Collected papers on Neighbours: Polish-German relations in archaeology
- part 1 to 1945
Archaeologia Polona 42. 2004, 309pp, 9 papers and
2 reviews pb PL ISSN 0066-5924
Collected papers on Neighbours: Polish-German relations in archaeology
- part 2 after 1945
Archaeologia Polona 43. 2005, 247pp, 8 papers and
4 reviews, pb PL ISSN 0066-5924
Journals in English but produced in non-English-speaking countries are some of the
most interesting and stimulating to read. They are particularly useful for the largely
language-illiterate English-speaking readership whose range of sources is increasingly
restricted to their own, limited network. It is, therefore, a pleasure to receive
these journals full of refreshingly new information and ideas. Among the rising
number of them, Archaeologia Polona is different to the others in that it is common
to find an issue dedicated to discussing a specific theme. On a number of occasions
the subject dealt with has been identity, focusing in a range of topics from ethnicity
(vol 29, 1991), to an analysis of relevant figures such as Gordon Childe in ‘Archaeology
in the 20th century: ideas – people – research’ (vols 35-36, 1997-98). In the volumes
under review, 42 and 43 (2004-05), Jacek Lech (Polish Academy of Sciences), together
with Zbigniew Kobylinski in the case of volume 43, have put together a series of
articles which consider an under-studied aspect of the history of archaeology. The
aim of both volumes is to explore how the tensions and hostilities between neighbouring
countries and, in particular, those between twentieth-century Poland and Germany,
have influenced the practice of archaeology. The first volume (volume 42) deals
with the period to 1945 and the second (volume 43) covers the years after 1945.
The type of archaeology at the centre of the relations between both countries refers
to the whole range of periods in Polish archaeology, but perhaps there is an emphasis
in prehistoric archaeology. It is worth noting that ‘Neighbours:
Polish-German relations
in archaeology’ represents a step forward in the field of the history of archaeology.
This is so because its subject is not nationalism, or the study of the influence
politics may have had in the development of archaeology in one specific country
in isolation, a topic revisited several times in the 1990s and early 2000s (Biehl
et al. 2002; Díaz-Andreu & Champion 1996; Kohl & Fawcett 1995). Instead, the volumes
edited by Lech go beyond this. They look at how politics influence the interaction
between archaeologists from different countries. It is, therefore, not the national
but the international context which is put under the spotlight.
The need for this debate was first explored at an AREA network – Archives of European
Archaeology (see Schlanger 2002) – meeting in Poznań in 2003. It was further discussed
in a conference in Warsaw organised by the History of Archaeology Commission in
the Pre- and Protohistorical Sciences Committee of the Polish Academy of Sciences
in 2004. Perhaps inevitably, given the location of both meetings in Poland, the
resulting publication in the form of these two Archaeologia Polona volumes shows
a certain unbalance in the depth with which Poland and Germany are treated, in favour
of the first. Efforts to avoid this mismatch were made by the editor, Jacek Lech,
but invitations to other scholars to contribute met with a reluctance by some to
revisit a painful period for the history of the relationship between both countries.
Nortwithstanding, Lech managed to involve in the project some well-known specialists
on the history of German and Polish archaeology and the result is an important in-depth,
incisive reflection on a selection of the conflicts, tensions, mutual influences
and cooperation between the archaeology of these two European countries.
In the very first article of the compendium Jacek Lech provides an insightful overview
of the links between Polish and German archaeology. His work covers the eighteenth
to today, in this way serving as an introduction to both volumes. To begin with,
his account briefly delves into eighteenth-century antiquarian archaeology and into
the influence of nineteenth-century Romanticism on a then divided Poland (Poland
had been split into three areas, belonging to Prussia, Austria and Russia). Understandibly
the bulk of the article deals with twentieth-century archaeology. First he revisits
the debate between the German prehistorian Gustaf Kossinna on one hand and, on the
other, his Polish colleagues Erazm Majewski and Jósef Kostrzewski. The fate of archaeology
and archaeologists during World War II is the focus of the following section. The
account of what happened to Leon Kozłowski’s and Aleksandra Kaprińska may lead some
to establish a comparison to Gerhard Bersu’s situation, despite the many differences
between both. Lech’s account of the post-war period is, again, perceptive. He is
much more explicit than the authors in Volume 43 (dealing with the period after
1945) regarding the differences in the practice of archaeology brought about by
the division of Germany into two states. Perhaps because of the greater number of
contributors from Poland, it is indeed strange to find, in volume 43, Germany referred
to as if it were a single entity before 1990. Given the different trajectories of
archaeology in the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) and the German Democratic Republic
(GDR), the unequal relationship of Polish archaeologists with their colleagues from
one or the other part of Germany should have been spelled out more explicitly in
the second volume of this compendium. Jacek Lech is, however, aware of this unbalance,
and includes an interesting quote. This was made by the, by then, elderly professor,
the prehistorian Józef Kostrzewski (1886-1969), who in the 1960s said that in the
two German states ‘the attitudes towards scientific truth are diametrically different’.
