Colloquium in the winter semester
Lost (in) Transformation: Answers from the Recent Past to Challenges of Today

HAIT colloquium and exercise for students of the TU Dresden, organised by Friederike Kind-Kovács and Maren Hachmeister in conjunction with the Dresden-Prague Lectures "Topographies of Transformation", co-organised by Klára Pinerová and the Institute of Contemporary History (ÚSD) in Prague.

The past few years have deeply shaken the long established trust in Germany’s democratic resilience. The populist temptation has become a central (divisive) topic in the public and private sphere and poses a real threat in the coming state elections - particularly in Saxony, Thuringia and Brandenburg - this autumn. Today, in the fourth decade since the political upheavals of 1989, major issues such as gender, climate, migration, social inequality, or the war against Ukraine can cause unusually heated debates. They not only dominate the public discourse and flood (social) media platforms. They simultaneously mirror an alarming degree of and potential for further social and political fragmentation. Some of these trends that we see today in Germany hint towards some common developments in East-Central Europe. These alarming trends compel us to confront these contemporary challenges through a retrospective lens, focusing on the complex legacies of the postsocialist transformation in the (political) landscapes of East Germany and East Central Europe. We wish to engage in our colloquium with the following questions: Why do we witness since 1989, and especially in recent years, such a surge of anti-feminism, anti-climate-activism, anti-semitism, xenophobia and other forms of discrimination and harassment? Are we possibly lost in the transformative aftermath of 1989? Did we misconceive the ‘Wende’ as a real opportunity for a joint and all-German venture to overcome Germany’s recent dictatorial experience or have we, and if so why have we, missed the opportunity of this ‘transformation’ to anchor lasting democratic values? Or do we currently see a reemergence of far older prejudices and convictions that have been long suppressed? Or is this democratic backlash not rather a shared response – in Europe and beyond – to the immense challenges of today? Seeking answers to these most pressing questions, this colloquium invites scholars to offer possible answers from the past to the challenges of today.

Further information

21. November 2024 | Prof. Dr. Jens-Christian Wagner (Gedenkstätten Buchenwald/Mittelbau-Dora und Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena): Antisemitismus und Geschichtsrevisionismus als Herausforderung für die Gedenkstättenarbeit: Ursachen und Gegenstrategien 

Further information

27. November 2024 | Dr. Maren Hachmeister & PD Dr. Friederike Kind-Kovács (HAIT, Dresden): “Not everything was Rubbish": The Liquidation of the Camera Manufacturer Pentacon in Dresden

Further information

12. December 2024 | Dr. habil. Matěj Spurný/ Dr. Petr Roubal (USD, Prague): Post-socialist Urban Transformations in East Central Europe. Cases of Prague and Bratislava

Further information

19. December 2024 | Dr. Till Hilmar (Vienna University): Who is “Us” and “Them” in the Climate Crisis? A Comparative Sociological View on Austria and Slovakia

Further information

09. Januar 2025 | Udo Dannemann (Universität Potsdam): Antidemokratische Positionen und Einstellungen im Raum Schule - Zentrale Erkenntnisse aus dem Modellprojekt "Starke Lehrer*innen - starke Schüler*innen" in Brandenburg

Further information

16. January 2025 | Dr. Veronika Pehe (USD Prague): Television Pedagogy, Economic Transformation and the Building of a Middle-Class Imagination in 1990s Czech Republic and Slovakia

Further information

23. January 2025 | Dr. Anna Dobrowolska (University of Warsaw): ‘Naked Girls and Bare Shelves’. Pre-1989 Anti-Gender Discourses and Their Long Legacy in Contemporary Poland?

Further information

29. January 2025 | PD Dr. Udo Grashoff (HAIT, Dresden): East German Students As Actors Of Transformation 1987-1992

Further information

06. February 2025 | Dr. Carsta Langner (Universität Jena): Die Wiederkehr des Immergleichen? Über historische Kontinuitäten von Rassismus und rechter Gewalt in Ostdeutschland – und warum sie uns trotzdem kaum helfen, die Gegenwart zu verstehen

Further information

The colloquium takes place in TIL 205 and hybrid via Zoom.

If you would like to attend, please register by the Monday before the event at: hait@tu-dresden.de, stating your full name. The registration link will be sent to you separately a few days before the start of the event.

Diese Maßnahme ist mitfinanziert durch Steuermittel auf Grundlage des vom Sächsischen Landtag beschlossenen Haushalts.