Konferencja Niemieckiego Instytutu Historycznego w Warszawie organizowana we współpracy z Instytutem Historii im. Tadeusza Manteuffla Polskiej Akademii Nauk.
Germans and Poles in the Middle Ages – the Perception of the ‘Other’ and the Presence of Mutual Stereotypes 24th – 27th May 2018. The conference addresses the mutual perceptions of Germans and Poles over the course of the Middle Ages. Additionally, for purposes of comparison and to generate methodological questions, other ‘contact-zones’ of Germans with their neighbors such as France, England, Bohemia and the Holy Land will be presented. And there will also be lectures on modern German-Polish perceptions of one another. Research in recent decades shows clearly that the perception of ‘Otherness’ tells us much about the ‘construction of the Self’.
An important aspect within this is the ‘communication community’ (Karl W. Deutsch). Does a given author understand the language, symbols, or customs/rituals of the ‘Other’? Is he really interested in them, or do authors only use them as a backdrop to give form to the supremacy of their own community? – Switching the view to the ‘protagonists’ within the texts, there is certainly a need to classify groups of ‘Otherness’: If a medieval author writes about individuals (for instance: princes) or regional and social groups (for instance: German merchants in Silesia or Teutonic Knights) or the whole people of a given nation (‘the Germans’, ‘the Poles’), the frame of reference is definitely different and needs to be taken into consideration.
Venue:
Instytut Historii im. Tadeusza Manteuffla, sala im. Joachima Lelewela (conference room), Rynek Starego Miasta 29/31, 00-272 Warszawa /Warsaw
Only on Thursday, 24th May:
Deutsches Historisches Institut Warschau/Niemiecki Instytut Historyczny, conference room (on the third floor), Karnicki Palace, Al. Ujazdowskie 39, 00-540 Warszawa /Warsaw
Organizers:
Institute of History of the Polish Academy of Sciences
German Historical Institute Warsaw
Conception and organizational responsibility:
dr hab. Andrzej Pleszyński (UMSC w Lublinie), and dr hab. Grischa Vercamer (IH PAN)
Languages:
English (majority of the lectures), German, Polish (for discussion),
in some instances: German-Polish simultaneous translation
(i.e., the first lectures on Friday from 9.30 till 13 o’clock)
