FrankfurtODERSlubice
Frankfurt/Oder, 16th – 19th October 2008
The program of our annual meeting 2008, was a moving and movable gathering, organized together with the European University Viadrina in Frankfurt/Oder and the Cultural Center in the neighboring polish town of Slubice. We moved between new experiences and remembrance through visits to the different cultural sites of Brandenburg. There were performances, concerts, and presentations by both members and guests. In addition there was an excursion on the path of Fontane through the historically valuable area, this excursion was led by the lively and well informed professors Dr. Christoph Asendorf and Dr. Jan Musenkamp, both from Viadrina’s faculty of social and cultural studies. The first station of this trip in the past was Küstrin, (Kostrzyn), a 16th century Renaissance fort that was nearly destroyed completely during WW II. We walked through the ruins – and remembered Fontane, who wrote: “beyond the Oder, where between shipyard and pastures the Warthe flows, lies Küstrin, a name listed often in the history, over the course of centuries. Often but seldom in a happy context. Something noir and scary lies around here and in my memory I see the place that carries it under the never ending November sky”. Another station on our excursion was Kunersdorf, that went into history as the Muse’s court of the Oderbruch. It became one of the most important cultural centers, that hosted guests such as the Humboldt brothers, the sculptors Schadow und Rauch, the agriculture reformer Thaer, the scholar Savigny, Goethe’s friend Zelter. The colonnade is among the most important cultural monuments in Brandenburg today. It originally covered five graves, but was expanded by four new sections in 1835. Important personalities such as Johann Gottfried von Schadow, Christian Daniel Rauch, Christian Friedrich Tieck, Karl-Friedrich Schinkel, are linked with the monument.
The castle Neuhardenberg, with the church and the park, one of the few remaining Gesamtkunstwerke (Total work of art) of Prussian classizism was the next and last stop of our trip. The ensemble was created by three outstanding artists, Karl Friedrich Schinkel, Peter Joseph Lenné and Hermann von Pückler-Muskau. “Urbanity, grace, and awareness of life” formed as maxim the jewel of the Brandenburg March: a possible motto for the IKG?
Participants:
Diana Mercedes Alonso, Mechthild Bauer-Babel, Dorothee Bauerle-Willert, Jens Brand, Monika Brandmeier, Heinrich Brummack, Hans Gercke, Wolfgang Hahn, Harald Hofmann, Sibylle Hofter, Hetty Huisman, Matthias Jackisch, Elisabeth Jappe, Katharina Karrenberg, Gisela Kleinlein, Silke Leverkühne, Eva Löfdahl, Nanne Meyer Norbert Radermacher, Josef Ramaseder, Eva-Maria Schön, Anna Tretter, Michael Willhardt, Thomas Wörgötter, Dusan Zahoranski
Guests:
Christoph Asendorf, Johanna Bartl, Silvia Breitwieser, Claudia Busching, Claudia Chaseling, Katja Hoffmann, Grieta Jergens, Stephanie Jünemann, Michael Kurzwelly, Gertrude Elvira Lantenhammer, Jan Musekamp, Janetta Napp, Fabian Niermann, Susken Rosenthal, Ralf Schmitt, Nele Ströbel, Nanae Suzuki, Florian Wienczny, Shon Soyoung, Yuka