Upper Silesia and its cultural heritage

Central questions

• why the region of Upper Silesia, which stands out in Poland due to its lively cultural and ethnic diversity, has so far hardly been brought into the field of perception of educational policy and textbook research,
• why its potential as a transnational place of remembrance and historical meeting place has hardly been used for textbook development in Poland,
• whether and how Polish educational policy-makers and practitioners are currently opening up to such a broader view of the history of this multicultural region.

A first comprehensive analysis of Polish textbooks after 1989 with regard to the presence and representation of Upper Silesia, its history and its culture was carried out; in a second approach, Polish curricula, educational programs and debates since 1989 were examined, with which the findings of the textbook analysis could be contextualized; subsequently, three exemplary teaching modules were developed, which make Upper Silesia accessible for teachers and students (in Poland as well as in Germany) on the basis of meaningful sources and innovative didactic development, i.e., they indicate how this region can be explored. In other words, they show how this traditional European border region of cultural diversity can be successfully communicated as a multicultural place of remembrance in the classroom.

Central Findings

Textbook analysis shows that relevant narratives about Upper Silesia account for barely one percent of the entire corpus of analysis, with a decreasing tendency. The region occurs predominantly in historical periods and contexts to which a centrally defined meaning is attributed and appears rather as an imagined region among myths, symbols and heroes in national discourses. While rigid constructions of history are problematized, this occurs primarily in the context of significantly older historical events (such as German settlement history in Upper Silesia or, somewhat more generally, the problem of borders and ethnic identities in the Middle Ages).

Thus, the region initially appears predominantly as a space of conflict. At the same time, the further back a historical event or phenomenon goes, the more controversial and multi-perspective relevant textbook narratives become. Contemporary, often controversial events, such as the founding phase of the German minority in the region, which was not officially recognized until after 1989, or the recent turn toward regional identity, are usually left out. This shows that even two and a half decades after the socio-political change in Poland, Upper Silesia, a multi-ethnic region with dense settlement areas of minorities, which is not only historical, but also quite current, poses a difficult challenge in terms of educational policy. Textbook authors, didacticians and, above all, educational politicians are only now facing the challenge of turning to regional historical peculiarities as part not only of one's own national tradition, but rather of the European tradition, and of understanding them as an enrichment of one's own history.

Thanks to follow-up funding from the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media (BKM), the research report produced in the first phase of the project was expanded into a monograph and the website was extended to include two additional modules (on industrial culture and migrations in Upper Silesia). Thanks to funding from the Foundation for German-Polish Cooperation in Warsaw, the monograph was published and presented to the public in fall 2016.

The project not only reflected expired processes of memory history, but also stimulated to a great extent the discourse on educational policy in multiethnic regions in Poland. For this reason, the transfer of the project results was of great importance. It was realized through lectures, panel discussions, statements, lectures of the project manager, newspaper articles, expert opinions, public relations.

Expert opinion (M. Wiatr)

• Expertise of the exhibition "History of Upper Silesian Jews" of the Municipal Museum in Gliwice
• Review and expert editing of the book by Małgorzata Szejnert: "The Black Garden" on the history of the Upper Silesian miners' settlements Gieschewald and Nickischschacht (German first edition 2015, translated from Polish by Benjamin Voelkel)
• Review of the exhibition "Der Großvater aus der Wehrmacht" (Grandfather from the Wehrmacht) of the House of German-Polish Cooperation, the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge e.V. (German War Graves Commission) and the German Cultural Forum Eastern Europe in Potsdam
• Evaluation of an internet portal for the cultural department of the Marshal's Office of the Silesian Voivodeship (Poland) on the occasion of the 90th anniversary of the Silesian Uprisings and the plebiscite in Upper Silesia (http://powstania.slaskie.pl)
• Review and evaluation of the press review for the Landeszentrale für politische Bildung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Referat Gedenkstätten und Erinnerungskultur, on the 90th anniversary of the Silesian Uprisings and the plebiscite in Upper Silesia

