• Institution
    • Leitung
    • Gremien
      • Wissenschaftlicher Beirat
        • Gesamtliste seit 1981
      • Stiftungsrat
      • Mitgliederversammlung
    • Ansprechpartner
    • Das Kolleg
      • Historie
        • Geschichte der Institution
          • Kurze Geschichte des Kollegs
        • Geschichte der Häuser und Gärten
          • Hauptgebäude
            • Exkurs - Der Garten
          • Weiße Villa
          • Neubau
          • Villa Jaffé
          • Villa Walther
        • Geschichte des Signets
      • Finanzierung & Satzungen
        • Satzung der Wissenschaftsstiftung
        • Satzung des Wissenschaftskollegs
      • Förderer & Freundeskreis
    • Initiativen & Kooperationen
      • College for Life Sciences
      • Blankensee-Colloquien
      • Anna Krüger Stiftung
      • Some Institutes for Advanced Study (SIAS)
      • Ukraine-Förderung
      • VUIAS
        • Bilder der Eröffnungsfeier
      • Elkana Fellowships
    • Bibliothek
      • Bestellen & Ausleihen
      • Recherche
        • Zeitschriften
        • Kataloge
        • Fachinformationsdienste
        • Archive
      • Bücher & Musik vor Ort
      • Fragen?
  • Fellows
    • Fellowfinder
    • Fellows 2024/2025
    • Fellows 2025/2026
    • Permanent Fellows
      • Frühere Permanent Fellows
    • Alumni
      • Fellowclub
        • Verein
          • Geschichte
        • Mitgliedschaft
        • Newsletter
          • März 2025
            • Editorial
            • Architekturen des Überlebens: Ein Interview mit Natalia Romik (Elkana-Fellow 2024/2025)
            • „Definitionen sind keine letzten Wahrheiten“
            • Weitere Videos aus der Wikothek
            • Die School of Human Rights Association: Für eine gerechte und demokratische Wissenschaft in der Türkei
            • Wissenschaftsfreiheit im Kleinen
            • Save the Date: Jahrestreffen des Fellowclubs
            • Mitgliedschaft im Fellowclub
            • Mitgliedsbeiträge und Spenden
            • Neue Publikationen in der Fellowbibliothek
            • Preise
            • Obituarium
          • Februar 2024
            • Editorial
            • Mit essbaren Insekten die Welt ernähren
            • Schöner Leben
            • Weitere Videos aus der Wikothek
            • Gespräch mit einer linkshändigen Friseurin: die Soziologin Barbara Thériault (Fellow 2023/2024)
            • Teller, die Fragen aufwerfen: Interview mit Chef de cuisine Sonja Frühsammer
            • Runden um den Grunewaldsee: fünf Jahre Wicked Wiko Runners
            • Save the Date – Treffen des Fellowclubs 2024
            • Mitgliedschaft im Fellowclub
            • Mitgliedsbeiträge und Spenden
            • Neue Publikationen in der Fellowbibliothek
            • Preise
            • Obituarium
          • Februar 2023
            • Editorial
            • Geschichtslehrer des Volkes
            • Krieg und Frieden. Vergangenheit und Zukunft der Ukraine
            • Frostig, beschämt, befreit
            • Musik eines Geflüchteten
            • Grußwort des Vorsitzenden
            • Save the dates – Fellowtreffen 2023
            • Mitgliedschaft im Fellowclub
            • Mitgliedsbeiträge und Spenden
            • Neue Publikationen in der Fellowbibliothek
            • Preise
            • Obituarium
          • März 2022
            • Editorial
            • Politik, Recht und Wissenschaft in Zeiten der Pandemie
            • Pandemics: The Maths, the Masks, the Madness
            • Roni Taharlev: Der Vorbote von Corona
            • Rachel Wheatley: Berlin mit Maske
            • Grußwort des Vorsitzenden
            • Save the dates – Fellowtreffen 2022
            • Mitgliedschaft im Fellowclub
            • Mitgliedsbeiträge und Spenden
            • Neue Publikationen in der Fellowbibliothek
            • Preise
            • Obituarium
          • Februar 2021
            • Editorial
            • Zwischen Eigenzeit und Interdisziplinarität
            • Sag's durch die Maske!
            • Was war und zu welchem Ende studiert man Trumpismus?
            • Als die Computer laufen lernten
            • Zum Abschied von Sonja Grund
            • Angelika Leuchter
            • Blog-Serie zur Wissenschaftsfreiheit
            • Save the dates – Fellowtreffen 2021 und 2022
            • Neue Publikationen in der Fellowbibliothek
            • Preise
            • Mitgliedschaft im Fellowclub
            • Obituarium
          • März 2020
            • Editorial
            • Verfassung als gewaltlose Revolution
            • Imre Kertész und die europäische Literatur der Gegenwart
            • Es sind die Verluste, welche die Polen umtreiben
            • Das Kolleg und der Osten – das New Europe College in Bukarest
