Research Center Eastern Europe
| Research Center Eastern Europe | |
|---|---|
|
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| founding | 1982 |
| Sponsorship | public |
| place | Bremen |
| Director | Susanne Schattenberg |
| Employee | 22nd |
| including professors | 4th |
| Website | forschungsstelle.uni-bremen.de |
The Research Center for Eastern Europe at the University of Bremen has been devoted to contemporary developments in culture and society in the countries of East Central and Eastern Europe since it was founded in 1982 by Wolfgang Eichwede and has developed its own profile within the German research landscape.
The research center was founded in 1982 under Wolfgang Eichwede as a "safe haven" for Samizdat documents (underground literature) from Eastern Europe. Her task was and is to collect evidence of critical thinking and social movements in Eastern Europe, to analyze and classify them in the historical, social and political structures and developments in Eastern Europe and to publish the relevant research results.
During the times of the Eastern Bloc, censorship and repression, the Research Center for Eastern Europe functioned as a cultural memory for those with dissent and opposition in Eastern Europe. Documents from the Soviet Union, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and the GDR reached Bremen via various channels and paths, where despite the Iron Curtain it was possible to establish a contact point for dissidents and their work. In the 1980s, therefore, research focused on the manifestations of independent artistic activity and intellectual production of the underground. Behind the facades of official politics, those informal currents and oppositional approaches were tracked down that could provide information about the inner views of these societies.
The political and social upheavals in Eastern Europe represented a deep turning point for the research center. The collection activities of the research center's archive began to flourish after the collapse of the Eastern Bloc and the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989. What had previously been smuggled illegally or semi-legally to Bremen could now be officially transported. The archive grew rapidly in the 1990s, and even today, Bremen, with its grown archive structure, offers the right context for further material from unofficial work.
The research activities now increasingly shifted to the transformation processes in Eastern and Central Europe. The historians, political scientists and literary scholars at the Eastern Europe Research Center concentrated less on the economic processes that are typically dealt with by transformation research, but primarily on the historical traditions and cultural continuities that have an effect beyond 1989/1991 and the specific soil for the Prepare transformation in politics, economy, society and culture.
At the center of current interdisciplinary research are overarching questions as to the extent to which the state socialist past and the Soviet hegemony influence current developments and shape the countries and societies in Eastern and Eastern Central Europe to this day. Dissent and consensus, rule and opposition are examined under the various conditions of authoritarian rule and hegemony on the one hand and post-socialist transformation on the other.
The association's work is divided into the four areas of archive, scientific research, current country analyzes and exhibitions.
In 1999, the research center was awarded the renowned Gdańsk Erich Brost Prize for its contributions to cultural cooperation between Germany and Poland .
structure
The research center is a foundation under civil law , supported by the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen, the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg and the State of North Rhine-Westphalia. After initial funding from the Volkswagen Foundation , the institute was incorporated into the joint state funding of the Conference of Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs in 1986/87 . As an institution at the University of Bremen , the research center is closely linked to the person of its director, who is also a professor at the university, as well as through agreements and cooperation with the latter. The internal structure of the research center is divided into the areas of research, archive and library as well as public relations in the form of cultural and political advice.
research
The research activities of the academic staff are divided into the two areas of history and culture as well as politics and economics. The focus countries for both working areas are the former Soviet Union and the countries of East Central Europe, especially Poland and the Czech Republic / Slovakia.
History and Culture Department
Current research projects in the field of history and culture
- Your own point of view. The personal opinion of the Central Committee members and their influence on the domestic and foreign policy of the Soviet Union, 1964–1985.
