The Frankfurt Viadrina hosted an academic symposium to mark its 5th anniversary.
On November 28, 2013, the European University celebrated the establishment of the new Karl Dedecius Literature Archive Trust Foundation. The foundation has set itself the task of actively promoting German-Polish dialog by dedicating itself to researching, translating and communicating Polish literature in Germany and German literature in Poland, as well as researching the reception of Polish literature in the German-speaking world.
To mark the anniversary, an international symposium was held on November 29, 2018 at the Collegium Polonicum in Slubice, Poland, which was dedicated to the writer Henryk Bereska (1926-2005) from Silesia, one of the most important translators from Polish into German, as well as a review of the foundation's activities. He was held in high esteem in both Germany and Poland, as evidenced by his honorary doctorates from the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan and the University of Wrocław, among others.
The symposium was opened by the President of the European University Viadrina Prof. Dr. Julia von Blumenthal and Dr. Ulrich Bopp from the Robert Bosch Stiftung. The organizers have invited renowned academics from Poland and Germany (including Prof. Dr. Gabriela Matuszek, Jagiellonian University of Krakow; Prof. Dr. Grażyna Szewczyk, Slesian University of Katowice; Prof. Dr. Heinrich Olschowsky, Polonist, Berlin) to the symposium.
Dr. Sławomir Tryc (Faculty of Management and Cultural Studies) used the example of Henryk Bereska to speak about the role of translators and writers as mediators in foreign cultural policy. Among other things, he recalled the words of Jeremias Roter, the Polish teacher at the Maria Magdalena Grammar School in Wroclaw who lived at the turn of the 16th and 17th centuries: "That one nation may understand the other", words that should also be understood today by German and Polish cultural managers as the quintessence of international cultural dialog.
(from left to right) Dr. Sławomir Tryc, Mrs. Gilda Bereska (widow of one of the best translators of Polish literature into German Henryk Bereska) and Prof. Dr. Heinrich Olschowsky (most famous Polonist)
Contact:
Dr. Sławomir Tryc
Faculty of Management and Cultural Studies
Phone: 03581 374 - 4350
E-mail: s.tryc@hszg.de