German-Polish Research Institute

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German-Polish Research Institute
activity October 19, 2012 - December 31, 2018
Sponsorship Joint establishment of the European University Viadrina Frankfurt (Oder) and the Adam Mickiewicz University Posen (Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza w Poznaniu)
place Collegium Polonicum , Slubice
management Andrzej J. Szwarc (joint managing director until 2016), then responsible for the Collegium Polonicum for UAM Beata Mikołajczyk, from 2018 Tadeusz Wallas, for EUV Ines Härtel, from 2017 Janine Nuyken
Employee 14th
including professors 6th
Annual budget 80,000–100,000 EUR (excluding third-party funding)
Website https: //www.cp-edu-pl/instytut

The German-Polish Research Institute (Polish Polsko-Niemiecki Instytut Badawczy , eng. German-Polish Research Institute ) was a joint venture between the European University Viadrina in Frankfurt (Oder) and the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan (Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza w Poznaniu) operated scientific research facility with headquarters in the Collegium Polonicum in Słubice . It was created with the founding decree of October 19, 2012, signed by the President of the European University Viadrina Gunter Pleuger and the Rector of the Adam Mickiewicz University Bronisław Marciniak . It was dissolved on December 31, 2018.

Founding history

When Poland joined the European Union and the Schengen Area in 2004/2007, the European University Viadrina lost its unique selling point as a location for German-Polish cross-border teaching and research in view of the mobility of scientists and students that had become possible across Europe. The European University Viadrina increasingly failed to live up to the founding mandate of the European University, “to fulfill special tasks in foreign policy in the German-Polish relationship and culturally with a view to Europe”, also from the perspective of some of its founding fathers. The establishment of the German-Polish Research Institute, alongside those of the Center for Interdisciplinary Poland Studies and the Research Center B / ORDERS IN MOTION at the European University Viadrina, was one of the three cornerstones of a large-scale initiative under the University President Gunter Pleuger, with which the European Viadrina University should regain its profile in line with its founding mandate. The German-Polish Research Institute was founded jointly with the Adam Mickiewicz University, with which the European University Viadrina has been cooperating since 1991 in the form of the Collegium Polonicum in Słubice as a joint teaching and research facility. The founding agreement was signed in Poznan on March 2, 2012, and the founding decree itself by President Pleuger and Rector Marciniak on October 19, 2012 in Słubice.

Structure of the institute

Collegium Polonicum in Słubice, seat of the German-Polish Research Institute

The German-Polish Research Institute was a unit of the Adam Mickiewicz University that was not assigned to any faculty and was directly subordinate to the Rector and was subject exclusively to higher education law and other provisions of Poland. Its transnational character was based on an annex to the establishment decree that was jointly signed by the European University Viadrina and Adam Mickiewicz University. In it, the German-Polish Research Institute was described as “a joint research facility of the European University Viadrina in Frankfurt (Oder) and the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań. (...) The institute is subordinate to the rector of the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań and the president of the European University Viadrina in Frankfurt (Oder). a. Research activities, budget and personnel issues were to be met by both of them accordingly. The institute council, made up of representatives from both universities, was responsible for overseeing the use of funds made available by Adam Mickiewicz University and European University Viadrina and the content of the research activities of the institute. This legal construction, based on partnership agreements, which is basically common for various external cross-border institutions such as European regions or the Collegium Polonicum itself, enables the use of personnel, financial means and other resources beyond or from beyond the respective national borders. The research funds made available by the two partner universities for the German-Polish Research Institute could thus be managed jointly, even if they had to be legally settled in two university budgets according to the respective provisions and national regulations. Of the 14 employees of the institute, twelve were subject to labor law at the Adam Mickiewicz University and two at the European University Viadrina. In all cases, however, their selection was made jointly by both universities on the basis of a joint tender. There were five male and eight female members of the institute (excluding the institute director), five of whom were professors, one was technical and seven had a PhD. In ten cases they had Polish, in one German and in two both Polish and German citizenship. Five of the cases involved employees transferred from other faculties at Adam Mickiewicz University, three of whom had previously been based at the Collegium Polonicum and two at the university headquarters in Poznań. The remaining eight positions were given to external applicants.

