Vielfalt – Tragik – Erinnern

Jewish life in Czernowitz/Chernivtsi. Lecture by Dr. Markus Winkler, Munich

Chernivtsi is surrounded by a myth - a linguistic and cultural world emerged in this place that was probably unique in European cultural history. The Jewish population played a decisive role in this: they helped Czernowitz to flourish in a way that is still remembered today. The lecture uses (everyday) historical examples to show what characterized the diverse Jewish life. It introduces important literary voices and names the caesuras that fundamentally changed this place and, in part, transformed it into a space of remembrance through the Holocaust. Based on several years of on-site experience by the lecturer, numerous personal impressions are incorporated, which extend into the Ukrainian present of Chernivtsi.

Dr. Markus Winkler is a research associate at the Institute for German Culture and History of Southeast Europe at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. He researches Jewish history and the transformation processes in Central and Eastern Europe as well as German-Jewish literature of the 19th and 20th centuries. He previously worked at the National University of Chernivtsi (Ukraine) and spent several years researching at
in the UK and Romania.