220135 Entangled Borderland: History and Memory of Habsburg Galicia in the Long 19th Century (GST) (SoSe 2024)

The aim of this seminar is to study the history and memory of Galicia - a genuinely multicultural region in East Central Europe. Although it was artificially created by the Habsburg partition of Poland in 1772, Galicia became an important reference for different groups of people both within and outside this region and it keeps inspiring the shared views of East Central Europe as a whole. In the first part of the term, we will explore the history of Galicia during the long 19th century: starting in the late 18th century, when Galicia became part of the Habsburg Empire, we will address the major processes shaping the political, economic and socio-cultural history of this province until 1918. In the second part of the term, we will look at what Galicia meant for whom and why across time and space - with a particular focus on Austrian, Jewish, Polish and Ukrainian memories. The range of topics addressed in this seminar includes: class, collective imagination, heritage, migration, political mobilization, public spaces, religion, violence and urban areas.

This seminar is designed for students from the Bielefeld University and the Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv and will be co-taught in English by Kornelia Kończal (Bielefeld University), Vladyslava Moskalets (Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv) and Yaroslav Zhuravlov (Bielefeld University). It is organized in cooperation with the Lviv Center for Urban History (Lviv Center for Urban History) and the student association UnderstandUkraine (affiliated with Bielefeld University). Part of this seminar is a research trip:

we will visit the main form of Galician presence in North Rhine-Westphalia and Germany as a whole, i.e. the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic community. Its churches were founded by Galicians (and other inhabitants of pre-war Poland) who ended up in Germany during and after the Second World War. We want to learn how people coming from Galicia remembered their homeland and how their images of Galicia have shifted over time. As is known, after February 24, 2022, and the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the role of both the churches and the local Ukrainian communities has changed significantly as they became actively involved in helping Ukrainian refugees in Germany and supporting Ukraine. During the research trip, we also want to learn more about these experiences that reveal a great deal about the Ukrainian diaspora and the German-Ukrainian entanglements;
we will explore the Galiziendeutsches Archiv (at the Martin-Opitz-Bibliothek) in Herne - a unique collection of various sources documenting the history of German settlers in Galicia.

Students interested in attending this course are expected to be curious about the history of East Central Europe, transnational history and memory studies, willing to gain unique insights into cutting-edge research and have good English skills.

Learning Outcomes

• get acquainted with the history of Galicia
• gaining confidence in critical reading and chairing discussions
• creating compelling, original arguments
• asking questions that integrate theoretical perspectives and research findings
• identifying the main approaches to the study of the social and cultural history in multilingual settings

Schedule:
8 April: 11 a.m. – 12 p.m. (1 session)
15 April: 10 a.m. - 2 p.m. (2 sessions)
22 April: 10 a.m. - 2 p.m. (2 sessions)
29 April: 10 a.m. - 2 p.m. (2 sessions)
13 May: 10 a.m. - 2 p.m. (2 sessions)
27 May 10 a.m. - 2 p.m. (2 sessions)
28 May (! Tuesday): 10 a.m. – 6 p.m. (research trip)

Bibliography

Wolff, Larry. The Idea of Galicia: History and Fantasy in Habsburg Political Culture. Stanford University Press, 2010.
Zayarnyuk, Andriy. Lviv’s Uncertain Destination: A City and Its Train Terminal from Franz Joseph I to Brezhnev. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2020.

Documentaries and Movies

Alexander Granach, written and directed by Angelika Wittlich (2012)
Three Stories of Galicia, directed by Sarah Farhat and Olha Onyshko (2010)
Geo-Perspective: Is Lviv Ukrainian, Polish or Austrian? From Galicia–Volhynia to Lwów and Lemberg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnEFQb2Zzt4

Open Educational Resources

REESOURCES Rethinking Eastern Europe https://edu.lvivcenter.org/en/