experiences

Germans turn forests into grain fields, schoolrooms and prayer rooms, but Czechs make them into hop gardens and taverns? What comes up when we compare Volhynia's two migrant groups and what can be learned from their past experiences, now and in the future?
Special exhibition

Volksgenosse oder Feind des Volkes? ("Comrade or enemy of the people?")

Black Sea Germans experienced two dictatorships during the Second World War: In one they were persecuted as "enemies of the people", in the other they are considered as "members of the nation". In a joint exhibition, the Odessa Regional History Museum and the Museum for Russian-German Cultural...