Personally, I would have liked to find more information about the relations between
Poland and the GDR as one example of those between states integrated into the Eastern
Block during the Cold War. The influence of the Cold War in the archaeology of the
Eastern Block is an under-studied aspect in the history of archaeology about which
any additional information is always welcome. Lech’s article finishes with a consideration
of the relationships between Polish and German archaeology after the end of the
Cold War.
Contributions to Volume 42 (the first of the two under discussion) cover a wide
range of subjects. Wojciech Nowakowski focuses in a historical analysis of the archaeology
of East Prussia (including post-World War II archaeology!), and Jolanta Małecka-Kukawka
and Bogusłwa Wawrzykowska centre their attention on that of today’s Polish town
of Torún (Thorn in German). Jarmila Kaczmarek undertakes an interesting examination
of archaeology in the dispute over the national character of the Great Poland (Wielkopolska)
region in the nineteenth and early-twentieth century, whereas Wiebke Rohrer looks
at the use of archaeology in the context of the political tensions surrounding the
disputed territory of Upper Silesia in the interwar period. Hubert Fehr’s article
also assesses archaeologists’ role in providing further justification for Germany’s
claim to her right to expand towards the East, but he looks into this by assessing
the interpretations of the excavations at Zantoch. The actions of German archaeologists
in occupied Poland are analysed in three case-studies: Werner Radig (Petra Schweizer-Strobel
and Michael Strobel); the State Archaeological Museum in Warsaw (Danuta Piotrowska);
and propaganda in the city of Łodź (Maria M Blomberg).
Volume 43 deals with the period after 1945. Propaganda, but now directed at the
justification of Polish rights to the ‘Recovered Territories’ after World War II,
is the theme developed by Zbigniew Kobyliński and Graiżyna Rutkowska. It is preceded
by a first essay by Tomasz Mikocki explaining the state of research related to the
fate of the former German collections of antiquities after World War II. The character
of the relationship between Polish and German archaeology seems to change from the
better from this point in the volume. The figure of the Polish archaeologist Jan
Żak, and his efforts to overcome the long-term period of conflicts and tensions
between Polish and German archaeologies, is examined by Danuta Minta-Tworzowska
and Włodzimierz Rączkowski. Collaboration between German and Polish archaeologists
is the keyword that unifies the last five articles of the volume. All of them deal
with recent projects undertaken by mixed teams of Polish and German archaeologists.
Lech Leciejewicz, the author of the first of these articles, looks into a project
on the Oder River. This is followed by Paweł Valde-Nowak who writes about highland
settlement in Middle Europe during Neolithic times. The third, by Janusz Czebreszuk
and Johannes Müller, looks at a Polish-German research project into a Bronze Age
fortified settlement at Bruszczewo in Wielkopolska. Forthly, Marek Dulinicz discusses
the studies on the Early-Middle Ages in Poland conducted by the Institute of Archaeology
and Ethnology, Polish Academy of Sciences, in cooperation with German researchers.
Finally, Judith Oexle provides in her article some information about the Foundation
‘Pro Archaeologia Saxoniae’, a new platform for sponsoring research in Central European
archaeology. In addition to all these articles, each of the volumes contain an obituary
(professors Waldemar Chmielewski and Lech Krzyżaniak) and volume 43 is crowned by
a discussion article written by Stanisław Tabaczyński dealing with the question
of whether archaeologist have access to the past.
One cannot but congratulate the editor of Archaeologia Polona for having produced,
yet again, two extremely interesting volumes with a wealth of new data ready to
be digested for by all those who want to reflect upon the history of our own discipline.
This work will be essential reading for future historians of the international context
of the history of twentieth-century archaeology in Europe.
Margarita Díaz-Andreu,
Department of Archaeology,
Durham University
References
Biehl, P.F., Gramsch A. & Marciniak, A. (eds), 2002. Archäologien Europas/ Archaeologies
of Europe. Geschichte, Methoden und Theorien/History, Methods and Theories.
Tübingen
Archäologische Taschenbücher 3. Münster; New York; München; Berlin: Waxman
Díaz-Andreu, M. & Champion, T. (eds), 1996. Nationalism and archaeology in Europe.
London: UCL Press
Kohl, P.L. &. Fawcett, C. (eds), 1995. Nationalism, Politics, and the Practice of
Archaeology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Schlanger, N., 2002. Introduction, Antiquity (special section: ‘Ancestral Archives.
Explorations in the History of Archaeology’) 76, 127-31
Review Submitted: August 2007
The views expressed in this review are not necessarily those
of the Society or the Reviews Editor.
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