On January 30 – February 1, 2020, the constituent meeting of the Belarusian-German History Commission took place. The Commission includes 16 historians from Belarus (A.A. Kovalenya, V.V. Danilovich, V.V. Zdanovich, A.G. Kokhanovsky, A.I. Korsak, V.A. Kosmach and V.G. Shadursky) and Germany (T. Bon, G. Freitag, F. Galchevsky, A. Zam, D. Siebert, E. Kusber). The organizers of the Commission are the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus and the German Association for East European Studies.
The Commission was created upon an initiative of Federal President of Germany Frank-Walter Steinmeier and President of the Republic of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko. The Commission’s activities are funded by the German Federal Foreign Office.
The Belarusian-German History Commission is aimed at improving the joint survey on Belarusian and German history, its transnational context and historical relations between Germany and Belarus. Besides, the Commission will involve academic, nonacademic and civil society actors from Belarus, Germany, as well as from other states. It is planned to hold conferences, summer schools and a researchers’ scholarship competition.
As part of the constituent meeting, a tour to the German Historical Museum was also held with the participation of Sergey Andrushkevich, second secretary of the Embassy of the Republic of Belarus in Germany, Michael Siebert, representative of the German Foreign Ministry for Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia, Denis Sidorenko, Ambassador of the Republic of Belarus to the Federal Republic of Germany, Manfred Huterer, Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany to the Republic of Belarus, Vita Chechere, Commissioner for Foreign Policy in Science, Education and Research, Torsten Shtoltsenberg, a specialist of German Foreign Ministry for higher education, science and research.
In case of any questions, contact:
- Commission Speaker, Prof. A.A. Kovalenya
Nezalizhnasti 66
220072 Minsk
Republic of Belarus
Tel/fax: (017) 284-07-74
Photos by Nora Erdmann