Session 2: The Escalating Persecution of Jews and Aggressive National Socialist Expansion Policies 1938

Introduction

William H. Weitzer (Leo Baeck Institute – New York|Berlin)

Keynote 3

Léontine Meijer-van Mensch (Jewish Museum Berlin):

1938 Point of No Return

Keynote 4

Sybille Steinbacher (Goethe University, and Fritz Bauer Institute, Frankfurt/Main):

1938: German and Austrian Antisemitism and Preparation for an All-Out War

Discussant: Frank Mecklenburg (Leo Baeck Institute – New York|Berlin)

Lunch break

Three parallel panels:

Panel 4: Minority Rights and Deprivation of Rights 1938

Chair: Werner Hanak (Jewish Museum Frankfurt/Main)

Miriam Rürup (Institut für die Geschichte der deutschen Juden/Institute for the History of the German Jews, Hamburg): How Germans Became Jews: National Socialist Expatriations of German Jews, Stateless Migrants and their Impact on the Human Rights Discourse

Christoph Kreutzmüller (Jewish Museum Berlin): The Pogorms Before the Pogrom – Local Race Riots in Germany 1933–1938

Ulrike Schulz (Universität der Bundeswehr München/University of the Armed Forces, Munich): A Handmaiden of Politics? The Changing Roles of Public Administration Between 1918 and 1938

Panel 5: Flight and Migration

Chair: Miriam Bistrovic (Leo Baeck Institute – New York|Berlin)

Simone Eick (Deutsches Auswandererhaus/German Emigration Center Bremerhaven): Feeling Powerless: Three Memories of Forced Migration from Journals, Diaries, and Oral Histories, 1921–2015

Olga Radchenko (Bohdan Khmelnytsky National University, Cherkasy): "We were Refused Return to Austria". Jewish Refugees from Austria in the Soviet Union

Karin Scherschel (Hochschule RheinMain, Wiesbaden): Activist Citizen – Democratization and Forced Migration

Panel 6: Diaspora

Chair: William H. Weitzer (Leo Baeck Institute – New York|Berlin)

Sheer Ganor (University of California, Berkeley): "My Viennese Soul Recoiled." How to Stay Austrian in the German-Jewish Daspora

Magdalena M. Wrobel (Leo Baeck Institute – New York|Berlin): "My brother-in-law in Dallas attempts to issue us affidavits, hopefully he will be lucky”. Role of Transnational Social Networks in Forming of a New Diaspora Chapter

Katharina Friedla (The International Institute for Holocaust Research Yad Vashem, Jerusalem): The Expulsion of Polish Jews from Germany 1938 – Experiences of Refuge and Rescue in Transnational Perspective

Coffee break

Session 3: Democracy and Authoritarianism, 1918 to 2018. A »Longue Durée« perspective

Introduction

Hans-Georg Golz (Federal Agency for Civic Education, Bonn)

Keynote 5

W. Lance Bennett (University of Washington, Seattle):

Who are the People? Communication, Power, and the Rise of Anti-Democratic Politics

Keynote 6

Sylvia Kritzinger (University of Vienna):

Pushing Authoritarianism and Populism? A Citizen Perspective

Discussant: Ivan Vejvoda (Institute for Human Sciences IWM, Vienna)

Coffee break

Three parallel panels:

Panel 7: Continuous Transformations? Linking Past and Future

Chair: Anne Klein (University of Cologne)

Florian Kührer-Wielach (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Munich): On Clowns and Hooligans. Romania 1918–1948–1989

Włodzimierz Borodziej (University of Warsaw): Poland: Deficient Democracy?

Liana Suleymanova (Vienna School of International Studies, and University of Vienna): Role of Historical Legacy in the Democratic Transition Process. The Case of Albania, 1991–2016

Panel 8: Post-Communist Democracies Renegotiated

Chair: Miloš Vec (University of Vienna, and Institute for Human Sciences IWM, Vienna)

Dieter Segert (University of Vienna): Weak Democracies Under Pressure. Contradictions Between the Democratic "Zeitgeist" and Ethnic Interpretations of the Polity in East Central Europe

Ljiljana Radonić (Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna): Post-Communist Memorial Museums from the "Invocation of Europe" to an Authoritarian Backlash

Ekaterina Vikulina (Russian State University for the Humanities, Moscow): The Politics of Memory and Oblivion: Monuments of the Second World War in the Latvian Public Discourse

Panel 9: Transformation After 1989, Women and the Future of Democracy

Chair: Sybille Steinbacher (Goethe University, and Fritz Bauer Institute, Frankfurt/Main)

Claudia Kraft (University of Vienna): The Gender of Transformation(s) and the Transformation of Gender Regimes: Struggles for Recognition in Times of Political Upheaval

Roman Birke (University of Vienna, and Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena): Turbulent Transitions. Political and Ideological Reorientation in the United States after the End of the Cold War, 1989–1997

Marc Stegherr (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Munich): Eastern Europe's Illiberal Revolution. Its Intellectual Origins in the Long 20th Century. A Critical Analysis