EUROPE AND GERMANY 1939-45
Violence in the museum
31 March 2022
4th symposium in our series “Historical Judgement”
In October 2020, the German Bundestag decided to establish a documentation center focused on the German occupation regime in Europe during World War II. The German Historical Museum has been commissioned to develop a concept for implementing this project—the basis for treating this theme in the fourth symposium of our “Historical Judgment” series. We would like to invite all those interested to consider key aspects of Germany’s rule over 230 million human beings in what now constitute 27 European countries.
At the center of lectures by international experts and connected discussions will be two underlying questions: What approach should we take in presenting the reality of violence? And what sorts of objects can we choose in order to narrate which particular stories about violent rule?
Participation
Participation is free
Conference Languages: German and English, Simultaneous translation
The video recording is available on our YouTube channel.
Programme
9.00 - 9.30 REGISTRATION
9.30 - 10.30
WELCOME
Raphael Gross, Stiftung Deutsches Historisches Museum
KEYNOTE
- Exhibiting Violence: On the Museum Display of German Occupation Rule
Jens-Christian Wagner, Stiftung Gedenkstätten Buchenwald und Mittelbau-Dora, Weimar
10.30 - 12.30 PANEL I: OCCUPATION RULE IN DISPLAYED OBJECTS
- Occupation or Vacation? Germans in France, 1940–44
Julia S. Torrie, St. Thomas University, Fredericton - Objects of Occupation Rule in the Deutsches Historisches Museum:
Identification, Research, Display
Fritz Backhaus, Stiftung Deutsches Historisches Museum
In conversation: Julia Franke, Lili Reyels, Stiftung Deutsches Historisches Museum
Moderation: Raphael Utz, Stiftung Deutsches Historisches Museum
12.30 - 14.00 LUNCH BREAK
14.00 - 16.00 PANEL II: STOLEN AND DESTROYED OBJECTS
- The German Looting of Cultural Assets in the Occupied Europe: Why Efforts at Categorisation and Quantification Fail
Meike Hopp, Technische Universität Berlin
In conversation: Wolfgang Eichwede, Forschungsstelle Osteuropa an der Universität Bremen, Bianca Gaudenzi, Deutsches Historisches Institut Rom, Hermann Parzinger, Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin
Moderation: Benjamin Lahusen, Europa-Universität Viadrina, Frankfurt (Oder)
16.00 - 16.30 COFFEE BREAK
16.30 - 19.00 PANEL III: OBJECTS OF MEMORY
- Under the Gallows: Remembering the German Occupation in
Yugoslavia
Sabina Ferhadbegović, Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena
In conversation: Mary Fulbrook, Philippe Sands, University College London
Moderation: Natalia Aleksiun, University of Florida, Gainesville
CLOSING COMMENT
Raphael Gross, Stiftung Deutsches Historisches Museum
The “Historical Judgement” event series is funded by Dr. Christiane und Dr. Nicolaus Weickart.
We ask for your understanding that there may be changes due to the current situation. Please visit our website for the latest information.
Historical Judgement. Magazine of the Deutsches Historisches Museum
The 4th edition of the Historical Judgement magazine is published. Order now!
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![Cover of the 4th “Historische Urteilskraft” magazine.]()
Publication
Historical Judgement 04. Magazine of the Deutsches Historisches Museum
The fourth issue of the magazine "Historische Urteilskraft" deals with the German occupation in Europe during the Second World War. International experts such as Sabina Ferhadbegović, Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, Philippe Sands and Jens-Christian Wagner ask what stories objects can tell about the occupation and the violence associated with it.
picture: One of four photographs by Alberto Errera, 1944, taken in secret near a gas chamber © Panstwowe Muzeum Auschwitz-Birkenau