            • Save the date - Fellowtreffen: Biodiversity: Conceptual Challenges in an Era of Rapid Change 11./12.Juni 2020
            • Neue Publikationen in der Fellowbibliothek
            • Preise
            • Mitgliedschaft im Fellowclub
            • Obituarium
          • March 2019
            • Editorial
            • Paintings for the Future
            • Landmark Papers Revisited
            • Working Futures
            • Society Benefits From Our Autonomy
            • Two Million Blossoms in a Jar
            • Save the Date - Meeting of the Fellows' Club: June 13-14, 2019
            • Lectures on Film
            • New Publications in the Fellows' Library
            • Preise
            • Join the Fellows' Club
            • Obituaries
          • März 2018
            • Editorial
            • A Good Bet: Five Years of the College for Life Sciences
            • Lectures on Film: Lisa Herzog
            • Return to Gdańsk
            • Sign the Gdansk Petition
            • Lecture Series: "Recht und Digitalisierung"
            • The Future of the Humboldt Forum: An Epiphany
            • (Almost) A Lifer
            • Late Checkout
            • Save the Date - Fellowtreffen
            • Preise
            • New Publications in the Fellows' Library
            • Obi­tu­a­ri­um
          • March 2017
            • Editorial
            • Luca Giuliani: Facets of Stephen
            • Berliner Abend 2017
            • Michael Jennions: Walking Berlin
            • Nostalgia
            • Prizes
          • June 2016
            • Editorial
            • Daniel M. Weary: Three days at Wiko to imagine a new world
            • Katharina Wiedemann: Travelling Lights
            • William Marx: The Rising of Kaspar Hauser
            • Luc Steels: Grunewaldkirche, Bach, and Passions
            • Nostalgia
          • June 2015
            • Editorial
            • Adam S. Wilkins: Humanities and Natural Sciences
            • Rob Page: The Decline of the Humanities?
            • Alfons Söllner: From "Exilforschung" to "Emigrationsforschung"? A Journey in Memory.
            • Susan Rose-Ackerman and Bruce Ackerman: Wiko Then and Now: 1991-1992 and 2014-2015
            • Daniel Schönpflug: Ins Grüne
          • December 2014
            • Editorial
            • Sebastian Conrad: Global History
            • Sahotra Sarkar, Chris Margules: Biodiversity group at the Kolleg
            • Reinhart Meyer-Kalkus: On Uwe Pörksen: Camelot im Grunewald. Szenen aus dem intellektuellen Leben der achtziger Jahre
            • Meredith Reiches: "Literary studies and biology: The Shakespeare-Workshops at the Kolleg 2012 and 2013"
            • Simon Teuscher: Workshop: Perspectives on Actors in Social History
            • Gebhard Kirchgässner: Workshop “The Economic Model of Human Behaviour”
            • Gerald Wilkinson: Workshop “Mind the Gap: Closing the Gulf between Genomic and Phenotypic Studies of Sexual Selection”
            • Sonja Grund: News from the Fellows’ Club
          • May 2014
            • Editorial
            • Peter Reill: From the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin to Wiko: Reflections on a Return after Twenty-Seven Years
            • Reinhart Meyer-Kalkus:Why artists are needed at research institutions
            • Martin Loughlin: Constitutions beyond the Nation-State
            • Franco Moretti: Invisible objects
            • Stefanie Rentsch: The Forum Transregionale Studien – its Mission and History
          • November 2013
            • Editorial
            • Jim Hunt: Ten Years in the Rearview Mirror
            • Thorsten Wilhelmy: My First Year at the Wissenschaftskolleg
            • Giovanni Frazzetto: The College for Life Sciences at the Wissenschaftskolleg
            • Reinhart Meyer-Kalkus: The Fellow Forum for Former Fellows
      • Fellow Forum
  • Veranstaltungen
    • Veranstaltungskalender
    • Workshops
    • Veranstaltungsreihen
      • Gesprächskonzerte
      • Zur Zeit
      • Observatorium
      • Ernst Mayr Lecture
    • Three Cultures Forum
  • Wikothek
    • Wiko Shorts
    • Lectures & Keynotes
    • Features
    • Köpfe und Ideen
    • Arbeitsvorhaben
    • Jahrbuch
    • Zeitschrift für Ideengeschichte
  • Fellow werden
    • Fellowshipbewerbungen
      • Voraussetzungen
      • Auswahlkriterien
      • Auswahlverfahren
      • FAQ
    • Wiko Early Career Calls
      • Early Career Call Humanities and Social Sciences
        • Bewerbung und Auswahl
        • Zulassungsvoraussetzungen
        • FAQ
      • Early Career Call Life and Natural Sciences
    • Leben und Arbeiten
      • Finanzielle Regelungen
      • Wohnungen
      • Wissenschaftliches Leben
      • Dienste für Fellows
      • Dienste für Partnerinnen/Partner und Familien
image/svg+xml
DeutschEnglish
 Login


