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Buchgespräch: "Grenzöffnung. Deutsch-polnischer Dialog 1984 – 2004 – 2024"
Book discussion: "Open border. German-Polish dialogue 1984-2004-2024"
Event by: Pilecki-Institut, Fundacja Ośrodka KARTA
Location: Pariser Platz 4A, Pariser Platz 4A, Berlin - Mitte
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About event
Book discussion "opening of the border. German-Polish dialogue 1984-2004-2024" with the author Aleksej Rogozin, Oliver Moody, Emilia Smechowski, Prof. Andrii Portnov and Dr. Ryszarda Formuszewicz
16.09, 6 p.m. | Pilecki-Institut, Pariser Platz 4a, 10117 Berlin | Registration: https://forms.gle/qyjrzuknenmcqcvua
The book is available here for free for download: https : //ksiegarnia.karta.org.pl/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/otwarcie-granic-dialog-polsko-niemiecki-de-_v2025-_i-1.pdf
two Nations, burdened by a tragic past, have been looking for a common path and a language of understanding in the past 40 years. The border opening is a unique book that gives insights into the dynamics of the complex German-Polish relationships, of the attempts to talk to the democratic opposition in the People's Republic of Poland with the West German government to the challenges that both countries are coming for in autumn 2024. From personal diaries and memoirs, current comments in the form of articles and speeches as well as official documents, including international agreements, resolutions and reports. Contemporary witnesses and direct participants to report on how they experience the communication - and also occasional misunderstandings - between the neighbors, perceived mutual prejudices as in a mirror and have broken through stereotypes about "German" and "Poland". Berlin correspondent of the British Times and Sunday Times, and leads the reporting on Germany, Poland, the Nordic and Baltic countries, and Central Europe. He mainly deals with contemporary history and foreign and security policy. His first book, Baltic: The Future of Europe, appeared in May.
Emilia Smechowski
Emilia Smechowski is a journalist and author. She has been working for the Zeitmagazin since 2020, since 2023 as his co-editor-in-chief. In 1988 she emigrated to Berlin with her family from Poland, studied singing and Romance studies and initially worked at the taz. In her first book "We Streber Migrants" she wrote about the assimilation of her family in Germany. For her second, "return to Poland" she moved to Gdansk for a year. It was u. awarded the German Reporter Prize, the Konrad Duden Prize and the Tadeusz-Mazowiecki Prize.
Andrii Portnov
Prof. Dr. Andrii Portnov is a Ukrainian-German historian, founding director of Prisma Ukraїna Research Network Eastern Europe, associated member of the Viadrina Center of Polish and Ukrainian Studies and professor at the Ukrainian Free University of Munich. Portnov has been living in Germany since 2012; From 2017 to 2025 he was a professor of entangled History of Ukraine at the European University Viadrina in Frankfurt (Oder). Prof. Portnov is the author of over ten books, including Dnipro. To Entangled History of a European City (2022) and Ukraine studies. Introduction (2025).
Aleksiej Rogozin
Aleksiej Rogozin is a historian, a doctoral student at the doctoral school for the humanities at the University of Warsaw and editor at the Ośrodek Karta Foundation. Since 2025 he has also been the editorial secretary of the historical magazine "Karta". He scientifically deals with the history of Poland in the interwar period.
Ryszarda Formuszewicz
Dr. Ryszarda Formuszewicz coordinates the “German-Polish dialogue” project in the West Institute. Previously, she was responsible for the Berlin office of the Polish Institute for International Affairs (PISM) for four years. In the past, she worked as an expert in the Department of Strategic Analyzes in the Office for National Security (BBN) and in the Center for East Studies in Warsaw (OSW). In 2016-2017 she worked as a project manager at the Genshagen Foundation.
16.09, 6 p.m. | Pilecki-Institut, Pariser Platz 4a, 10117 Berlin | Registration: https://forms.gle/qyjrzuknenmcqcvua
The book is available here for free for download: https : //ksiegarnia.karta.org.pl/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/otwarcie-granic-dialog-polsko-niemiecki-de-_v2025-_i-1.pdf
two Nations, burdened by a tragic past, have been looking for a common path and a language of understanding in the past 40 years. The border opening is a unique book that gives insights into the dynamics of the complex German-Polish relationships, of the attempts to talk to the democratic opposition in the People's Republic of Poland with the West German government to the challenges that both countries are coming for in autumn 2024. From personal diaries and memoirs, current comments in the form of articles and speeches as well as official documents, including international agreements, resolutions and reports. Contemporary witnesses and direct participants to report on how they experience the communication - and also occasional misunderstandings - between the neighbors, perceived mutual prejudices as in a mirror and have broken through stereotypes about "German" and "Poland". Berlin correspondent of the British Times and Sunday Times, and leads the reporting on Germany, Poland, the Nordic and Baltic countries, and Central Europe. He mainly deals with contemporary history and foreign and security policy. His first book, Baltic: The Future of Europe, appeared in May.
Emilia Smechowski
Emilia Smechowski is a journalist and author. She has been working for the Zeitmagazin since 2020, since 2023 as his co-editor-in-chief. In 1988 she emigrated to Berlin with her family from Poland, studied singing and Romance studies and initially worked at the taz. In her first book "We Streber Migrants" she wrote about the assimilation of her family in Germany. For her second, "return to Poland" she moved to Gdansk for a year. It was u. awarded the German Reporter Prize, the Konrad Duden Prize and the Tadeusz-Mazowiecki Prize.
Andrii Portnov
Prof. Dr. Andrii Portnov is a Ukrainian-German historian, founding director of Prisma Ukraїna Research Network Eastern Europe, associated member of the Viadrina Center of Polish and Ukrainian Studies and professor at the Ukrainian Free University of Munich. Portnov has been living in Germany since 2012; From 2017 to 2025 he was a professor of entangled History of Ukraine at the European University Viadrina in Frankfurt (Oder). Prof. Portnov is the author of over ten books, including Dnipro. To Entangled History of a European City (2022) and Ukraine studies. Introduction (2025).
Aleksiej Rogozin
Aleksiej Rogozin is a historian, a doctoral student at the doctoral school for the humanities at the University of Warsaw and editor at the Ośrodek Karta Foundation. Since 2025 he has also been the editorial secretary of the historical magazine "Karta". He scientifically deals with the history of Poland in the interwar period.
Ryszarda Formuszewicz
Dr. Ryszarda Formuszewicz coordinates the “German-Polish dialogue” project in the West Institute. Previously, she was responsible for the Berlin office of the Polish Institute for International Affairs (PISM) for four years. In the past, she worked as an expert in the Department of Strategic Analyzes in the Office for National Security (BBN) and in the Center for East Studies in Warsaw (OSW). In 2016-2017 she worked as a project manager at the Genshagen Foundation.