No. 113/2021

I t is now nearly two years since I completed my doctor- ate entitled “Moving Memories”. “Our Last Summer” is the name of one of the films I analysed for my thesis. In fact, I spent several summers in the library working on it. It deals with the portrayal of Germans and Poles in films made in both countries featuring the darkest chap- ter of our common history: the SecondWorldWar and the German occupation of Poland. I partly chose the subject for personal reasons. My father is German, my mother comes from Poland. Like so many others, she left the country in 1982 when Lech Wałęsa was interned and martial law imposed. My mother never told me much about Poland. She wanted to put this phase of her life behind her and on no account be perceived as Polish. And she wanted this for me even less. At some stage, I myself started to become interested in the Polish part of my family and my own identity. I discovered that my grandfather had been a forced labourer in Hanau in Photo: Humboldt Foundation/Michael Jordan Germany in the Second World War. My grandmother, by contrast, came from a family of Old Believers of Russian descent who had found a new home inMasuria in the 19th century. I then went to university in Kraków and travelled Poland on the trail of my family. I discovered a very colour- ful and diverse country: Jarocin, Poznań and my grand- mother’s home village of Wojnowo. At the Foundation, I am responsible for our network in Central and Eastern Europe. In September, an online Humboldt Colloquium will take place with Polish Hum- boldtians and other academics. It will form part of the 30th anniversary of the German-Polish Friendship Agree- ment and will focus on the situation of young researchers in Poland. At meetings like that, I always feel that in the Humboldt Network, the values of science form a connec- tion beyond the notion of the homogeneous national state. In this way, we can confidently look forward to a shared future. Recorded by MAREIKE ILSEMANN Who actually does what at Humboldt headquarters? Who are the people behind the scenes making sure that everything runs smoothly? This page is devoted to the colleagues at the Humboldt Foundation, their lives at work and beyond. TODAY: REBECCA GROSSMANN MORE THAN JUST NEIGHBOURS 34 HUMBOLDT KOSMOS 113/2021 THE FACES OF THE FOUNDATION