Whose Monuments? German Traces in Poland’s Western Territories

2025_fvv_Wessen Denkmäler_PI – zwei Personen oben, unten ein Denkmal

Altered, reinterpreted or left to decay: after 1945, German monuments met very different fates in the territories that became part of western Poland. How did local communities respond to these remnants of the past? What fitted in with a new beginning, what remained unfamiliar, and what changed over time?

In his photographic project “Denkmalforschung” (Monument Research), Wojtek Sienkiewicz explores monuments in the villages of Lower Silesia. In conversation with cultural scholar Karolina Ćwiek-Rogalska, he examines how local initiatives, political directives and everyday decisions interact. The monuments tell stories of appropriation and neglect, of the politics of memory and an approach to German heritage that remains full of contradictions today.

 

PROGRAMME

Welcome

Dr Roland Borchers, Director, Documentation Centre for Displacement, Expulsion, Reconciliation (Berlin)

Katarzyna Sitko, Director, Polish Institute Berlin

Speakers

Wojtek Sienkiewicz, Photographer

Prof. Karolina Ćwiek-Rogalska, Institute of Slavic Studies, Polish Academy of Sciences (Warsaw)

Moderated by: Prof. Felix Ackermann, Public History, FernUniversität in Hagen

 

FURTHER INFORMATION

Doors Open: 6.00 p.m.

Language: German and Polish, with simultaneous interpretation

FREE ADMISSION, REGISTRATION REQUIRED

An event as part of the special exhibition "OSTGEBIETE / ZIEMIE ZACHODNIE. German-Polish Perspectives."

A cooperation of: Documentation Centre for Displacement, Expulsion, Reconciliation · Polish Institute Berlin

Next date:

• Date Thursday, 26/November/2026 18:30 bis 20:00
• Venue Dokumentationszentrum Flucht, Vertreibung, Versöhnung
• Address Stresemannstraße 90, 10963 Berlin-Kreuzberg