Events

In the summer and fall of 1989, thousands of citizens left the GDR in an attempt to emigrate to West Germany via the West German representations in Budapest, Prague and Warsaw. The dissatisfaction of the people in the GDR was great at the time and led to an unprecedented wave of refugees. The escape story of these people is part of the “East German Autumn” of 1989, which led to the opening of the Berlin Wall and the German-German border.

This exhibition is dedicated to a group of 13 people whose escape led them to Palais Lobkowitz, the seat of the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany in Prague, and tells their story.

These contemporary witnesses – photographed by Manja Herrmann – look back from today on the conditions in the GDR, their escape route and their stay in the West German embassy and reflect on the influences of their escape story on their current life situation. The result is an exhibition that looks back from the present to the events of summer and fall 1989 and recalls a decisive chapter not only in German-German but also in European history.

Forced laborers from the occupied territories of what was then Czechoslovakia (“Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia”) are among the most invisible victims of National Socialist crimes in and around Bremen.

It is very difficult to find traces of this group of prisoners, but we still want to bring the Czech forced laborers more into the focus of public perception in Bremen and counteract oblivion. To this end, activists from various institutions and initiatives will come together at a public event for a workshop discussion to discuss the current state of knowledge and to try to find possible approaches to continue working together on this issue.

Following the discussion, we would like to invite you to a concert with the Czech band Monika Načeva and Zdivočelí koně in memory of the Czech and Slovak victims of National Socialist crimes in Bremen and the surrounding area.

It is almost a commonplace that we live in contradictory times. But what does it mean to take social contradictions seriously? Which contradictions must be endured – and which not – in a democracy? Is every form of contradiction already emancipatory, and if not, where do we draw the line? How does contradiction become a collective, democratic practice that is not limited to a “yes, but…”?

Carolin Zieringer investigates these and similar questions from a radical-democratic and queer-feminist perspective. Taking Jala Wahid’s play with ambiguities and emotions as a starting point, Carolin Zieringer sets out to discuss how we can remain open to contradictions and uncertainties in a world permeated by exclusion and violence, what role care plays in this, and when it is structurally impossible to care.

Dr. Deborah Nyangulu and Dr. Jana Weiss convened the ‘Black Atlantic Affordances. Contested Memory Cultures` conference at the University of Texas at Austin from Feb 23 – 25. The event featured a range of speakers who engaged with, among others, questions of Black freedom, memory cultures, , the Black radical tradition, African diaspora, and digital humanities. Prof. Dr. Ashley D. Farmer (UT Austin) and independent researcher, writer, and political analyst Nanjala Nyabola gave the keynote addresses. The conference also featured a roundtable on the topic of ‘Black Atlantic Affordance and Digital Humanities’ with speakers Kelly Baker Josephs, Justin Dunnavant, Amani Morrison, and moderated by Deborah Nyangulu.

The workshop is open to BA, MA, and PhD Candidates. We have currently reserved 5 places for members of the Training Group. Please, register with me in advance, if you are interested.