with Hedwig Richter, Eckart Conze, Louis Seukwa and Hartwin Spenkuch
with Lena Jöhnk, Sigrid Hirbodian, Wulf Kansteiner and Armin Saupe
You can find the stream here.
For more information see below.
What can it mean to refer to Wilhelm II today? For Münster University, the first question to be addressed is whether the (self-)image of Wilhelm II as a friend and patron of the sciences and especially of the WWU stands up to historical scrutiny. In a broader perspective, however, it is also necessary to ask how Wilhelm II is assessed today between the light and the shadow of the Empire. On the one hand, this directs attention to current debates, such as coming to terms with colonialism, problematic forms of Prussian memory or the Hohenzollern controversy, and on the other hand, much more fundamentally, to the question of national culture of memory in a post-migrant society. The EMU's question of how to deal with its namesake in a contemporary way thus touches on important questions for the future of our society. Participants of the panel are:
Dr Hartwin Spenkuch, Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities
Prof. Dr. Hedwig Richter, Professor of Modern and Contemporary History, University of the Federal Armed Forces, Munich
Prof. Dr. Eckart Conze, Professor of Modern and Contemporary History, Philipps University, Marburg
Prof. Dr. Louis Seukwa, Professor of Education, University of Applied Sciences, Hamburg
Münster already experienced that names and monuments can be argued about in 2012 with the debate about the Schlossplatz (former Hindenburgplatz). The Black Lives Matter movement and the recognition of German colonial crimes seem to have unleashed a new wave of such debates in Germany, the USA and Great Britain. The question of how to deal with the namesake of the EMU in a contemporary way is also mixed with the desire to respectfully preserve tradition and the demand to review what has been handed down. Do the same standards apply to a university as a community of people with their own goals as to street names and monuments? Are there strategies to reconcile these conflicting (multidirectional?) demands on memories? These and other questions will be discussed by:
Prof. Dr. Sigrid Hirbodian, Director of the Institute for Regional History, Eberhard Karls University Tübingen
Lena Jöhnk, Goethe-Institut Munich, until 2022 Head of Cultural Programming in North America, Goethe-Institut Washington
Prof. Dr. Wulf Kansteiner, Professor of Memory Studies and Historical Theory, Aarhus University
Dr. Achim Saupe, Leibniz Center for Contemporary History Research, Potsdam