About the Cultural Office
The task of the Cultural Office for Pomerania and East Brandenburg at the Pomeranian State Museum is to provide information about the various aspects of culture and history in these regions and to make them known to the broader public. These cross-border regions were shaped by the caesura of the Second World War and an almost complete displacement of the population. Since Poland’s accession to the EU and the extension of the Schengen Agreement, these regions can once again be experienced without borders, which bodes well for an open discussion of history.
On behalf of the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and Media (BKM), the Cultural Office complements and expands the work of the Pomeranian State Museum. The Cultural Office organises film evenings, excursions, lectures, conferences, readings, book presentations, discussions, theatre performances, and concerts.
The Cultural Office operates on a project-basis and in cooperation with cultural and educational institutions in Germany and Poland. The aim of these activities is to bring people of all ages and various origins into conversation with each other and to sensitise them to their common cultural heritage.
Pomerania
Pomerania is a historical landscape on both sides of the Oder river, stretching from the Darß peninsula almost to the gates of Gdansk, and it can be traced back to the dominion of the Griffin dynasty. The name Pomerania (po more) is of Slavic origin and means “land by the sea”. The region is made up of Western Pomerania (“Vorpommern”), which lies largely west of the Oder river, and East Pomerania (“Hinterpommern”), which lies east of the Oder (today essentially Poland’s West Pomeranian Voivodeship). The centre of the rural region is still the city of Szczecin (German: Stettin).
East Brandenburg
East Brandenburg is the name given to the districts to the east of the Oder river in the administrative district of Frankfurt (Oder) in the Prussian province of Brandenburg. Essentially, this is the historical Neumark, which today largely belongs to the Voivodeship of Lubusz. The voivodeship was named after the diocese of Lebus. In addition to the Oder and Neisse rivers, the landscape of the former eastern Brandenburg was dominated by the Warthe, Netze, and Drage rivers and their vast marshes. In the east, Brandenburg bordered on the province of Posen or the Frontier March of Posen-West Prussia; in the south, it included parts of Lower Lusatia and bordered on Lower Silesia.
Contact
Kulturreferentin für Pommern und Ostbrandenburg
Pommersches Landesmuseum
(Cultural Officer for Pomerania and East Brandenburg
Pomeranian State Museum)
Dorota Makrutzki
Rakower Straße 9
17489 Greifswald
Phone: +49 (0) 3834 83 12 16
Email: kulturreferat{at}pommersches-landesmuseum.de
Other Cultural Offices
Cultural Office for Upper Silesia
Department of Cultural Education for West Prussia, Poznań Region, and Central Poland
Culture Affairs Department for East Prussia and the Baltic States
Cultural Management for the Bohemian Lands
Cultural Advisor for the Danube Region
Cultural Office for Transylvania, Bessarabia, Bukovina, Dobruja, Maramures, Moldavia, Wallachia
Cultural Office for Russian Germans
These eight cultural offices deal with one or more regions in which Germans lived until 1945. Some Germans still live there today. The offices are active in the field of cultural education and outreach, and each has its own funding budget. Their task is to encourage broad-based discussion of the culture and history of the Germans in Eastern Europe, both at home and abroad.