Wschód w nas
East in us

Author(s): Ellen Drünert
Subject(s): Philosophy
Published by: Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego
Keywords: East–West tension; Wende; German Reunion; European institutions; Marek Siemek; Loccum Statement; East as a state of mind; East as a measure of social institutions’ rationality and credibility
Summary/Abstract: The chapter refers to an autobiographical event, namely the meeting of the author with Marek Siemek at the conference entitled „Das eine und das andere Deutschland”, organized by Evangelische Akademie Loccum in 1993. It was here that Siemek delivered his important Statement, in which he argued that the only way forward for Eastern European citizens after „Die Wende” is rationality, normativity and institutions guaranteed by the common United Europe. At that historical moment, the author herself had her own parallele xperiences with the reunion of Eastern and Western Germany, and she witnessed transformations in African, Asian, and Latin-American countries. The author grounded and guided an international organisation in The Free State of Thuringia for the sake of integration across East–West divisions. The passionate discussions at Loccum cemented this new friendship for good. Siemek’s Statement gave rise to a series of articles that illustrate the relativity and fluidity of the border between East and West in all of us, for the East is a state of mind and the measure of social institutions’ rationality and credibility.

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