activities

Banner for events of the German-Polish Research Institute

According to its institute rules, the institute's task was to carry out research projects "in the field of European integration, border regions and comparative problems in the international and intercultural aspect". This was therefore identical to the deliberately interdisciplinary research focus for the Collegium Polonicum, which was defined in the 2002 inter-ministerial agreement and which is still valid today, and which it was intended to contribute to its scientific profile. Accordingly, the academic areas represented by the institute's members included the humanities, including linguistics, literature, culture and history, spatial sciences, including geography, and urban and regional planning, the life sciences, including ecology and hydrobiology, and law. Taking into account the special location of the institute directly on the Oder bridge between Frankfurt and Słubice, the exploration of borders and border areas in the broader understanding as in the German-Polish context was a particular research problem. The institute's numerous research projects were mainly carried out in cooperation with German, Polish and international research institutions and are supported by German, Polish and German-Polish institutions, among others. a. has been funded in several cases by the German-Polish Science Foundation (DPWS), the National Science Center ( Narodowe Centrum Nauki , NCN) and the Euroregion Pro Europa Viadrina ( ERDF funds ). The institute was a partner of the scientific online platform Poland Studies.Interdisciplinary (Pol-Int). An important field of activity of the German-Polish Research Institute was the dissemination of the results of research carried out by means of conferences, meetings, colloquia and lectures organized or co-organized by the institute members. In 2017, the institute co-organized the IV Congress on Polish Studies “Borders in the River”. In addition, the institute's members developed numerous cross-border activities to develop regional and local civil society as well as to strengthen the culture of social dialogue on the Polish and German side in the form of popular science events, seminars for school classes, advanced training for senior citizens or author readings.

Publications

In addition to numerous publications, nine volumes were published as part of the Scientific Series of the Collegium Polonicum "Thematicon" published by Logos Verlag Berlin . The interdisciplinary anthology published in 2016 as a commemorative publication for the outgoing managing director Andrzej J. Szwarc provides an overview of central research projects at the German-Polish Research Institute. The monograph “Polski Dziki Zachód. Przymusowe migracje i kulturowe oswajanie Nadodrza 1945-1948 ”(German: Poland's Wild West. Forced Migration and the Cultural Appropriation of the Oder Region 1945-1948) by Beata Halicka was awarded the Identitas Prize in 2016 as the best historical book of the year.

The institute and the establishment of a German-Polish faculty

Federal President Joachim Gauck during his speech at the opening of the academic year in the Collegium Polonicum, 2013. On the right edge of the picture, the executive director of the institute, Andrzej J. Szwarc

On October 18, 2013, the opening of the 2013-14 academic year took place at the Collegium Polonicum in the presence of the Polish President Bronisław Komorowski and Federal President Joachim Gauck . In his speech he developed the vision of a German-Polish university. On the part of the European University and the Adam Mickiewicz University, this vision was subsequently concretized with the aim of founding a joint German-Polish faculty, the core of which was to form the German-Polish Research Institute. As a transnational, partnership-based corporation with its own legal personality, this international faculty was to become the first of its kind in the world. The concept of an interdisciplinary faculty for regional and European studies was developed, which was to bundle the research competencies at the Collegium Polonicum and expand it to include the aspect of digitization. The importance of the institute as the basis for the creation of several organizational units of the future joint faculty, into which the Collegium Polonicum was to be redesigned, was highlighted at the anniversary celebrations for the 25th anniversary of the Collegium Polonicum on October 13, 2016, as well as for the fifth anniversary of German-Polish Research Institute on October 20, 2017.

closure

In April 2016, the Adam Mickiewicz University held new elections for the university management. When the new leadership took office under Rector Andrzej Lesicki on September 1, 2016, the Institute was led by Vice-Rector Beata Mikołajczyk, who is responsible for the Collegium Polonicum. This acted as managing director, although she was not legitimized by a joint resolution with the European University Viadrina - as provided for in the institute's regulations. In May 2018, responsibility changed to Vice-Rector Tadeusz Wallas, who - again without a joint decision with the European University Viadrina - appointed one of the institute's staff as managing director. On the Viadrina side, the Vice Presidents Ines Härtel (until the beginning of 2017) and Janine Nuyken were responsible for the Collegium Polonicum during this time. The institute council, which consists of employees from both universities, has the ability to influence and control etc. in accordance with the institute's rules. a. For the use of the funds provided by both universities and for the content-related work of the German-Polish Research Institute, no more meetings have been convened since October 2016. The members of the German-Polish Research Institute were announced on June 7, 2018 that the Adam Mickiewicz University would close the institute. On June 28, 2018, the European University Viadrina and Adam Mickiewicz University decided to close it on December 31, 2018. The closure of the institute was accompanied by the unusual step of the immediate shutdown of its website. References to his projects, activities and employees were thus deleted, and in a short time also on the websites of the European University Viadrina, the Adam Mickiewicz University and the Collegium Polonicum.

Controversy over causes of closure

The closure of the German-Polish Research Institute took place at the same time as the comprehensive reorganization of Polish higher education law by the PIS government ; the corresponding law was introduced into the Sejm in April 2018 and passed on July 4, 2018. A reorganization of the scientific and research structures in Poland began with the amendment to the law on state (non-university) research institutes in Poland passed by the Polish Sejm on December 18, 2016. This formed the basis for the replacement of numerous institute directors and the replacement of institute councils by the PIS government. In addition, numerous separate laws for the liquidation and re-establishment of individual state research institutes were passed in order to give them a research orientation that corresponds to the historical policy of the PIS. Against this background, there were suspicions that the decision to close the German-Polish Research Institute, which was initially not communicated by either the Adam Mickiewicz University or the European University Viadrina, could be related to the changes in higher education policy in Poland. As a result, it also became clear that the closure was associated with the dismissal of institute members by Adam Mickiewicz University and the termination of ongoing German-Polish third-party funded projects. Adam Mickiewicz University and Viadrina European University justified the closure of the institute solely with the need to pool resources on the part of Adam Mickiewicz University for the establishment of the “European New School for Digital Studies”. There are no concrete statements about the scope of the Adam Mickiewicz University's commitment to this project, which is carried out by the European University Viadrina at the Collegium Polonicum and financed by the State of Brandenburg.

