Info brochure Remembrance Connects Oder-Warta

The space for Space for Discovery and Togetherness is the era of re- construction in peaceful neighbour- hood after 1945. But it is also the era of the socialist dictatorship, the Cold War, the political turnaround. Finally, it is the era of the European Union with open borders, economic inter- dependence and a neighbourhood of mutual respect and advantage. The era of the Space of Fate perma- nently scarred and physically divid- ed the Oder-Warta region; in the era of the Space for Space for Discov- ery and Togetherness, narratives of remembrance culture were now transplanted that have endured to this day. Thus, the common history of the region experienced an almost com- plete reboot through the radical population exchange east of the Oder. The forcibly migrated population of the former eastern Poland brought their own history, traditions and lan- guage with them. The latter, in addi- tion to the new physical border on the Oder, created a language barri- er, which increased the distance be- tween the inhabitants and prevent- ed cross-border exchange. Remembrance Cultures began to develop separately from each oth- er, shaped by the narratives of the victorious powers, which have en- dured to this day. Two fundamen- tally different ideologies (capitalism/ socialism) transplanted themselves on German soil (FRG-West Berlin and GDR) and almost escalated dur- ing the Cold War. The reappraisal of the Second World War in the FRG, the GDR and the Re- public of Poland was also influenced accordingly by ideology. This affect- ed the form of commemorative days and holidays, the content of school lessons, the interpretation of histo- ry at war memorials, war gravesites and in museums. The Oder-Warta region and its peo- ple first had to find their way into this mixture of events and thus wrote a new history of their own. For exam- ple, the former citizens of eastern Poland sometimes lived for years on packed suitcases or built their altar in a pub instead of in the old village church, because they assumed that „the Germans will be back soon“. War memorials were erected and war gravesites laid out, where peo- ple are still buried to this day. Muse- ums tell heroic stories of liberation from the Nazi regime and present war equipment from the Red Army and the Polish Army. The Cold War brought new military, civilian and government bunkers, this time to protect against nuclear strikes or to coordinate and execute them. Old military sites were often converted for this purpose. Lack of supplies in the GDR and the Polish People‘s Republic, as well as the ever-present state power, led to hidden and open resistance to the socialist system on both sides of the border, as well as the urge for social change and democratic conditions. In 1972, the „Oder-Neisse peace border“ was opened for visa-free border traffic but was closed again in 1980 for fear of change. Solidarnosc, glasnost and perestroi- ka finally led to peaceful revolution, political change and German unity. Space of Discovery and Togetherness