On Sunday, 19 October, Prof. Dr. Karl Schlögel will receive the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade at Frankfurt's Paulskirche in Frankfurt am Main – a tribute that many current and former members of the European University Viadrina Frankfurt (Oder) will follow with appreciation.
The historian of Eastern Europe was a professor at Viadrina from 1994 until his retirement in 2013 and had a great influence on his students and colleagues. His academic publications, excursions and courses left a lasting impression on numerous Viadrina students and prompted many to pursue a career in academia.
"Viadrina was a ship of intellectual awakening, and Schlögel was the wind that propelled this ship forward," recalls PD Dr. Agnieszka Pufelska of her time studying with Karl Schlögel. She is now a research assistant at the Northeast Institute at the University of Hamburg.
As historian PD Dr. Paulina Gulińska-Jurgiel from Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, who studied and worked under Karl Schlögel from 1998 to 2004, says of his special teaching: "For Karl Schlögel, history was inconceivable without reference to space. That's why he always took us students to the places he taught about." In this way, they were able to practice "reading the world".
Schlögel's former student and colleague Prof. Dr. Felix Ackermann, now a professor at the University of Hagen, emphasizes with regard to the upcoming award ceremony: "Karl Schlögel was one of the few historians of Eastern Europe who went to Ukraine in 2014 and sharpened their own view."
More voices
Further voices of Viadrina companions of the Eastern European historian Karl Schlögels in view of his award with the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade can be read in the Viadrina news portal.