Polish Institute

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Polish Institute (Instytut Polski) is a Polish state cultural institution.

Predecessor and story

The work of the Polish Institutes goes back to the cultural representation of the 2nd Polish Republic after the regaining of statehood of Poland as a result of the Versailles Treaty and the proclamation of the Republic in 1919. It began gradually in the 1920s and 1930s within the framework of the respective embassies, and stood in contrast to the emerging German " Ostforschung ", which increasingly concentrated on German abroad . In the Weimar Republic, cultural work for Poland was essentially only done by the Union of Poles in Germany from 1922 to 1939. After the Second World War, Polish culture was made known in the GDR under the sign of socialist friendship between peoples and in the GDR Cultural Association . In the Federal Republic of Germany, Polish culture was mostly devoted to the Catholic Church, as well as art and literary circles. The German Poland Institute in Darmstadt, founded in 1980 on the initiative of the translator Karl Dedecius , has made a special contribution to its mediation work from the beginning, following initial objections from Silesians, for example.

The German Poland Institute was able to build on these forerunners.

Structure and way of working

Similar to the German Goethe Institute , the Polish Institute aims to make Polish culture and science widely known. Other institutes partially support the respective Poland institutes:

This wide frame is symbolized by the logo of the Poland Institute, which shows a person walking to the left, i.e. westwards with a raised picture frame.

The institute is subordinate to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Polish Republic , from which it is financed. The directors are appointed by the Polish Foreign Minister. Occasionally, they also act as cultural attachés to the Polish embassy in the respective country.

Of the currently 25 branches of the Polish Institute, 20 are in Europe. Outside of Europe, the Polish Institute is represented in Delhi, New York, Tbilisi, Tel Aviv and Tokyo. In Germany, as the only country, the Polish Institute is represented three times as a result of the earlier division of Germany, the close proximity and shared history: in Berlin, Leipzig and Düsseldorf. The Polish Institutes work closely with local, national and international cultural organizations and cultural institutions.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ For the respective branches cf. the Polish version of the article.