Katowice and its multi-ethnic population in the context of the nationalisation processes in Upper Silesia from the middle of the 19th century until the German occupation of the city in 1939

• Applicant: Privatdozentin Anna Pelka, Ph.D.
• Subject Area: Modern and Contemporary History
• Term: since 2021
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 461122548

The project explores the question of connections between urban space, multi-ethnic populations and processes of nationalisation in 19th and 20th century Europe. It refers to previous research on the Upper Silesia region, which has been used as a so-called intermediate space for the study of processes of modern nation-building in border regions, questions of nationalisation in European societies of the 19th and 20th centuries, and the significance of national and other identity-forming values and offers. For the first time, this project makes an urban space the object of investigation: using the example of the city of Katowice in the period between the founding of the city in the mid-19th century and the German occupation of the city in September 1939, various effects of nationalisation processes and nation-building on the urban space and its multi-ethnic population are examined. The city of Katowice as the living space of a multi-ethnic population, in which different languages, denominations and national identities mixed in a confined space, allows a differentiated, comprehensive view of the nationalisation processes that are becoming tangible in the urban population, but also in the changes in urban space and in the character of the city. Thus, the project aims to show different facets of nationalisation and identity formation in everyday urban life. Questions will be asked about actors and measures of national mobilisation in the city, especially in the cultural sphere (e.g. urban structures, culture, education and science), as well as about the appropriation of political concepts and identities that may not have corresponded to the respective state nations and were exclusively shaped locally. Everyday activities of the "small" local actors of the various social milieus, the municipality, cultural associations and religious institutions are empirically investigated. With the help of case studies of different communities, mobilisation processes and the resulting identity-specific expressions, dynamics and tensions that existed between the various social groupings are thus analysed in a contrasting and comparative way. Furthermore, the urban public sphere and its role in the formation of a "local" identity will be examined. Questions of belonging and demarcation, and thus also of images of the foreign and enemy and discriminatory stereotypes, are included. Through a cultural-historical analysis, an attempt is thus made to make the perception between (state) national cultures and the mutual perception of different groups tangible. In addition, the project also deals with the "state-national" character of urban space and the question of the extent to which attempts have been made to implant a national character in the rather peripheral city of Katowice.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants