
Lviv - Wroclaw, Cities in Parallel?
Myth, Memory and Migration, c. 1890-Present
Central European University Press
Published on 10. October 2020
Book
Hardback
364 pages
978-963-386-323-7 (ISBN)
Description
After World War II, Europe witnessed the massive redrawing of national borders and the efforts to make the population fit those new borders. As a consequence of these forced changes, both Lviv and Wroclaw went through cataclysmic changes in population and culture. Assertively Polish prewar Lwow became Soviet Lvov, and then, after 1991, it became assertively Ukrainian Lviv. Breslau, the third largest city in Germany before 1945, was in turn "recovered" by communist Poland as Wroclaw. Practically the entire population of Breslau was replaced, and Lwow's demography too was dramatically restructured: many Polish inhabitants migrated to Wroclaw and most Jews perished or went into exile. The forced migration of these groups incorporated new myths and the construction of official memory projects.
The chapters in this edited book compare the two cities by focusing on lived experiences and "bottom-up" historical processes. Their sources and methods are those of micro-history and include oral testimonies, memoirs, direct observation and questionnaires, examples of popular culture, and media pieces. The essays explore many manifestations of the two sides of the same coin-loss on the one hand, gain on the other-in two cities that, as a result of the political reality of the time, are complementary.
The chapters in this edited book compare the two cities by focusing on lived experiences and "bottom-up" historical processes. Their sources and methods are those of micro-history and include oral testimonies, memoirs, direct observation and questionnaires, examples of popular culture, and media pieces. The essays explore many manifestations of the two sides of the same coin-loss on the one hand, gain on the other-in two cities that, as a result of the political reality of the time, are complementary.
Reviews / Votes
"Der vorliegende Band hinterfragt die uebliche Parallelisierung beider Stadtgeschichten anhand dreizehn spannender mikrohistorisch argumentierender Beitraege. Ausgehend von dem Umstand, dass in beiden Staedten aufgrund der tiefgreifenden demografischen Umwaelzungen und Migrationserfahrungen erheblicher Bedarf an neuen lokalen Identitaetsangeboten bestand, spueren die Beitraege dem Wandel von Erinnerungskulturen beider Staedte aus einer bottom-up-Perspektive nach. Der Sammelband fuehrt aktuelle Forschungen zur Geschichte beider Staedte zusammen, die bereits seit den 1990er-Jahren durch die weitestgehende Zugaenglichkeit der Archive einen Aufschwung erlebt haben. Fuer diesen "Boom" in der Forschung bildete gerade die multiethnische Praegung der ostmitteleuropaeischen Staedte einen wichtigen Bezugspunkt, so auch im Falle L'vivs und (in geringerem Masse) Wroclaws. In konzeptueller Hinsicht knuepft der Band an einen gegenwaertigen, produktiven Trend in der historischen Forschung an, der die Mikrogeschichte ins Verhaeltnis zur Meso- und Makrogeschichte setzt. Auf diese Weise koennen Befunde der historischen "Vogelperspektive" verifiziert, korrigiert oder ergaenzt werden." -- Heidi Hein-Kircher * H-Net Reviews * "The focus of the volume on the processes of memory in the localities of L'viv and Wroclaw is an effective way to draw attention to the experience of large-scale historical processes at the local level, drawing on a repertoire of sources that would not otherwise be tapped. It will be of interest to students of a wide range of topics, including history, memory, urbanism, and mass population displacement in East-Central Europe and beyond."https://academic.oup.com/ahr/article/128/1/434/7098120 -- Violeta Davoliute * The American Historical Review *
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Oxford
Hungary
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Academic
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
Dimensions
Height: 235 mm
Width: 157 mm
Thickness: 24 mm
Weight
680 gr
ISBN-13
978-963-386-323-7 (9789633863237)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

Jan Fellerer | Robert Pyrah
Lviv - Wroclaw, Cities in Parallel?
Myth, Memory and Migration, c. 1890-Present
E-Book
10/2020
Central European University Press
€89.99
Available for download
Persons
Robert Pyrah is Research Fellow at Wolfson College, University of Oxford
Content
Introduction
Jan Fellerer
A Place Called Home? Nation, Locality and the "Parallel" Polish-Ukrainian Histories of Wroclaw and Lviv
Robert Pyrah
Population Movement and the Liberal State: The Polskie Towarzystwo Emigracyjne and the Regulation of Labor Migration from Lviv's Hinterlands
Keely Stauter-Halsted
Jews in Lviv at the Turn of the 20th Century: On the Road to Modernization
Lukasz Tomasz Sroka
Beyond National: "Posttraumatic Identity" of Disabled War Veterans in Interwar Lviv
Oksana Vynnyk
East Meets West: Polish-German Coexistence in Lower Silesia through the Memories of Polish Expellees, 1945-1947
Anna Holzer-Kawalko
Tylko we Lwowie: Tango, Jazz, and Urban Entertainment in a Multi-ethnic City
Mayhill C. Fowler
Impressions of Place: Soviet Travel Writings and the Discovery of Lviv, 1939-40
Sofia Dyak
Imperfect Metropolis: The Evolving Projections of Wroclaw in Polish Feature Films
Mikolaj Kunicki
The Bu-Ba-Bu and the Reorientation of Ukrainian Culture: The Carnival City and the Palimpsestual Past
Uilleam Blacker
Memory, and Lack of Memory, of Others: The Image of the Jewish and the Polish Neighbor in Oral Reflections of Lviv's Current Inhabitants
Halyna Bodnar
City, Memory, and Identity: The Case of Wroclaw after 1945
Barbara Pabjan
Contemporary Lviv: Facing the Past-Reinterpreting the Past
Katarzyna Kotynska
Building Bridges Between Breslau and Wroclaw: A Case Study from the European Capital of Culture Initiative, 2016
Ewa Sidorenko
?Afterword: Central European Cities as Laboratories of Memory... and Oblivion-Lviv and Wroclaw Contrasted
Jacek Purchla
Index
Jan Fellerer
A Place Called Home? Nation, Locality and the "Parallel" Polish-Ukrainian Histories of Wroclaw and Lviv
Robert Pyrah
Population Movement and the Liberal State: The Polskie Towarzystwo Emigracyjne and the Regulation of Labor Migration from Lviv's Hinterlands
Keely Stauter-Halsted
Jews in Lviv at the Turn of the 20th Century: On the Road to Modernization
Lukasz Tomasz Sroka
Beyond National: "Posttraumatic Identity" of Disabled War Veterans in Interwar Lviv
Oksana Vynnyk
East Meets West: Polish-German Coexistence in Lower Silesia through the Memories of Polish Expellees, 1945-1947
Anna Holzer-Kawalko
Tylko we Lwowie: Tango, Jazz, and Urban Entertainment in a Multi-ethnic City
Mayhill C. Fowler
Impressions of Place: Soviet Travel Writings and the Discovery of Lviv, 1939-40
Sofia Dyak
Imperfect Metropolis: The Evolving Projections of Wroclaw in Polish Feature Films
Mikolaj Kunicki
The Bu-Ba-Bu and the Reorientation of Ukrainian Culture: The Carnival City and the Palimpsestual Past
Uilleam Blacker
Memory, and Lack of Memory, of Others: The Image of the Jewish and the Polish Neighbor in Oral Reflections of Lviv's Current Inhabitants
Halyna Bodnar
City, Memory, and Identity: The Case of Wroclaw after 1945
Barbara Pabjan
Contemporary Lviv: Facing the Past-Reinterpreting the Past
Katarzyna Kotynska
Building Bridges Between Breslau and Wroclaw: A Case Study from the European Capital of Culture Initiative, 2016
Ewa Sidorenko
?Afterword: Central European Cities as Laboratories of Memory... and Oblivion-Lviv and Wroclaw Contrasted
Jacek Purchla
Index