Magdalena I . Sacha

Towards the end of the 18th century, the question if women's education became more and more important at the time of the outgoing Enlightenment in Prussia. Some scholars were of the opinion that women from all social classes should be educated to become useful citizens in the etics of duty. One author, today almost an unknown German, Margarethe Regina Louise Countess von Krockow (1749-1803), wrote in 1793 an essay "Paedagogische Ideen", where she described her project for a boarding school for impoverished and orphan girls from Prussian gentry families. The following article presents the educational dream of Countess von Krockow and compares them with the memoires of Hans Carl von Krockow (1769-1841), her second son.

The article addresses representations of the Evangelical denomination at contemporary permanent museum exhibits in the region of Masuria, inhabited between 1525–1945 by a Protestant majority. Applying semiotic analysis, the author presents the outcomes of field studies in the local museums in Olsztyn, Mikołajki, Mrągowo, Ogródek, Szczytno, and in the open-air museum in Olsztynek. The principal research question is the issue of visibility and recognisability of Evangelism-related items at permanent exhibits. The author concludes that there are three types of omissions in the presentation of the history of Masurian Evangelicals. The silencing of the Protestant past of Masuria results from the cultural colonisation that took place after 1945 and from identifying Evangelicalism with Germanness in the common consciousness of the currently dominant Polish Roman Catholic community.

Things expelled, things tamed, things exhibited: An attempt to pre-categorizeThe article aims at analyzing the status of material things whose function has changed due to changes of borders between Poland and Germany and the population transfer i.e. repatriation and expulsion after 1944. By using the Greimas semiotic square, I categorize artefacts along two axes: familiarity–otherness and mobility–immobility. I mainly focus on the musealization of things at the exhibitions in Poland and Germany concerning war and postwar resettlements.

In the article, the so-called eastern German museums and the way they operate is discussed in view of a document ratified by Bundestag in 2016. The document concerned the further action plan for implementing the provisions of paragraph 96 of the Federal Expellee Law of 1953, popularly referred to as a “cultural paragraph”. The term “German East” bears reference to the historic territories of German settlement prior to 1945, whose heritage is a focus of attention for museums as well as science and culture institutions in contemporary Germany. Those eastern German museums have been reviewed herein, whose interest lies, inter alia, in territories presently belonging to Poland: the East Prussian State Museum (Ostpreuβisches Landesmuseum) in Lüneburg, the West Prussian State Museum (Westpreuβisches Landesmuseum) in Warendorf, the State Museum of Pomerania (Pommersches Landesmuseum) in Greifswald, the Silesian Museum (Schlesisches Museum) in Görlitz.

The essay focuses on the image of a woman as the Other in various status roles, such as a wife, a foreigner, a gentlewoman. The analysis, which aims to demonstrate the existence of a structural opposition between nature and culture, is based on the works of the English Edwardian writer, Elizabeth von Arnim. As the Other, the heroine of her prose finds herself mentally in the betwixt-and-between (liminal) time. On the material plane the expression of her state is the literary topos of a garden as hortus conclusus.

The question of presenting the heritage of the Borderlands and the life of its inhabitants in Polish museums after 1989 is tackled. The main focus of interest are displays perceived as: 1) visual and public form of knowledge transfer; 2) the way of overcoming the trauma of losing one’s native land; 3) tools for creating collective identity and 4) effects of the participation of Borderland circles in creating the display. The goal of the study is an overview of contemporary exhibitions dedicated to the Eastern Borderlands, and the experience of their loss as the result of WW II. Since the residents of the Borderlands were relocated to the ‘former German’ territories, the overview centres on the displays from the Western and Northern Territories. Apart from the local and national aspects, what matters is also the international dimension related to museum presentations of the ‘lost land’ and the fate of migrants. Therefore, the activity of Polish institutions is initially shown in the ...