MENU

  • Institution
  • Fellows
  • Veranstaltungen
  • Wikothek
  • Fellow werden

  • Fellowfinder
  • Fellows 2024/2025
  • Fellows 2025/2026
  • Permanent Fellows
  • Alumni

  • Fellowclub
  • Fellow Forum

Return to Gdańsk

Paweł Machcewicz Fellow 2017/2018

Eight months after his dismissal by the Polish government, the former director of the Polish Museum of the Second World War guides a group of Fellows through a controversial past.

Returning to places where one strived under different circumstances might be imagined a risky endeavor. Especially if those places meant quite a lot to the person involved and parting was not exactly voluntary.

The train from Berlin to Gdańsk arrived late on the evening of 17 November 2017. Our group of Wissenschaftskolleg Fellows had only time and energy for a short walk in the old section of the city. From a distance, standing on the Green Bridge over the Motlava River, I showed my companions – the monumental silhouette of the Museum of the Second World War shrouded in darkness but still dominating the skyscape of old buildings and churches.

The next morning was sunny and brisk and we embarked on our visit. After entering we descended several levels into the permanent exhibition area. I had tried to conceive of this moment ever since agreeing to show the museum to the Wiko Fellows and other friends from Berlin. It was Andreas Staier’s idea. He had followed the story of the museum in the German media when I was still its director and struggling to open it to the public in the face of government countermeasures. Originally the Fellows and I had been planning to visit in October but tickets for the museum were unavailable at the time and we were forced to postpone the trip one month. This delay was frustrating since by the time we finally arrived the original shape of the exhibition, i.e. as I had left it, was no longer to be seen; two weeks before our arrival in Gdańsk, the government had introduced their initial changes to it.

