International academic conference "Henryk Bereska - a man in between"

Henryk Bereska is a still underestimated East German translator and poet, critical thinker and creator of the foundations of the intellectual debate on Polish literature in Germany. Despite his extensive oeuvre, which has been honored with the Transatlantyk Prize of the Polish Book Institute, among others, his translational and literary work remains little known and has not yet been systematically researched.

The year 2025 marks the 20th anniversary of the translator and poet's death, and one year later will be the centenary of his birth: a fitting occasion to examine his wide-ranging oeuvre at an academic conference, to discuss the topicality of his work as a "silent mediator in the dialog between Eastern and Western Europe", his role in German-Polish knowledge exchange and his significance for current academic research.

The conference will open with a lecture by Matthias Thalheim, who headed the Artistic Word department at MDR Kultur from 1992 to 2020.

After the conference, the publication of a conference volume (edited by Prof. Anna Małgorzewicz, Dr. Małgorzata Szajbel-Keck and Dr. Ilona Czechowska) in the series "Studies on Multiculturalism" of the University of Wrocław is planned by Harrassowitz Verlag (in print and OA). The selection of contributions (in Polish or German) will be based on a double-blind peer review process.

The conference is part of the project "Henryk Bereska - a man in between".

More information at:https://www.europa-uni.de/de/universitaet/einrichtungen/serviceeinrichtungen/karl-dedecius-stiftung/wissenschaft/projekte/bereska2025/tagung-bereska2025/index.html