Lectures (M. Wiatr)

• "Where I am is Panama. The life journey of Mr. Janosch" on March 11, 2016 in Berlin.
• Book launch "Literary Guide to Upper Silesia. Five tours through the baroque, (post)industrial, green, mystical borderland" at the Leipzig Book Fair on March 20, 2016.
• "Borderland. The Interwar Period in German Upper Silesia and Polish Górny Śląsk" at Berlin on May 4, 2016.
• "History and Present of Upper Silesia" in the framework of a drawing excursion of students of the Bauhaus University Weimar on May 5, 2016 in Kandrzin-Cosel (Kędzierzyn-Koźle).
• Discussion panel of the Foundation for German-Polish Cooperation "Wilimowski na spalonym? - Piłkarski panel z okazji 100. rocznicy urodzin śląskiego Pelé" [Wilimowski on the sidelines? Soccer panel on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the birth of Upper Silesian Pelé] with Miljenko Jergović, Cornelius Ochmann, Stefan Szczepłek, Thomas Urban and Marcin Wiatr in Warsaw on June 16, 2016.
• "Teaching History and Historical Consciousness" on June 28, 2016 as part of the 25th Academia Baltica International Summer Course "Region - Nation - Europe" from June 26 to July 9, 2016 for students from Central and Eastern Europe in Sankelmark.
• Book presentation "Literary Guide to Upper Silesia" on November 3, 2016 in the House of the Homeland of the State of Baden-Württemberg in Stuttgart.
• Presentation of the German edition of the book by Małgorzata Szejnert: "The Black Garden" and conversation with the translator Benjamin Voelkel about Upper Silesia between the World Wars on June 18, 2015 in Potsdam.  
• Moderation of the reading with Peter Oliver Loew "Wir Unsichtbaren. History of the Poles in Germany" on March 20, 2015 in Berlin/Pankow.
• Panel discussion: "Upper Silesian Identities. Basil Kerski in conversation with Michał Olszewski, Sebastian Rosenbaum and Marcin Wiatr" on March 15, 2015 in Berlin.
• "'Overcoming Borders'. From the work on a German-Polish textbook" in the context of the conference "Central Europe 25 years after the fall of the Iron Curtain" from January 11 to 16, 2015 in the educational and meeting center "Der Heiligenhof" in Bad Kissingen, Germany
• "Casus Upper Silesia as a transnational border region" in the context of the conference "Central Europe 25 years after the fall of the Iron Curtain" from January 11 to 16, 2015 in the educational and meeting center "The Heiligenhof" in Bad Kissingen
• "The image of the German minority in Polish history textbooks" as part of the expert conference "Textbooks and textbook projects on the (minority) history of the Germans in individual countries of Europe" from May 31 to June 2, 2015 at the Education and Meeting Center "Der Heiligenhof" in Bad Kissingen
• "Literature of Teschen Silesia" in the framework of the conference "The German literature of Silesia" from 26 to 30 October 2014 in the educational and meeting center "Der Heiligenhof" in Bad Kissingen
• "1954 - 1974 - 1990 - 2006. soccer as a turning point? An excursion into the border region of Upper Silesia" as part of the seminar "Germany and Poland - turning points in their common history from 1914 to 2004" from October 17 to 19, 2014 in the Academia Baltica in Sankelmark
• "Germans in Poland in Polish History Textbooks until 1989 and in Bilateral Textbook Talks. The German-Polish Textbook Commission in 1972-1989 and the 'Problem' of Germans in Poland. Discussion Strategies, Interpretive Sovereignties, Compromises", international conference: "The Communist Authorities towards the German Population in Poland 1945-1989", Institute of National Remembrance (IPN) in Katowice/Katowice in cooperation with the Federation of German Social-Cultural Societies in Poland and the House of German-Polish Cooperation in Gliwice/Gliwice, Gliwice/Gliwice, 28-29.11.2013.
• "The Representation of Germans in Poland in Polish Textbooks," II Congress of German Studies Researchers in Poland, Willy Brandt Center for German and European Studies, Wrocław, Nov. 21-23, 2013.
• Moderation of a panel discussion on the topic: "Heritage, Identity, Future. Representatives of national and ethnic minorities in Poland in conversation about successes, problems and challenges" with: Bernard Gaida, Chairman of the Umbrella Association of Germans in Poland, Cornelius Ochmann, Director of the Foundation for German-Polish Cooperation, Dr. Markus Krzoska, historian, Rafał Bartek, House of German-Polish Cooperation and Dr. Irena Kurasz, German Consulate General in Wrocław, Willy Brandt Center for German and European Studies, Wrocław, Nov. 21-23, 2013.
