220100 Branding the past and producing locality: the case of post-German heritage in Poland (S+Ex) (SoSe 2023)

The aim of this seminar is to explore the entanglements between public history, cultural heritage and branding – both in theory and in practice. By focusing on cultural heritage left behind by Germans after their flight and expulsion from those parts of East Prussia that have become part of Poland in 1945, we will deal with the most extensive and complex instance of cultural succession in post-war Europe. Theoretically, we will engage with seminal readings on cultural heritage, branding and the “production of locality” (Appadurai). Empirically, we will collect and analyse material related to selected cases of using post-German heritage in north-eastern Poland.
This exploratory course will be thought in English, co-thought by Wojciech Bedyński (Warsaw University) and Kornelia Kończal (Bielefeld University), accompanied by two authors dealing in their books with the past and present of Polish East Prussia: Beata Szady (Warsaw) and Markus Bingel (Bielefeld) and supported by the German-Polish Research Foundation.
Students interested in attending this course are expected to be curious about public history, willing to gain practical research experience in an intercultural context, have good English skills (Polish skills would be a great asset but are not required) and take part in a research trip to Poland (2 June – 11 June).
This is a collaborative project between the Bielefeld University, the Warsaw-based Foundation for Landscape Protection and Promotion of Regions NUMINOSUM and the Institute of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology, Warsaw University.