National Socialist injustice "Degenerate music": Persecuted swing dancers and jazz musicians in northwest Germany, the Czech Republic and Poland
© Moritz Röber
© Moritz Röber
The transnational project "National Socialist injustice 'Degenerate music': Persecuted swing dancers and jazz musicians in northwest Germany, the Czech Republic and Poland" compares the persecution of swing youth in northwest Germany, the Czech Potápki and the swing and jazz music scene by the National Socialists in occupied Poland and develops multi-perspective, interdisciplinary and participatory educational formats.
The project intends to create public awareness in all three countries of this particular form of resistance and the associated National Socialist injustice. The idea is to create a common European memory space. The target groups comprise pupils, students, adults and the jazz and Lindy Hop scene from the participating countries.
The project empowers young people to make discrimination-sensitive judgments about the present by fostering empathy and competence-oriented learning. The project also seeks to create a basis for long-term interdisciplinary and transnational cooperation. The content will be conveyed by way of workshops (dance, music, communication of content), interviews with descendants of those persecuted and historical eyewitnesses, readings, lectures, panel discussions, documentaries, exhibitions, concerts, dance events and historical swing walks.
Since 2016, the Bremer Bündnis für deutsch-tschechische Zusammenarbeit (Bremen Coalition for German-Czech Cooperation) promotes relations between the two countries thanks to a wide range of projects supported by institutions and private individuals.
Partner: Chair of History and History Didactics at the Faculty of Education at Charles University in Prague / American Corner Danzig
Cooperation partner: Klaus Kuhnke Institute for Popular Music, Landeszentrale für politische Bildung Bremen [Bremen Federal State Center for Political Education], Foundation of Hamburg Memorials and Learning Centres Commemorating the Victims of Nazi Crimes, Deutsch-Polnische Gesellschaft Bremen [Bremen German-Polish Society], Musiker:innen Initiative Bremen [Initiative of Bremen Musicians], Evangelische Gemeinde Bremen-Neustadt [Protestant Community of Bremen-Neustadt], SwingManTau e.V.
Funding country: Germany, Poland, Czech Republic
Duration: 01.02.2024 until 31.12.2025