• "Upper Silesia in Polish history books after 1989. On the current significance of transnational regional history in Poland" with subsequent presentation and discussion of the project-based Upper Silesia modules, Teachers' Seminar "Rediscovered Europe", Educational and Meeting Center "Der Heiligenhof", Bad Kissingen, 25-30.08.2013.
• Talk with director Andrzej Klamt in the context of a film presentation "The Divided Class" - "Podzielona klasa" about migration experiences of Upper Silesians, Red Hall in Braunschweig Castle, 19.09.2012.
•  "Multiethnic Space Perspective as a Challenge for Textbooks. On the Role of European Minorities in Modern Education," Seminar z.Th. "Ethnic Minorities in Eastern Europe," Bildungs- und Begegnungsstätte "Der Heiligenhof," Bad Kissingen, September 7-10, 2012.
• "Das Skandalspiel von Katowitz," discussion event in the context of a study trip of German and Polish students to Upper Silesia, Deutsches Kulturforum östliches Europa in Potsdam in cooperation with the Silesian Museum in Görlitz and the Institute for Applied History in Frankfurt a.O., Katowice (Poland), May 10, 2012.
• "European Educational Media in the Process of European Integration," an event organized by the German-Polish Society of Saxony-Anhalt e.V. as part of Europe Week, Magdeburg , May 7, 2012.
• "Football and Integration Processes. Polen in den deutschen und Deutschen in den polnischen Fußballnationalmannschaften", conference "Fußball im Fadenkreuz der Politik", Willy Brand Center for German and European Studies in Wrocław/Breslau (Poland), Wrocław/Breslau, 23-25 April 2012.
• "Regional Identity in Upper Silesia as Part of a Modernization Course in Poland? A Peripheral Border Region Gets into the Center", interdisciplinary conference "Region - State - Europe. Regional Identities under the Conditions of Dictatorship and Democracy in East Central Europe," European Network Remembrance and Solidarity in Warsaw in cooperation with the Federal Institute for Culture and History of the Germans in Eastern Europe (Oldenburg), German Society for Eastern European Studies (Berlin), Johann Gottfried Herder Research Council (Marburg) and the Institute of National Memory (Bratislava), Berlin, April 18-20, 2012.
• Standing talk on the topic: "Europe in regions - regions in textbooks? Cornelius Ochmann (Bertelsmann Foundation) and Marcin Wiatr (TU Braunschweig/GEI) in conversation about Upper Silesia and its multiple identities" at the Leipzig Book Fair, March 15, 2012.
• "In anticipation of the 2012 European Football Championship in Poland and Ukraine: the soccer pitch in Upper Silesia - a European place of remembrance?", conference "Open Doors: Poles - Germans - Czechs", educational and meeting center "Der Heiligenhof", Bad Kissingen, 18-19 January 2012.
• "Silesian Cultural Heritage in the School Classroom and in the University - What Interests the Youth Today? What should be taught?" in the context of the conference "Silesian Identities. Memory Culture - Wealth or Source of Conflict?" in Groß Stein b. Opole on 08 October 2011
• "History teaching in multi-ethnic regions using the example of the region of Upper Silesia" in the framework of a symposium of the International Society for History Didactics, the Center for Political Education and History Didactics, University of Education Basel, 12-14.09.2011.
• "Reappraising the Regional, Bringing the European Together. A Research Project on Educational Policy and Teaching Practice in and around Upper Silesia" in the context of a seminar "Discovering and Understanding Eastern Neighbors", Educational and Meeting Center "Der Heiligenhof" in Bad Kissingen, Aug. 22, 2011.
• Panel discussion "Double identities. Polen in Deutschland - Deutsche in Polen" (Poles in Germany - Germans in Poland), Representation of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia to the Federal Government, German-Polish Society Federal Association, the German-Polish Society Berlin, Polish Embassy Berlin and the German-Polish magazine DIALOG, Berlin, 16.05.2011