The machine or the guillotine? Using semiotic analysis to interpret museum exhibitions
The article focuses on using semiotic analysis in the context of museum exhibitions. Such a method is widely used in English and German museology (there are no known examples of its use in Polish museology). In the preface, the author explains how the definition of a museum itself has changed throughout history, focusing on understanding the museum as a heterotopia (according to Michel Foucault). She also shows the meaning behind museum pieces (semiofors in Krzysztof Pomian's words). Assigning meaning to a museum piece can lead to controversy, which is illustrated by the example of the permament exhibition at the Silesian Museum in Katowice. The main thesis of the article is that the exhibit can be treated as a message made up of signs. The article presents a research method that uses the tools of semiotic analysis to interpret the message (see: Jana Scholze). In the study, the exhibition is treated as a text meant to be decoded by the recipient.

Things expelled, things tamed, things exhibited:
An attempt to pre-categorize
Abstract
The article aims at analyzing the status of material things whose function has changed due to changes of borders between Poland and Germany and the population transfer (i.e. repatriation and expulsion) after 1944. By using the Greimas semiotic square, I categorize artefacts along two axes: familiarity–otherness and mobility–immobility. I mainly focus on the musealization of things at the exhibitions in Poland and Germany concerning war and postwar resettlements.
Keywords: resettlement of Poles and Germans after WWII, museum exhibitions, semiotics analysis, anthropology of things

The question of presenting the heritage of the Borderlands and the life of its inhabitants in Polish museums after 1989 is tackled. The main focus of interest are displays perceived as: 1) visual and public form of knowledge transfer; 2) the way of overcoming the trauma of losing one's native land; 3) tools for creating collective identity and 4) effects of the participation of Borderland circles in creating the display. The goal of the study is an overview of contemporary exhibitions dedicated to the Eastern Borderlands, and the experience of their loss as the result of WW II. Since the residents of the Borderlands were relocated to the 'former German' territories, the overview centres on the displays from the Western and Northern Territories. Apart from the local and national aspects, what matters is also the international dimension related to museum presentations of the 'lost land' and the fate of migrants. Therefore, the activity of Polish institutions is initially shown in the European context, through recalling the legal framework and working conditions of so called East German museums commemorating the 'German East' lost by Germany. The question of the reasons for the disproportion in the presentation of the topic between Poland and Germany is posed, while the to-date achievements of Polish museologists are presented. Territories, museums of the 'German East'. Jednym ze skutków II wojny światowej były masowe wysied-lenia ludności w Europie Środkowo-Wschodniej, które szcze-gólnie dotknęły obywateli polskich zamieszkałych na przed-wojennych Kresach Wschodnich II Rzeczypospolitej, a także obywateli niemieckich na tzw. niemieckim Wschodzie 1. Doświadczeniu temu podległo ogółem około 2 mln Polaków i 14 mln Niemców, przy czym rząd PRL określał uchodźców jako tzw. repatriantów (co miało ukryć przymusowy charak-ter wysiedlenia), a rząd RFN-jako Vertriebene, wypędzo-nych (co wskazywało na najbardziej drastyczny aspekt tego procesu). Trauma utraty ziemi rodzinnej stanowi silny kom-ponent uczuciowy, który-przy uwzględnieniu zasadniczej różnicy w kwestii przyczyn politycznych i moralnej odpowie-dzialności za koszmar wysiedleń-łączy przedstawicieli obu

This article considers the contemporary museum landscape in the territory of historical Masuria.
Assuming – first of all – that the historical pillars of Masurian identity before the Second World War
were the Polish language and the Protestant faith, and – secondly – that museums are institutions
whose purpose is to archive, select and present artefacts as well as construct narratives about the
cultural memory of a group, the author considers the question of the presence of Protestant themes
in the exhibitions of selected present-day Masurian museums. An exhibition is understood here as
a message addressed to receivers, and therefore the author uses the method of semiotic analysis of
the visual stratum of selected exhibitions. The choice of the exhibitions discussed in the article is
limited to museums located at operating Protestant churches (the Museum of the Reformation in
Mikołajki) and in former sacral buildings abandoned by Protestants after 1945 as well as a reconstruction of a parsonage (exhibitions on the site of the Folk Architecture Museum and Ethnographic
Park in Olsztynek)

