Basil Kerski

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Basil Kerski (2019)

Basil Kerski (born November 19, 1969 in Danzig ) is a German-Polish cultural manager , journalist , political scientist and essayist . Since March 2011 he has been head of the European Solidarność Center in his native city.

Life

Kerski is the son of a Polish woman and an Iraqi doctor. He spent his childhood in Poland and Iraq until the family moved to West Berlin in 1979 . There Kerski studied political science and Slavic studies at the Free University .

Since 1998 he has been editor-in-chief of the bilingual German-Polish magazine Dialog , published by the German-Polish Society , which appears four times a year with a print run of 7,000. In addition, from 1998 to 2010 Kerski was honorary managing director of the Federal Association of the German-Polish Society, an umbrella association of 52 German-Polish initiatives that has existed since 1986. He is also the editor of the political magazine Przegląd Polityczny ("Politische Rundschau") published in Gdansk and founded in 1983 by Donald Tusk .

As a political expert, Kerski worked at the German-American Aspen Institute Berlin , the research institute of the German Society for Foreign Policy , the German Bundestag and the Berlin Science Center for Social Research .

He is the author and editor of over forty German, Polish, English and Ukrainian books on historical, political and cultural topics. In 2011, to mark the twentieth anniversary of neighborly cooperation between Germany and Poland, his book “The dynamism of rapprochement in German-Polish relations. The present and history of a neighborhood ”.

In addition to scientific articles, Kerski also published numerous articles in German, Polish, Italian and English-language newspapers and magazines ( Die Welt , Neue Zürcher Zeitung , Süddeutsche Zeitung , Der Tagesspiegel , Berliner Zeitung , Internationale Politik , Limes , New Eastern Europe , Gazeta Wyborcza , Rzeczpospolita , Tygodnik Powszechny ). He is also the editor of numerous German and Polish books on historical and political topics. Between 2001 and 2005 he was a lecturer at the Otto Suhr Institute at the Free University of Berlin and in 2011 at the Humboldt University . He is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Allianz Cultural Foundation, Chairman of the Advisory Board of the Genshagen Foundation, Member of the Advisory Board of the Berlin Wall Foundation, Member of the Board of the Polish PEN Club , Member of the Advisory Board of the Kreisau Foundation and member of the jury for the Viadrina Prize of the Viadrina European University in Frankfurt / Oder. From 2006 to 2015 he was a member of the board of trustees of the Schloss Neuhardenberg Foundation.

In 2011 he prevailed in the competition for the post of head of the European Solidarność Center in Gdansk. The decision was made against the opposition of the PiS and Lech Wałęsa party . Wałęsa has since given up his rejection of Kerski and works closely with the center. In 2014, Lech Wałęsa moved into its presidential office in the building of the European Solidarność Center.

Under his leadership, the European Solidarność Center was awarded the prestigious Museum Prize of the Council of Europe in 2016. Basil Kerski accepted the award on behalf of the Center on April 19, 2016 in Strasbourg.

Kerski is the father of two grown sons.

honors and awards

Pedro Agramunt and Basil Kerski (right) at the presentation of the Council of Europe's Museum Prize, 2016

Web links

Commons : Basil Kerski  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Basil Kerski: German-Polish reflections. Migrants and the future of Europe. In: DIALOG-Magazin , No. 113 (2015).
  2. ↑ Never będzie Niemiec dyrektorował
  3. ↑ posel PiS zaatakowany Gazem - Wiadomości w Onet.pl
personal data
SURNAME Kerski, Basil
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German-Polish political scientist and editor
DATE OF BIRTH 19th November 1969
PLACE OF BIRTH Danzig