Entering the museum for the first time since my departure last April was a very interesting and to some extent unpredictable experience. I know every part of this building and especially the exhibition on which I had worked for eight years. But my first feeling was of having entered alien territory. I knew very well that for the new director and for the minister of culture I had become a public enemy accused of creating an “anti-Polish museum,” which allegedly neglected Polish heroism and martyrdom, my having from the beginning acted on “foreign orders.” Regardless of the sheer absurdity of such accusations, those initial moments in the museum were simply unsettling. It was only after we had started our tour of the exhibition, and I began explaining its concept and artifacts, that other feelings gradually prevailed. I saw the interest and engagement of my companions growing with every step we took. Because most of them were not historians, in a way they were those “typical” visitors for whom the museum was created. I felt gratitude toward these people who had compelled me to journey to Gdańsk and revisit my museum. Without their encouragement I would never have ventured such an undertaking. And now I experienced the joy and satisfaction of explaining that work which I had for so long pursued together with numerous other historians, many of these my friends, and most of them meanwhile also purged from the museum. Telling the stories of artifacts that we had collected all these long years was like disclosing the inner life of this exhibition, which was invisible on the surface to the uninitiated.

These positive feelings were brutally violated at end of the tour. Even from afar, before entering the last room of the exhibition, I heard certain strange disruptive voices that were in striking dissonance to the museum’s whole message and artistic language, most of it still intact despite the fortnight of alterations; in fact this was the first really invasive change introduced by the museum’s new masters. Originally the visitors, just before leaving the exhibition, had watched film and photographic footage documenting the wars and other conflicts and violence after 1945. The last scenes showed ruined Aleppo and Donbas, wounded and despairing civilians, children, refugees. It was a reminder that war and violence were not some distant closed chapter but an integral part of the human condition. This element in particular was criticized by the right-wing in Poland as too “universalist” and insufficiently “national.” Now it had been replaced with this four-minute cartoon that resembled a computer game and pretended to depict Poland in the twentieth century. In a way it had nothing to do with real history but was a rather bombastic piece of propaganda boasting of our exceptional victories and sufferings. I felt that my ideas had been raped. Some of my companions, though certainly less attached to the exhibition than I, had similar thoughts and could not watch the film to its end.

We left the exhibition, having spent over four hours there, and met with the architects who had designed the building and who now shared with our group the meaning of its architecture. How enlightening to go outside and listen to their comments regarding the various elements of the building as dusk slowly crept and that fading sunshine gave the whole scene a veneer of unreality. The last stage of our trip was the visit to a “vodka joint” in the old part of town and whose entire design and purpose was to resemble those cheap bars from communist times. That drink which had soothed tortured souls in Eastern Europe all these centuries was badly needed.

Sign the Gdansk Petition

  • Verein
  • Mitgliedschaft
  • Newsletter
    • März 2025
    • Februar 2024
    • Februar 2023
    • März 2022
    • Februar 2021
    • März 2020
    • March 2019
    • März 2018
      • Editorial
      • A Good Bet: Five Years of the College for Life Sciences
      • Lectures on Film: Lisa Herzog
      • Return to Gdańsk
      • Sign the Gdansk Petition
      • Lecture Series: "Recht und Digitalisierung"
      • The Future of the Humboldt Forum: An Epiphany
      • (Almost) A Lifer
      • Late Checkout
      • Save the Date - Fellowtreffen
      • Preise
      • New Publications in the Fellows' Library
      • Obi­tu­a­ri­um
    • March 2017
    • June 2016
    • June 2015
    • December 2014
    • May 2014
    • November 2013

Institute for Advanced Study

  • Pressenotizen
  • Ansprechpartner
  • Kontakt
  • Vakanzen
  • Impressum
  • Datenschutz
  • Sitemap

Institution

  • Leitung
  • Gremien
  • Ansprechpartner
  • Das Kolleg
  • Initiativen & Kooperationen
  • Bibliothek

Fellows

  • Fellowfinder
  • Fellows 2024/2025
  • Fellows 2025/2026
  • Permanent Fellows
  • Alumni

Veranstaltungen

  • Veranstaltungskalender
  • Workshops
  • Veranstaltungsreihen
  • Three Cultures Forum

Wikothek

  • Wiko Shorts
  • Lectures & Keynotes
  • Features
  • Köpfe und Ideen
  • Arbeitsvorhaben
  • Jahrbuch
  • Zeitschrift für Ideengeschichte

Fellow werden

  • Fellowshipbewerbungen
  • Wiko Early Career Calls
  • Leben und Arbeiten