In the article, the so-called eastern German museums and the way they operate is discussed in view of a document ratified by Bundestag in 2016. The document concerned the further action plan for implementing the provisions of paragraph 96 of the Federal Expellee Law of 1953, popularly referred to as a “cultural paragraph”. The term “German East” bears reference to the historic territories of German settlement prior to 1945, whose heritage is a focus of attention for museums as well as science and culture institutions in contemporary Germany. Those eastern German museums have been reviewed herein, whose interest lies, inter alia, in territories presently belonging to Poland: the East Prussian State Museum (Ostpreuβisches Landesmuseum) in Lüneburg, the West Prussian State Museum (Westpreuβisches Landesmuseum) in Warendorf, the State Museum of Pomerania (Pommersches Landesmuseum) in Greifswald, the Silesian Museum (Schlesisches Museum) in Görlitz.

Scraps, notes, trifles, relics. About Buchenwald’ poetry
by Zygmunt Lubicz-Zaleski

Summary
The subject of the study focuses on the poetry of the Polish-French literature historian Zygmunt Lubicz-Zaleski (1882–1967). The reason for my research was the Polish edition (2016) of his poetic cycle Relikwiarz buchenwaldzki (Reliquary of Buchenwald) which was created in the Nazi
concentration camp Buchenwald (Germany) between 1943–1945 and until now was not widely known among the readers in Poland. Lubicz-Zaleski’s concentration camp poetry is presented within the context of looking at the nuances that the Polish and German prisoners’ of war collection of poetry shared about their ordeal while in Buchenwald. I also point out the domination of the German former communist prisoners in access to publishing within the German Democratic Republic after 1945 and because of this the lack of availability of French and Polish publications in East Germany. The main aim of the study was looking at Lubicz-Zaleski’s war poetry and its reception in a broader historical-political context.

The paper deals with the contemporary museum landscape on the territory of historical Masuria. Assuming - first of all - that the historical pillars of Masurian identity before the Second World War comprised the Polish language and evangelical denomination, and - secondly - that museums are institutions whose purpose is to archive, select and present artifacts as well as construct narration about the cultural memory of the group, the author of the article poses the question of the current presence of evangelical themes at the exhibitions of selected Masurian museums. An exhibition is understood here as a message addressed to receivers, and therefore the author uses the method of semiotic analysis of the visual stratum of selected exhibitions. The choice of the exhibitions discussed in the article is limited to museums located at operating evangelical churches (Museum of the Reformation in Mikołajki [Germ. Nikolaiken]) or in former sacral buildings abendoned by Protestants after 1945 (exhibitions on the premises of the opan-air ethnographical museum in Olsztynek [Germ. Hohenstein]).

The topic of this article is the landscape of memory space and non-memory space in Kortowo,
an academic district in the city of Olsztyn. Now the location of the campus of the University of
Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn (UWM), it was founded in 1880 as the location of the Kortau psychiatric
hospital in the German province of East Prussia. During WWII patients destined for execution
were transferred from the Kortau facility in the “Aktion Lange” (Operation Lange) and in the euthanasia
programme “T-4”. In 1945, the area was burned as a result of a Red Army attack. In 1950,
the Academy of Agriculture and Technology was located there and from 1999 the university. The
article brings up problems of contemporary narration connected with Kortowo as a) fictionalized
history; b) urban legends and c) the current formation of memory and non-memory spaces in the
cultural landscape of the city. The relationship between local (non)memory and national memory
in the commemorative practices of the modern inhabitants of the so-called Regained Lands (Ziemie
Odzyskane) remains open.

