We invite you to read the first of the master's theses awarded in the competition for the Scholar Prize of the Polish Ambassador to Berlin. They were written at German universities in the fields of history and social sciences and concern Polish-German relations as well as Polish history and culture. The Prize, awarded since 2008 by the Polish Embassy in Germany and the Centre for Historical Research of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Berlin, promotes German masters and doctorates who deal with Polish topics, and encourages them to further research. The master's theses in this section are published exclusively online in the series “Berliner-Wiener Arbeitspapiere zu Geistes- und Sozialwissenschaften”, developed jointly by the Centre for Historical Research and the Scientific Centre of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Vienna. To open or download the file, click on the PDF-button.
Ambassador’s Scholar Prize
Author: Gabi Manns
Series: Berliner-Wiener Arbeitspapiere zu Geistes- und Sozialwissenschaften. Volume 2
Publishers: Centre for Historical Research of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Berlin, Polish Academy of Sciences – Scientific Centre in Vienna, Vienna–Berlin 2022, 148 pages
The master’s thesis by Gabi Manns focuses on the former synagogue in Poznań, the so-called New Synagogue, and its history as a place of memory and oblivion. The author tackles the topic from different perspectives through interviews with experts or analysis of local and foreign newspaper articles. As a result, she is able to identify the place of the former synagogue in contemporary collective memory. According to the author, the tendency to remember and reactivate memory, on the one hand, and to forget and taboo it, on the other, constitute the essence and ambivalence of this place.
Authors: Nelli Felker and Anna-Lena Krug
Series: Berliner-Wiener Arbeitspapiere zu Geistes- und Sozialwissenschaften. Volume 1
Publishers: Centre for Historical Research of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Berlin, Polish Academy of Sciences – Scientific Centre in Vienna, Vienna–Berlin 2022, 246 pages
The thesis presents a large but so far barely recognised professional group: 24-hour care workers from Poland in German nursing homes. Through interviews and questionnaires the authors reconstruct the recruitment process, the working environment and the relationship of the care workers with their clients and their families. These relationships are often strongly emotionally charged and take on the characteristics of bonds that give the caregiver the status of an “acquired relative”.
