Post-Catastrophic Cities: Total War and Urban Recovery in Twentieth Century Europe

Organizers: Dr. Stefan-Ludwig Hoffmann (ZZF) und Dr. Martin Kohlrausch (GHI)


The twentieth century was a century of urbicide, of total warfare against cities and their populations. There was, however, an astounding recovery of urban life after the Second World War. This workshop explores on a comparative scale the destruction and reconstruction of the urban fabric primarily in Central and Eastern European cities — after 1944/45, but also after the end of the Cold War, when social memories of wartime violence and postwar reconstruction gained new valences.

Our aim is to uncover differences and similiarities in ways of coping with urban catastrophes across national and political boundaries in the aftermath of mass death. In particular, we are interested in questions of wartime and postwar city planning (on local, national and international levels), the renewal of urban life and the commemoration of loss, and, more generally, the shattering of established patterns of viewing the city as well as the mythographic re-writing of the city text by inhabitants and postwar regimes.

The workshop will be held at the German Historical Institute (GHI) Warsaw and will be cosponsored by the Center for Contemporary History Potsdam (ZZF). Papers are due on September 15, 2009, and will be pre-circulated in advance. The costs for travel and accommodation of all participants and for invited discussants will be covered by the sponsoring institutions.

Program (PDF)

Abstracts (PDF)

Conferencereport (PDF) by Małgorzata Mazurek (Center for Contemporary History, Potsdam), Joanna
Wawrzyniak (Institute of Sociology, Warsaw University)