Project and teaching events (M. Wiatr)

• Presentation of the monograph "Upper Silesia and its Cultural Heritage" with panel discussion in cooperation with the Institute of National Remembrance on October 13, 2016 in Katowice (Poland).
• Presentation of the monograph "Upper Silesia and its cultural heritage" at the German Historians' Day on September 22, 2016 in Hamburg.
• Discussion event for the presentation of research results "Upper Silesia between memory and future" at the conclusion of the research project "Upper Silesia and its cultural heritage - memory-political findings, education-political impulses and didactic innovations" in Darmstadt on 15.02.2013
• Lecture at the TU Braunschweig in SS 2012 "Upper Silesia: A transnational region of Europe" (basic module on the fundamentals of teaching history, Department of History and Didactics of History of the Department of History)
• Expert workshop in the context of the research project "Upper Silesia and its cultural heritage - Remembrance-political findings, education-political impulses and didactical innovations" in the period from 31.05. to 02.06.2012 in Braunschweig
• Lecture at the Institute of Political Science of the University of Magdeburg in SS 2011 "Upper Silesia: A multicultural region in Europe in the context of other European border regions" (course of studies European Studies

Books, articles, newspaper articles (M. Wiatr)

• "Upper Silesia and its Cultural Heritage. Remembrance Policy Findings, Educational Policy Impulses, and Didactic Innovations," Eckert. The Georg Eckert Institute Studies on International Educational Media Research Series, vol. 140, Göttingen: V&R unipress, 2016, 324 pages, ISBN 978-3-8471-0593-0.
• "Literary Guide to Upper Silesia. Five Tours through the Baroque, (Post)Industrial, Green, Mystical Borderland," Potsdam 2016, 424 pp, ISBN 978-3-936168-71-6.
• "Górny Śląsk niczym Afryka. Region pogranicza kulturowego w polskich podręcznikach do historii wydanych po 1989 roku [Upper Silesia equals Africa. A Border Region in Polish History Textbooks after 1989]" In: COLLOQUIUM OPOLE. Poles - Germans - Czechs. Neighborhood in the 21st Century, Marek Mazurkiewicz, Annemarie Franke, Tadeusz Siwek, Magdalena Moj (eds.), Opole 2016, pp. 186-213.
• "Being German in Poland", in: Yearbook Poland 2016 ( minorities), ed. by German Poland Institute Darmstadt, Wiesbaden 2016, pp.61-71.
• "A Project Astonishes," in: Annual Report (2015) of the Georg Eckert Institute, Braunschweig 2016, p. 50.
• "Upper Silesia is like soccer," in: "Germans and Poles. Geschichte einer Nachbarschaft," Dieter Bingen, Hans-Jürgen Bömelburg, Andrzej Klamt, and Peter Oliver Loew (eds.), Darmstadt 2016, pp. 160-164, ISBN: 978-3-8062-3295-0.
• "Kraina zielona aż do łez" [A land green to the point of weeping]. In: Fabryka Silesia (1/11) 2016, pp. 60-63.
• "W 'magazynie pamięci'. Z historykiem Tobiasem Wegerem rozmawia Marcin Wiatr" [In 'Memory of Memory'. Marcin Wiatr in conversation with historian Tobias Weger]. In: Fabryka Silesia (2/12) 2016, pp. 10-14.
• Interview on the findings of the textbook analysis: "Śląsk pod zaborem pruskim, czyli podręcznikowe bzdury" [Upper Silesia under Prussian occupation and other textbook errors] [Tomasz Jarecki in conversation with Marcin Wiatr], "Jaskółka", v. 29.02.2016.
• "Przeklęty Korfanty" [The cursed Korfanty]. In: Fabryka Silesia (2/12) 2016, pp. 60-65.
• "Janosch and His 'No Man's Land'. A Grandiose Biography of the 'Pope of Children's Literature' Has Been Published," in BLICKWECHSEL. Journal of German Culture and History in Eastern Europe, 4/2016, Potsdam 2016, pp. 26-27.
• "A Useful Cicerone. Portrait of the Writer and Poland Mediator Matthias Kneip." In: German-Polish magazine "Dialog," no. 116 (2016), pp. 72-75.
