Second Plenary

Download the Second Plenary Results

12 March 2007, Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin, Germany
at the invitation of the President, Prof. Dr. Jürgen Kocka
http://www.wzb.eu/

The Second Plenary of the Research Network 1989 is devoted to the following issues:

1. A working meeting on strategy (09:30-12:00) that deals in-depth with

  • Interdisciplinary research groups and proposals from the RN 1989;
  • Key themes and concepts of the RN over the coming years;
  • Research funding applications (including career development awards);
  • 1989 and its 20th anniversary as theme for an international conference.

The working meeting will be held with the President of the Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin (WZB), Prof. Dr. Jürgen Kocka, and is open to RN 1989 associates.

2. Parallel round tables (15:30-18:00) will be held for an extended discussion of

  • European and global perspectives on 1989: Which are key questions for comparative projects, interdisciplinary research and career development awards?
  • The 20th anniversary of 1989 in Berlin, Europe and around the world: What place for international academic debate and trans-national public commemoration?
  • (Joint invitation with MitOst e.V. - MOST e.V. Brücke nach MOE - Ostblick e.V.) Networking the post-1989 generation: A festival for the mobile, educated EastWest generation in the summer of 2009?

The round tables are open to RN 1989 associates, WZB members and invited guests. To obtain an invitation, please contact us.

3. The JOE-fixe (18:00) - the Research Network 1989 will host the ‘Junge Osteuropa Experten’ – an international network of the post-1989 generation in Berlin and Brandenburg. The first half an hour will be devoted (in German) to

  • A short presentation of the aims and activities of the Research Network 1989
  • A summary of results from the round table ‘Networking the post-1989 generation’.

Drinks and Brezeln will be served afterwards and informal networking will continue. The event is open to the public and will take place at the WZB, Reichpietschufer 50, Berlin (to download a location plan, please go to http://www.wzb.eu/wzb/kontakt.en.htm).

4. A Podium (19:00-20:30) to address the coming 20th anniversary of 1989 with the following question:

  • Der 20. Jahrestag: Vorausschau und Rückblick
  • The 20th Anniversary: Anticipation and Retrospective

Moderator: Stephan Ozsvath (Journalist, Berlin) Inforadio und Radio Multkulti (RBB), n-ost e.V.

Podium: Timur Atnashev (Historian and Sociologist, Moscow/Florence), Antonina Bakardjieva-Engelbrekt (Marketing Lawyer and Legal Scholar, Stockholm), Alexander ‘Sascha’ Götz (Slavist and Foreign Policy Expert, Berlin) and Agnieszka Wenninger (Philosopher and Expert for Scientific Documentation, Berlin)

In 2009 participants, observers and historians will be recording their interpretations of 1989, structuring commemoration and remembrance. Of great significance to us is that in the past twenty years a new generation was able to ‘go West’ and ‘go East’. The end of the cold war, the collapse of the Soviet empire, the globalisation of trade and the wider circulation of ideas and cultural artefacts enabled the post-1989 generation to move back and forth between the ‘East’ and the ‘West’, making us multilingual and multicultural. Yet, this mobility is not unhindered (new borders and new visa regimes) and life chances are far from equal. We ask:

  1. Which are the defining moments in our biography? And how are these related to 1989 and its impact? What defines the post-1989 generation?
  2. What are our expectations for the 20th anniversary in 2009? Vis-à-vis national remembrance, is there scope for trans-national public commemoration? Of which kind?
  3. As the dust settles: Which are the most significant consequences of 1989? Not just in CEE, but in the whole of Europe, in East Asia, in the Americas, globally?

Format: The podium will kick-off debate in the first 45 minutes. Afterwards, the audience will be asked to intervene with statements and commentary.

If you have any questions, please contact the RN 1989 via e-mail: info1989@iz-soz.de.

last modified: 2007-10-18