- Work as the first necessity of life? A cultural history of work in the Soviet Union, 1950–1991
- Dissidents in transit. Politics, Culture and Transnational Ties of Soviet 'non-Conformist' Intellectuals
- The visual dismantling of a dictatorship. Photography as a resistance practice in the work of the Czech dissident Ivan Kyncl in the 1970s
- Cultural area (political) camps: imprisonment in camps and their influence on social movements and underground culture in the Soviet Union in the 1960s-1980s
- Polish underground mail and its postage stamps in the People's Republic of Poland in the 1980s
- The censorship of Soviet fictional literature in the GDR in the 1970s and 1980s in the GDR, illustrated using the genres of village prose and war novel
- On dealing with new music in the GDR in the sixties
- Rooms of de-Stalinization. The liquidation of the camp at Kolyma , 1953 to 1960
- The Soviet fever. Football fans in the multi-ethnic, post-Stalinist empire
- Cultural history of foreign policy (1815–1991)
- Brežnev - A biography
Completed research projects in the field of history and culture
On the basis of its archive, which contains well over 150,000 original samizdat documents and more than 300 bequests, the research center organized a large exhibition series “Samizdat. Alternative Culture in Central and Eastern Europe in the 1960s to 1980s ”. The exhibition was opened in Berlin by the Budapest mayor and former civil rights activist Gábor Demszky , in Prague by Federal President Johannes Rau and Czech President Václav Havel , in Brussels by EU Commissioner Günter Verheugen and in Budapest by Federal Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer . The exhibitions met with a great international response. Over 75,000 visitors came to Prague alone.
The research center then created another exhibition project, “Gegenansichten. Photographs on the political and cultural opposition in Eastern Europe 1956–1989 ”, which is conceived as a traveling exhibition across Europe.
In addition to individual research on dissent and society throughout Eastern and Central Europe, a research network began in January 2007 in cooperation with institutes in Moscow, Warsaw, Poznan, Prague and Budapest on the subject of “The Other Eastern Europe - the 1960s to 1980s. Dissent in politics and society, alternatives in culture. Contributions to a Comparative Contemporary History ”is his work, which is funded by the Volkswagen Foundation. In coordination with other German universities and partners in the USA and Western Europe, the research center has become an important center for contemporary research on the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. The duration of the project ended in June 2009.
A database is currently being set up for the unique holdings of the Bremen archive, which, in its combination of more than five languages, is equivalent to a pilot project. Overviews of the archive holdings will appear in a separate series of books from 2008.
List of completed research projects
Dissent and samizdat
- The other Eastern Europe - the 1960s to 1980s. Dissent in politics and society, alternatives in culture. Contributions to a comparative contemporary history (VW Research Association)
- The gulag in Russian memory. Searching for clues in the Perm region
- Photo project "The world of those who think differently"
Literary studies
- Canon formation in current Czech culture
- Paradigm Shift in Polish Prose
- Popular culture in Central and Eastern Europe
Looted art
- Soviet Cultural Assets Working Group
Politics and Economy
First and foremost, there are extensive research projects that have focused on economic culture and informal politics in recent years. Research topics for Russia and Eastern Europe were taxation, the role of trust in corporate relationships, the political influence of entrepreneurs and the development of corporate governance , with the majority of the projects being made possible by third-party funding.
Further research areas in recent years have been (partly on a comparative level) the development of new state symbols in Russia and Slovakia, processes of identity formation and politics of the past in Poland, the Czech Republic and Russia. There are also individual analyzes of countries and regions.
A more recent focus is the integration of the new post-socialist member states into decision-making processes at the EU level. The focus is on the role of civil society interest groups. Within the 6th research framework program of the EU, the institute works as a team leader in the integrated project “New Modes of Governance”. Another third-party funded research project investigates how the Polish, Czech and Slovak trade unions are coping with EU governance .
Since 2000, the research center has been organizing conferences for young experts from Eastern Europe who are currently supported by the Otto Wolff Foundation . The Changing Europe Summer School has also been held since 2006 and is funded by the Volkswagen Foundation. The aim of the summer academy is to involve selected doctoral students from all over the world in research on Eastern Europe. Over 40 internationally renowned scientists in various functions are involved in the summer academy under the direction of the research center.
Publications
The research results of the institute are published in two book series (“Analyzes on Culture and Society in Eastern Europe” by LIT-Verlag and “Changing Europe” by Ibidem-Verlag) and as individual volumes. The historical archive of the research center has its own series of books at Ibidem-Verlag. In addition, there is the series “Working Papers and Materials of the Research Center for Eastern Europe” registered as a journal with ten issues per year.
Country analyzes
The present area also publishes regular e-mail services, in particular country information services in German and English, which together have over 16,000 subscribers in politics, business, the media and the interested public. These country analyzes offer regular assessments of current political, economic, social and cultural developments in East Central Europe and the CIS. Authors are international specialists and experts. The individual country analyzes are published by the Research Center for Eastern Europe in cooperation with the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Osteuropakunde, each with different partners and sponsors. The analyzes are also published by the Federal Agency for Civic Education, among others .