• "Podręczniki jak Matterhorn" [Textbooks are like the Matterhorn peak]," in: Gazeta Wyborcza v. 07.10.2016, pp. 8-9.
• "Changing Perspective or Once There and Back..." In: "People on the Move. Migration - self-chosen and foreign-determined," journal 'OST-WEST. European Perspectives', 17. jg. (2016), h. 4, pp. 243-251.
• "Total Isolation. Deportations of Upper Silesians to the USSR." In: German-Polish Magazine "Dialog," no. 117 (2016), pp. 90-93.
• "Na Górnym Śląsku wielu kibicuje i Polakom, i Niemcom. Czy to zdrada? [In Upper Silesia, many cheer for both the Polish and German national teams. A betrayal?]," in Gazeta Wyborcza v. 01.07.2016.
• "Muzeum Śląskie osiadlo na mieliznie" [Silesian Museum squanders its chance]. In: Gazeta Wyborcza v. 18.09.2015, pp. 8-9.
• "Unlocking Europe from the Perspective of Historical Regions: The 'Upper Silesia' Project," in Annual Report (2014) of the Georg Eckert Institute - Leibniz Institute for International Textbook Research, Braunschweig 2015, pp. 41-42.
• "A Gaping Gap. On the Presence of Upper Silesia as a German-Polish Cultural Landscape in Polish Educational Media after 1989," in: conference proceedings of the XXXV German-Polish Textbook Conference: "Kulturlandschaften. Actors and Modes of their Construction and Narration" [in preparation].
• "The g(b)lühenden Landschaften Oberschlesiens," in: Jahrbuch Polen 2015 (Umwelt), ed. by Deutsches Polen-Institut Darmstadt, Wiesbaden 2015, pp. 107-116.
• "Totalne osamotnienie czyli kaj tyn Opa? Deportacje Gornoślązaków do ZSRR w 1945 r." ["Total isolation or where is grandpa?. Deportations of Upper Silesians to the USSR in 1945"]. In: "Gazeta Wyborcza" v. 27 March 2015.
• New internet portal on Upper Silesia in the classroom. In: German-Polish magazine "Dialog", no. 107 (2014), p. 93.
• "Upper Silesian Cosmos: Horst Bienek's Literary Work." In: German-Polish Magazine "Dialog," no. 107 (2014), pp. 90-96.
• Czas sprzeczności [The time of opposites]. In: quarterly magazine "Fabryka Silesia," no. 2 (7) 2014, pp. 60-83.
• "A Navigation into the Uncertain. On the Controversy over the Planned Upper Silesia Exhibition of the Silesian Museum in Katowice," in: German-Polish magazine "Dialog," no. 103 (2013), pp. 68-84.
• "Re-measuring Border Spaces. Multiethnic Perspectives on Space in Polish Textbooks," in GWU 64, 2013, H. 1/2, pp. 46-60.
• "Against National Paradigms. Controversy over the Interpretative Sovereignty of the Planned Upper Silesia Exhibition." In: Inter Finitimos 10 (Jahrbuch zur deutsch-polnischen Beziehungsgeschichte der Deutsch-Polnischen Gesellschaft Bundesverband e.V.); - thematic focus: museums and exhibitions; eds: Peter Fischer, Basil Kerski, Isabel Röskau-Rydel, Krzysztof Ruchniewicz, Sabine Stekel) (2012), pp. 81-100.
• "Playing for us or against us? Sport in Upper Silesia and the Experience of European Borderlands," in German-Polish magazine "Dialog," no. 99 (2012), pp. 18-29.
• "Górny Śląsk niczym Afryka" ["Upper Silesia Equals Africa"], in: Fabryka Silesia, 2 (2012), pp. 22-23.
•  "Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow. Soccer is more than just a game in Upper Silesia," in Glückauf Polonia! NRW & Poland. The People. The Football. The History," Reviersport special issue, Essen 2012, pp. 64-67.
• "Janosch Returns," in: German-Polish magazine "Dialog," No. 97/2011, pp. 9-19.
• "Reappraising the Regional, Bringing the European Together," in: "Bulletin" of the Georg Eckert Institute 09 (2011), pp. 26-28.
• "Upper Silesia - Identity and Modernization," in: German-Polish magazine "Dialog," no. 95/2011, pp. 73-85.
• "Structural Changes in Rural Poland Using the Example of Upper Silesia," in: journal 'OST-WEST. European Perspectives', 12. jg. (2011), H.3, pp.200-207.

