Call for Papers: ‘Art Protection’ in World War I and the Historiographies of Art and Culture in the First Half of the 20th Century. Stakeholders – Networks – Concepts
Europa University Viadrina, Frankfurt/Oder – Collegium Polonicum, Słubice, May 13-15, 2024.

Deadline for submissions: September 30, 2023.

Wars spare neither civilians nor cultural assets – on the contrary, both are repeatedly exposed to targeted aggression. The destruction and plundering of cultural assets, which are considered integral parts of national heritage and identity, are every bit a part of the hostile tactics of war as the instrumentalization of history to justify plans for territorial expansion – Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine providing an extreme example of this. This conduct is a clear violation of the provisions of the Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict, an augmented version of the Hague Convention respecting the Laws and Customs of War on Land ratified in 1907. The effectiveness of this first international treaty (with an antecedent in 1899) aimed at protecting cultural property in the event of war was sorely tested a few years later, during World War I.
This conference sets out to comparatively examine the strategies and practices of dealing with cultural heritage in the various theaters of the First World War. There will be a regional focus Eastern and Southeastern Europe with a further consideration of Asia Minor, where the First World War continued existing confrontations (the Balkan Wars of 1912 and 1913) as well as regional prolongations until 1923 (including the Polish-Ukrainian and Polish-Soviet Wars, the War of Independence in the Baltic States, and the Greco-Turkish War).
In order to achieve this, we will need to discuss the preliminary stages and longer-term effects of the concepts developed in those days, as well as the eventual appropriation of cultural assets for the purpose of shaping identities and/or geopolitical goals in the following decades – up to and including the current Russian war against Ukraine.

The conference will conclude the 2020–2024 research project funded by the German-Polish Science Foundation ‘Art Protection’ in World War I and the Historiography of Art and Culture in East-Central Europe in the First Half of the 20th Century. Stakeholders – Networks – Concepts” (DPWS 2020-11, https://www.bkge.de/Projekte/Kunsthistoriker/Projekt_DPWS.php), which is conducted by the Oldenburg Federal Institute for Culture and History of the Germans in Eastern Europe (BKGE; Robert Born, Beate Störtkuhl) and the Institute of Art History of the Polish Academy of Sciences / Instytut Sztuki polskiej Akademii Nauk (IS PAN; Ewa Manikowska).
The conference is a collaborative project between the Chair of Heritage Studies at the European University Viadrina in Frankfurt/Oder (Paul Zalewski), the BKGE and the IS PAN. Conference languages are German and English. Based on funding provided by the German-Polish Science Foundation, the costs for travel and accommodation can be covered by the organizers.
A publication of the proceedings is planned within the BKGE series published by De Gruyter Publishing House (https://www.degruyter.com/serial/okg-b/html#overview).

You are invited to send your proposal (max. 1500 characters incl. spaces) for a presentation (20 minutes) with a short CV and information about your current research activities by September 30, 2023 to: beate.stoertkuhl@bkge.uni-oldenburg.de or robert.born@bkge.uni-oldenburg.de

More information: https://arthist.net/archive/39907