WEDNESDAY 15 March 2023 – Public Discussion

18.00
Welcome

Keynote: SONJA LEVSEN (Trier)
How the Marginality of Communism shaped the Federal Republic of Germany: Comparisons with West European Neighbours

18.45–20.00
Discussion: SONJA LEVSEN, THOMAS KROLL, TILL KÖSSLER, CLAUDIA GATZKA
Chair: ULRICH MÄHLERT (Berlin)

20.00 Drinks

THURSDAY 16 March – Conference Day I

9.00 Introduction: DOMINIK RIGOLL (Potsdam), CLAUDIA GATZKA (Freiburg)

9.30–10.45
Panel I: Communists in power – Mod. Christian Jansen (Trier)
PAOLO CAPUZZO (Bologna)
Democracy and Communism in Bologna (1945-1956)
TERESA MALICE (Bielefeld)
Between Politics and Local Administration: Communist Women and Welfare in “Red” Bologna in the 1960s and 1970s

11.15–12.30
Panel II: Communists without power? – Mod. Sonja Levsen (Trier)
MAXIMILIAN GRAF (Wien)
The Role of Communism in Austrian Democracy
TILL KÖSSLER (Halle-Wittenberg)
Communism and Democracy in the Federal Republic of Germany

12.30–13.30 Lunch

13.30–15.15
Panel III: Communists and democratic institutions – Mod. Zoé Kergomard (Zürich)
PHILIPP KUFFERATH (Bonn)
Political Impulses and Learning Experiences of Former Communists within German Social Democracy after 1945
FIAMMETTA BALESTRACCI (Turin)
Il balzo in avanti. Communist Women in the Italian Parliament during the Long 1970s
HARM KAAL (Nijmegen)
Dutch Communism, Electioneering, and Democracy, c. 1945–1970s

16.00–17.15
Panel IV: Communists across borders – Mod. Isabella Löhr (Berlin)
FRANCK SCHMIDT (Heidelberg)
Popularization of a Communist Cause: the France-GDR Friendship Society and the Institutions of the French Republic (1958–1989)
GRAZIA PRONTERA (Salzburg) / KAROLINA NOVINSCAK KÖLKER (Regensburg)
The Communist Parties of Italy and the SFR Yugoslavia and their Relationship to “Guest Workers” in Munich in the 1970s and 1980s

17.45–19.30
Panel V: Communists in transition – Mod. Juliane Fürst (Potsdam)
RAQUEL VARELA (Lissabon)
The Role of the Portuguese Communist Party in transition to democracy: a global history approach
PABLO GIL VALERO (Paris)
Eurocommunism and democracy: Jordi Solé Tura during Spain’s transition to democracy
THORSTEN HOLZHAUSER (Stuttgart)
From Communism to the „Left“: (Post-)Communist Parties in Western Europe after 1989

19.30 Drinks

FRIDAY 17 March – Conference Day II

8.30–9.45
Panel VI: Communist Counter-Memories – Mod. Cornelia Siebeck (Hamburg)
YVES MÜLLER (Halle) / BENET LEHMANN (Gießen)
Contributions of Jewish Communists to the Democratic Culture of Remembrance in the Federal Republic of Germany: Emil Carlebach and Esther Bejarano
CORINNA BITTNER (Köln)
Collection as Encounter. Communist Survivors and the Memorial Movement in Emsland

10.15–11.30
Panel VII: Communism and the New Left – Mod. David Bebnowski (München)
LEA FINK (Berlin)
Utopia and non-places of communism. The Relationship of Critical Theory to Democracy and ‚Real-Existing‘ Socialism
JOHANNA WOLF (Frankfurt am Main)
Communists at Work. The Agitation of the New Left at the Bremer Vulkan Shipyard in the 1970s

12.00–13.15
Panel VIII: Communists as Observers – Mod. Thomas Kroll (Jena)
MARIO KEßLER (Potsdam)
Communists and Ex-Communists as Democracy Researchers in the “Old” Federal Republic of Germany
JÖRG ARNOLD (Nottingham)
A British Road to Socialism? Communism and the 1984/85 UK Miners’ Strike

13.15 Lunch + Farewell