"Pruzzenland" as a Region of Broken Memories. Reconstruction and Representation of European Historical Space in Germany, Poland, Lithuania and Russia since 1900

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Simone Lässig
• Subject Area: Modern and Contemporary History
• Term: from 2010 to 2015
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 173900881

With its focus on Pruzzenland, this project concentrates on a North-East European region marked by diverse cultural traditions and by rival political and national claims of its neighbours. The primary objective of the first phase of funding was an international comparative analysis of memory cultures and identity constructions in the medium of the textbook for the four countries in the study: Germany, Poland, Lithuania and Russia. On the basis of these findings, work was begun on a conceptual design for conveying the variable and highly conflictual history of a European region in the classroom, moving beyond the nationally determined memory cultures. The principal product of this first phase was a monograph, currently being written. The monograph reflects critically on current theoretical trends within memory research, regional history and/or regional education, as well as within developing content-related topoi that capture the history of the region beyond the interpretative categories of the nation, the state, and ethnicity, and will thus provide an initial impetus for work on European history in dialogical form. The impetus will take on solid proportions during the second funding period via a selection of sources, selected after consideration of theoretical, methodological, scholarly and didactic aspects, for use in the classrooms of Germany, Poland, Lithuania and Russia. This transfer product will be available as a multilingual digital edition, opening up opportunities for its users on an international level well beyond the boundaries of the four countries mentioned above. It is in this sense that the project breaks new didactic ground: there is still a considerable lack of learning material that crosses boundaries and refers to a shared European region. The planned digital edition will thus make a constructive contribution to the debate currently underway across much of Europe as to how history instruction can be de-nationalised and provide access to transnational perspectives. At the same time, with its interlacing of regional, national and transnational perspectives, its combination of synchronic and diachronic approaches, and its collaborative, cross-boundary development and usability, this project also addresses the latest developments within digital humanities, which have rapidly gained in importance in the humanities and cultural studies over the past few years. While a traditional medium such as the textbook can only unveil different perspectives in a successive manner, a digital edition provides a unique approach towards multiple perspectives. With the objective of encouraging pupils to develop pluralised images of history, the multimedia form will allow the user to visualise appropriately the complex mesh of memories and spatial perspectives that distinguish the historical region of Pruzzenland.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: Poland
• Participating Persons: Professorin Dr. Zoja Jaroszewicz-Piereslawcew; Professor Dr. Andrzej Kopiczko; Dr. Robert Maier