Category: News

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29.10. Gray, cold and right? How do we talk about “East Germany”? 17.00 hrs

Gray, cold and right? How do we talk about "East Germany"?

29.10.2025 / 17:00 / Weserburg Bremen

What is “East Germany”? We want to talk about a space that is usually perceived as gray, cold and politically right-wing. We want to discuss how East German lifeworlds are constructed in media representations, political debates and cultural and literary narratives between self-description and external attribution, between memory and the present.

Together with our guests, we want to discuss perspectives from research and practice that do not understand “the East” as a monolithic place, but rather make its diversity and contradictions visible. Using examples from pop culture, literature and everyday life, we want to trace processes of belonging, exclusion and identity formation.

Guests

Jakob Springfeld, author and journalist

Anna Lux and Jonas Brückner, authors of “Neon/Grey”

Vanessa Beyer, Project (K)Einheit

Moderation: Klaas Anders

An event organized by:

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Tip: 07. – 09.10, “Meeting Leoš Janáček and Víězslava Kaprálová”

Tip: 07. - 09.10, "Meeting Leoš Janáček and Víězslava Kaprálová"

The association SIGNUM open space e.V. invites:

“Meeting Leoš Janáček and Víězslava Kaprálová”: SYMPOSIUM on the life and work of the Czech composers of the early 20th century – workshops, lectures, rehearsals, discussion concert. We are delighted to welcome our distinguished guests Derek Katz (USA) and Igor Karsko (Czech Republic, Switzerland), experts on Czech composers and life at the time.
Find out more about Janáček’s extraordinary way of composing and about a woman who, in a very short life, went far beyond the boundaries set for her at the time because of her gender and fought for her success.

All information here: https://signumopenspace.com/termine.html

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Exhibition “The Collision of Freedom” – Program in Bremen

Exhibition "The Collision of Freedom" - Program in Bremen

Photo: Paweł Jóźwiak

The Collision of Freedom

Nazi persecution of Czech, German and Polish swing dancers and jazz musicians

Trinational exhibition from August 22 to September 14, 2025

Gallery of the University of the Arts (HfK)
Dechanatstrasse 13-15
28195 Bremen

Accompanying program:

August 22, 7 p.m. Exhibition opening with partners from the Czech Republic and Poland, in the HfK gallery
Afterwards: live music by Jakub Šafr & swing trio Avalon with social dance, DJane Eléna Wendt (Swing Man Tau) until 11 pm
Venue: Gallery of the HfK

24 August, 3 p.m. Lecture by Dr. Šárka Jarská on the persecution of Czech jazz musicians and the Czech swing youth by the Nazi regime
Afterwards: Tea Dance
Venue: Evangelische Studierendengemeinde Oldenburg, Schützenweg 40, 26129 Oldenburg

September 5, from 7 p.m. Bremen Babylon Bohème, the dance night at Bali’Ku with original swing shellac records by DJ Guido Bolero
Venue: Bali’Ku, Werderstraße 60, 28199 Bremen

September 6 & 13 (time to follow) Swing Walk: City tour in the footsteps of Bremen’s swing youth
Meeting point: in front of City 46, Birkenstraße 1, 28195 Bremen

September 6, 7 p.m. Film screening of “Django – A Life for Music”, preceded by a film discussion with Django Heinreich Reinhard and Giovanni Steinbach, moderated by Natalie Reinsch (BBfd-tZ)
Venue: Gallery of the HfK

September 10, 7 p.m. Theater performance: “Gegen das, was da oben ist” – a documentary collage with motifs from “Swinging Bremen” by Birgit Köhler with the performing arts course of Helene Finck (Altes Gymnasium Bremen)
Venue: Gallery of the HfK

September 12, 7 p.m. Talk about Sinti Swing with Dardo Balke and Nico Thom, followed by a concert by the Dardo Balke Ensemble with Social Dance
Venue: Gallery of the HfK

Click here for the program flyer

NS-Injustice "Degenerated Music"

The transnational project takes a comparative look at the Nazi persecution practices of the northwest German swing youth, the Czech potapki and the swing and jazz music scene in occupied Poland and develops multi-perspective, interdisciplinary and participatory mediation formats.