Trivia

During its existence, the German-Polish Research Institute, together with the Polish Philology as a Foreign Language course at the Collegium Polonicum, organized a regular series of authors' readings entitled “Talks at / across borders”, which was held alongside other Polish writers such as Inga Iwasiów and Ignacy Karpowicz on April 21, 2015 Olga Tokarczuk , who later won the Nobel Prize for Literature, also went to the Oder.

In a research project at the German-Polish Research Institute on personalities involved in cross-border reconciliation working in the church, the work of Ernst-Alfred Jauch was also dealt with. At one of the events carried out as part of this project on November 23, 2018 in front of students from a Catholic school in Berlin, where E.-A. Jauch was honored for the French-Polish-German post-war understanding, his son Günther Jauch also took part. This should prove to be the last event of the German-Polish Research Institute retrospectively.

Web links

  • Homepage of the German-Polish Research Institute (switched off) [1]
  • Facebook page of the German-Polish Research Institute [2]

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ European University Viadrina: On the establishment of the supporting foundation , accessed on August 24, 2020
  2. ^ Tilmann Warnecke, More Europe for the Viadrina. In: Tagesspiegel of August 21, 2012, accessed on July 6, 2020
  3. ↑ Viadrina is gradually expanding the Center for Polish Studies. In: Lausitzer Rundschau of April 3, 2012, accessed on July 6, 2020
  4. ^ Regulations of the German-Polish Research Institute at the Collegium Polonicum in Słubice from August 15 , 2012 , Official Announcements of the European University Viadrina Frankfurt (Oder), Volume 18, September 28, 2012, No. 3, accessed on August 24, 2020 (PDF , 0.82 MB)
  5. ↑ German-Polish Research Institute , promotional video from 2015, accessed June 1, 2020 (Polish version)
  6. ↑ Logos Verlag: Volumes published so far , accessed on June 1, 2020
  7. ↑ Contents / Spis tresci , accessed June 1, 2020 (PDF, 0.13 MB)
  8. ↑ Ferdinand Schöningh: Poland's Wild West , accessed June 1, 2020
  9. ↑ Nagroda Identitas: Laureaci 2016 , accessed June 1, 2020 (Polish)
  10. ↑ Bundesprädidialamt: Federal President Joachim Gauck on the occasion of the joint opening of the academic year at the European University Viadrina and the Collegium Polonicum on October 18, 2013 in Słubice, Poland , accessed on June 1, 2020
  11. ^ Heinz Kannenberg, institute on the way to the faculty. In: Märkische Oderzeitung from March 25, 2014
  12. ↑ Lecture by the Vice President of the European University Viadrina Janine Nuyken on the status of the development of the joint German-Polish faculty to city councilors from Frankfurt (Oder) and Słubice , January 27, 2017, accessed on June 1, 2020
  13. ↑ Dietrich Schröder, New Perspectives for a Successful Model. In: Märkische Oderzeitung from June 14, 2017
  14. ↑ Experiment and Knowledge. 25 Years Collegium Polonicum , October 2016, accessed on June 1, 2020 (PDF; 3.43 MB)
  15. ↑ Brak wytłumaczenia dla czystek w instytutach badawczych. (German: No explanation for cleansing in research institutes. ) In: Gazeta Wyborcza from November 29, 2017, accessed on June 1, 2020 (Polish)
  16. ↑ Rząd zdemolował Instytut Europy Środkowo-Wschodniej. Teraz ma być użyteczny i zgodny z linią partii. (German: Government destroys Central and Eastern Europe Institute. Now it should be useful and on the party line. ) Comment. In: Gazeta Wyborcza from May 21, 2019, accessed on June 1, 2020 (Polish)
  17. ^ Dietrich Schröder, Warning shot for the Viadrina. In: Märkische Oderzeitung from July 10, 2018
  18. ↑ Dietrich Schröder, Cold shower for Poland enthusiasts. In: Märkische Oderzeitung from January 23, 2019, accessed on July 6, 2020
  19. ↑ Szumne otwarcie instytutu i nagłe zniknięcie. (German: Rauschende opening and sudden disappearance of an institute. In: Gazeta Wyborcza from March 8, 2019, accessed on June 1, 2020
  20. ^ "Two universities - one digital institute", Märkische Oderzeitung from September 8, 2018
  21. ↑ Amory Burchard: Digital Awakening at the Viadrina “ . In: Tagesspiegel . August 29, 2019 ( online [accessed July 6, 2020]).
  22. ↑ Patronatsfest 2018: Diversity - Community - Reconciliation , on schulzentrum-edithstein.de