The Russanalysen has been published since 2003 and has had an English-language sister publication, the Russian Analytical Digest, since 2006. The analysis of Russian developments has been supplemented by kultura since 2005 , which deals with current developments in the cultural sphere of Russia in a German and an English edition.
In 2006 the country spectrum was expanded to include Ukraine analyzes and Poland analyzes. In 2008, the Central Asia analyzes were added, which deal with current political and economic developments in Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.
In addition, various bibliographical services appear every quarter, each providing an overview of country-specific current English and German-language academic publications on politics, foreign policy, economy, social and ecological topics. Bibliographical services have existed since 2002 on Russia and Ukraine, since 2005 on Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia and from 2008 on the countries of Central Asia and the Caucasus (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan). They are published in collaboration with the Koszalin Institute of Comparative European Studies (KICES).
International cooperation partners
The cooperation partners in Russia include the international Memorial Society in Moscow, which pursues similar research interests for the former Soviet Union as the Research Center, as well as the Russian State University for the Humanities (RGGU) and the Moscow Higher School of Economics, with whom there is a lively exchange of lecturers .
Important contacts in East Central Europe are the Institute for Contemporary History and the Institute for Sociology of the Czech Academy of Sciences in Prague, the KARTA archive in Warsaw, the Chair of Polish and Comparative Studies in Poznań and the Faculty of Political Science at Comenius University in Bratislava.
The research center is also internationally networked with institutes in the USA (including the Hoover Institution , Harvard University and the Zimmerli Art Museum, New Brunswick) and Western Europe ( ETH Zurich , University of Amsterdam , University of Cambridge ).
Evaluation
In 1998 the research center was evaluated by the Science Council. Among other things, the positive assessment by the commission states:
“The work of the Research Center for Eastern Europe enjoys a good reputation in science and politics in Germany and abroad. With their focus on cultural and political aspects of the transformation processes in Russia, Poland, the Czech and Slovak Republics, they are an important part of Eastern European research in Germany.
The research center's extensive samizdat archive is unique in Europe and includes a large number of documents, some of them unique, which are often no longer available or accessible even in the countries examined, but are of great importance for research.
The research center's political advisory activity complements its research work and is appreciated by its addressees. The continuous observation and timely analysis of current developments in the examined countries as well as the maintenance and completion of the archive require a high degree of continuity and flexibility, which can only be guaranteed in a non-university institution. "
Web links
- Homepage of the Research Center for Eastern Europe at the University of Bremen
- Common homepage of the different country analyzes
Individual evidence
- ↑ Research Center Eastern Europe at the University of Bremen . On: forschungsstelle.uni-bremen.de.
- ^ Erich Brost Prize for the Eastern Europe Research Center at the University of Bremen . Press release from the University of Bremen on November 11, 1999.
- ↑ Description of the current research projects Research projects of the Research Center for Eastern Europe .
- ↑ Review of the accompanying volume ( PDF ).
- ^ Description of the research project The Other Eastern Europe .
- ↑ Description of the completed research projects Completed research projects in the field of history and culture .
- ↑ New Models of Governance Projec
- ↑ Brief introduction to the project Have you arrived in Brussels? Trade union representation of the interests of the new member states
- ^ JOE meetings of the Research Center for Eastern Europe and the German Society for Eastern European Studies
- ↑ Changing Europe Summer School ( Memento of the original from September 11, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Series "Analyzes on Culture and Society" by LIT-Verlag
- ↑ Series title index "Changing Europe" ( Memento of the original from October 4, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 193 kB)
- ↑ Working papers and materials from the Research Center for Eastern Europe
- ↑ Russia analyzes. Federal Agency for Civic Education, accessed on November 27, 2016 .
- ^ Analyzes of Russia by the Research Center for Eastern Europe
- ↑ Russian Analytical Digest ( Memento of the original from January 17, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Kultura Russia cultural analyzes
- ↑ Ukraine analyzes by the Research Center for Eastern Europe
- ^ Poland analyzes by the Research Center for Eastern Europe
- ↑ Central Asia analyzes by the Research Center for Eastern Europe
- ↑ Bibliographical Services of the Research Center for Eastern Europe and the Koszalin Institute of Comparative European Studies (KICES)
