ACADEMIC WORKSHOP “Blueprints of Belonging: Jewish Architects in Interwar East Central Europe”
Advertisement
June 25, 2026 (Thursday) | 10:00 am –2:00 pm
Language: English
Participation is free of charge. Number of places is limited.
Please register here: https://forms.gle/DSdpomb1PCRyTs6C6
The international academic workshop hosted by the The Taube Department of Jewish Studies of the University of Wrocław will continue the discussion under the title "Blueprints of Belonging: Jewish Architects in Interwar East Central Europe" featuring presentations by scholars and researchers from the ISS PAN Warsaw, Brno University of Technology, KU Leuven, University of Gothenburg, University of Wrocław, Technical University Prague, University of Hamburg, Technical University Braunschweig, and teh Technical University of Wrocław.
The event examines the role of Jewish architects in shaping the urban, institutional, and social landscapes of East Central Europe in the interwar period. Bringing together scholars from several European research centres, the workshop looks at architectural practice within broader processes of political transformation and state-building, professional mobility, and rising nationalism and anti-semitis. Between 1918 and 1939, the region experienced dramatic structural changes: the collapse of empires, the emergence of new nation-states, mass-migration , expanding public infrastructures and economic crisis.
Architecture became a central medium through which social reform, hygienic modernisation, welfare provision, and civic representation materialised. Jewish architects participated actively in these developments – as designers of synagogues, hospitals, schools, housing estates, and public institutions, as well as the involvement in municipal planning and transregional professional networks. Rather than searching for a distinct “Jewish architecture,” we aim to investigate how Jewish architects functioned as agents and “brokers of modernity” (Martin Kohlrausch) within broader processes of urban expansion, social reform, hygienic modernization, and nation-building.
Organizers: the Taube Department of Jewish Studies at the University of Wrocław and the Urban Memory Foundation in partnership with the Museum of Architecture in Wrocław and the Bente Kahan Foundation.
------
Photo: Karl & Otto Kohn, Molochov, Praga, 1936-1938, Wikimedia Commons. | Graphic: Arek Fochtman.
The two-day event is part of the "ReActMem: Rescue Memory – Activism, Arts and Public Remembrance" project, funded by the EU (CERV program).
https://reactmem.difficultheritage.eu/en/homepage-2/
Language: English
Participation is free of charge. Number of places is limited.
Please register here: https://forms.gle/DSdpomb1PCRyTs6C6
The international academic workshop hosted by the The Taube Department of Jewish Studies of the University of Wrocław will continue the discussion under the title "Blueprints of Belonging: Jewish Architects in Interwar East Central Europe" featuring presentations by scholars and researchers from the ISS PAN Warsaw, Brno University of Technology, KU Leuven, University of Gothenburg, University of Wrocław, Technical University Prague, University of Hamburg, Technical University Braunschweig, and teh Technical University of Wrocław.
The event examines the role of Jewish architects in shaping the urban, institutional, and social landscapes of East Central Europe in the interwar period. Bringing together scholars from several European research centres, the workshop looks at architectural practice within broader processes of political transformation and state-building, professional mobility, and rising nationalism and anti-semitis. Between 1918 and 1939, the region experienced dramatic structural changes: the collapse of empires, the emergence of new nation-states, mass-migration , expanding public infrastructures and economic crisis.
Architecture became a central medium through which social reform, hygienic modernisation, welfare provision, and civic representation materialised. Jewish architects participated actively in these developments – as designers of synagogues, hospitals, schools, housing estates, and public institutions, as well as the involvement in municipal planning and transregional professional networks. Rather than searching for a distinct “Jewish architecture,” we aim to investigate how Jewish architects functioned as agents and “brokers of modernity” (Martin Kohlrausch) within broader processes of urban expansion, social reform, hygienic modernization, and nation-building.
Organizers: the Taube Department of Jewish Studies at the University of Wrocław and the Urban Memory Foundation in partnership with the Museum of Architecture in Wrocław and the Bente Kahan Foundation.
------
Photo: Karl & Otto Kohn, Molochov, Praga, 1936-1938, Wikimedia Commons. | Graphic: Arek Fochtman.
The two-day event is part of the "ReActMem: Rescue Memory – Activism, Arts and Public Remembrance" project, funded by the EU (CERV program).
https://reactmem.difficultheritage.eu/en/homepage-2/
Advertisement
Where is it happening?
Judaistyka - Uniwersytet Wrocławski, ulica św. Jadwigi 3/4, 50-266 Wrocław, Polska, Wroclaw, Poland
Event Location & Nearby Stays:
Know what’s Happening Next — before everyone else does.
Host or PublisherFundacja Urban Memory - The Urban Memory Foundation