Artykuł poświęcony jest dziedzictwu kulturowemu wschodnich terytoriów, które zostały utracone po drugiej wojnie światowej w wyniku przesunięcia granic Polski na zachód. W wyniku tego zdarzenia ZSRS zaanektował Kresy II RP stanowiące niemal połowę polskich terytoriów przed wojną. Z drugiej strony, Niemcy straciły na rzecz Polski terytoria tzw. Niemiec Wschodnich, tj. Pomorze, Śląsk oraz Wschodnie i Zachodnie Prusy. Autorka opisuje dziedzictwo straconych terytoriów jako „dziedzictwo fantomowe”, którego utrata może być porównana do złudzenia bólu doświadczanego po utracie amputowanej części ciała. Choć oba narody cierpiały traumę bycia wypędzonymi z rodzinnej ziemi, we współczesnym krajobrazie muzealnym można zauważyć fundamentalne różnice w prezentacji i reprezentacji ich utraconego dziedzictwa kulturowego. W pierwszej części tekstu autorka koncentruje się na prezentacji niemieckich inicjatyw muzealnych podejmowanych na terytorium RFN od lat 50-tych do dziś i związanych z prezentacją „straconych Niemiec Wschodnich”. Szczegółowej analizie poddana zostaje wystawa w Muzeum Prus Zachodnich [Westpreussisches Landesmuseum] w Monachium, którą autorka interpretuje jako wyraz historycznego mitu. W drugiej części tekstu omawiane są niektóre wybrane polskie inicjatywy muzealne poświęcone Kresom. W konkluzji autorka stawia pytania o powody istnienia tak znaczącego braku równowagi w przedstawieniach problemu ziem utraconych w Polsce i w Niemczech.

Magdalena Sacha,
Kortau and Kortowo. 'Purgatory' and campus - narrations of 'non-memory' and 'non-places' in space
The subject matter of the study focuses on the landscape of places of memory and non - memory in Kortowo
–  a university district of the city of Olsztyn. The present location of the campus of the University of Warmia and Mazury was created in 1880 as the site of the Kortau psychiatric institute for the German province of East Prussia. During the Second World War from the hospital in Kortau transports of patients were organized with the aim of their extermination as part of the “Lange action” and the so called euthanasia action (“T-4”). In 1945 the district was burned down as a result of the Red Army attack.  In  1950  Kortowo  became  the  home  of  the College  of  Agriculture  and  since  1999  it  has  been  a university  campus.  The  article  deals  with  the  problem  of  contemporary  narrations  connected  with  Kortowo:  a) fictionalized  history;  b)  urban  legends;  c) current shaping  of  the  space  of  places  of  memory  and  non-memory  in  the city’s cultural landscape. The relation between local memory (or its absence) and “national” memory in the memorative practices of today ’s inhabitants of the so called Recovered Territories remains an open question.

Along the River Piaśnica. The memory places along the ‘phantom border’ in Northern Kassubia

The paper focuses on the question whether the former Polish-German border along the River Piaśnica in Northern Kassubia is also a border of the ‘long-term-duration’. The old border, although no longer on the political map after 1945, still exists in the collective memory of the inhabitants of the former borderland. The ‘phantom border’ is tangible in material memorials and in language use. A particular case is the social memory of the inhabitants of the village Nadole, which was a Polish enclave on the German side of Lake Żarnowieckie between 1920-1939. The paper presents results of research on this memory conducted through text analysis of historical sources and ethnographic interviews with the local people. A local myth of the ‘hero’s journey plays an important role for the construction of the social memory of Nadole. Various Kashubian political activists can be cast as the hero. Until today the memory of the interwar period has been the basis of the image of ‘Us’ and ‘the Others’.

[How to turn an Englishwoman into a good German housewife? The spaces of female Otherness in Elizabeth von Arnim’s prose]

The essay focuses on the image of a woman as the Other in various status roles, such as a wife, a foreigner, a gentlewoman. The analysis, which aims to demonstrate the existence of a structural opposition between "nature" and "culture", is based on the works of the English Edwardian writer, Elizabeth von Arnim. As the Other, the heroine of her prose finds herself mentally in the "betwixt-and-between" (liminal) time. On the material plane the expression of her state is the literary topos of a garden as 'hortus conclusus'.
Keywords: Prussian ethos; Elizabeth von Arnim; structural opposition; 'hortus conclusus'; gender.