Other contributions, newspaper articles and collective works (written with the assistance of M. Wiatr)

• Robert von Lucius: "Of the immense importance of the dotted line". In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung v. 31.07.2014, p. 3.
• Lidia Ostałowska, Dariusz Kortko: "Pierony. Górny Śląsk po polsku i niemiecku. Antologia" [Anthology of Polish and German reportages about Upper Silesia], Warszawa 2014.
• "Art and industry: the paradigm of innovations in the industrial areas of Germany and Poland", Katowice 2013.
• Marcin Wiatr in an interview with Till Scholz-Knobloch: "The mined cultural space". In: Das Wochenblatt v. 14.02.2013
• Marcin Wiatr in interview with Józef Krzyk: "Zbyt mało, zbyt banalnie. Czego polski uczeń może dowiedzieć się o Śląsku" [Too little, too banal. What Polish students learn about Upper Silesia]. In: Gazeta Wyborcza v. 8.03.2013, p. 10 u. 14.
• Lidia Ostałowska, Dariusz Kortko: "Dość całowania ręki niemieckiego pana. Muzeum Śląskie w ogniu" [No prevention from the Germans. The dispute about the Silesian Museum]. In: Gazeta Wyborcza v. 27.06.2013, pp. 14-17.
• Daniel Rubrecht: "O Janoschu, piłce nożnej i podręcznikach / "About Janosch, soccer and textbooks", in: "Silesian Weekly", no. 24/1054 of 15-21.06.2012.
• Adriana Dawid; Anna Gołębiowska: "Opolscy historycy w Instytucie Georga Eckerta w Brunszwiku. Region w podręczniku", in: INDEKS, Pismo Uniwersytetu Opolskiego, No. 7-8 (131-132) / IX - X 2012.
• Barbara Cöllen: "Polska w niemieckiej szkole: między życzeniem a realiami" [Poland in German school: between wish and reality], published on Deutsche Welle portal on 11.03.2012.
• "Double Identities. Poles in Germany - Germans in Poland. Basil Kerski in conversation with Wieslaw Lewicki, Andrzej Kaluza, Jacek Tyblewski and Marcin Wiatr", in: "Polish Immigration. Zur Geschichte und Gegenwart der Polen in Deutschland," Basil Kerski, Krzysztof Ruchniewicz (eds.), Veröffentlichungen der Deutsch-Polnischen Gesellschaft Bundesverband e.V., Fibre Verlag, Osnabrück 2011, pp. 285-298.
• Konrad Schuller: "Der neue Schlesier," FAZ v. 21.05.2011 (No. 118), p. 3.
• Guido Hitze: "Das Komplott von Oberschlesien," FAZ v. 21.05.2011 (No. 118), Bilder und Zeiten, Z3.