To the project page
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BBfd-tZ at DAS! – Researchers from Bremen about swing youth during the Nazi era

BBfd-tZ at DAS! - Researchers from Bremen about swing youth during the Nazi era

Swing and jazz were considered “degenerated music” by the National Socialists. But there was a scene of around 1,000 active music-loving young people in Hamburg who pursued swing. Conflicts with the Nazi regime were inevitable.
The NDR and the talk show DAS! accompanied three Bremen historians from the Bremer Bündnis für deutsch-tschechische Zusammenarbeit e.V., who are researching the topic of swing youth.

The content of this video is in German.

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Opening of the Honorary Consulate of the Czech Republic in Bremen

Opening of the Honorary Consulate of the Czech Republic in Bremen

On June 17, we were guests at the Parkhotel for the ceremonial opening of the Honorary Consulate of the Czech Republic in Bremen! We would like to congratulate our new Bremen Consul, Dr. Michael Maj, once again on his appointment and are also delighted that the Ambassador of the Czech Republic, H.E. Jiří Čistecký, has come to Bremen to mark the occasion!

We are very much looking forward to continuing our excellent cooperation with Michael Maj, Honorary Consul of the Czech Republic in Bremen.

Photos: Oliver Soller
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Event information: 12.06. Commemorative Impulse in Bremen

Event information: 12.06. Commemorative Impulse in Bremen

Photo: Ramona Rücker

When: Thursday, 12.06.2025, 19:30 h

Where: Kukoon Cultural Center, 28201 Bremen

With: Ksenja Holzmann (Landeszentrale für politische Bildung/Denkort Bunker Valentin) Virginie Kamche (Afrika Netzwerk), Derviş Hızarcı (Kreuzberger Initiative gegen Antisemitismus), Lucy Debus (trotzdem da!)

Commemorative kick-off in Bremen – Whose responsibility? How the culture of remembrance is changing in the migration society

What role does the memory of the Nazi era play in a diverse society? How does migration change the way we remember? 80 years after the end of the Second World War, the question of how we can all keep the memory alive is being discussed. The event will feature panel discussions with experts, committed personalities and Bremen initiatives, insights into remembrance projects and the opportunity to talk to experts in person.

We from the Bremen Alliance for German-Czech Cooperation are also taking part with our project “NS-Injustice ‘Degenerated Music’”. We look forward to presenting our Liberation Dance and to exchanging ideas at our stand.

Free admission. Please register for the event at: https://www.stiftung-evz.de/veranstaltungen/anmeldungen/anmeldung-gedenkanstoss-in-bremen/

NS-Injustice "Degenerated Music"

The transnational project takes a comparative look at the Nazi persecution practices of the northwest German swing youth, the Czech potapki and the swing and jazz music scene in occupied Poland and develops multi-perspective, interdisciplinary and participatory mediation formats.

To the project page
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Tip: 10.07. Klezmer concert Yale Strom – Elizabeth Schwartz – Petr Dvorský – Sascha Yasins, 7.30 p.m.

Tip: Klezmer concert on July 10 in Bremen: Yale Strom - Elizabeth Schwartz - Petr Dvorský - Sascha Yasins

The Lastoria e.V. association invites you:

Violinist Yale Strom (USA) and his klezmer band “Hot Pstromi” will be performing on Thursday, July 10, at 7:30 p.m. at the Georg Büchner bookstore at Ziegenmarkt in Bremen’s Steintor.

It is the only concert by the American-Czech ensemble in northern Germany on this tour. “We are delighted that we have succeeded in bringing these wonderful artists back to Bremen,” writes the Lastoria Historical Society, which is being supported this time by bookseller Beruta Adolf. Yale Strom is a charismatic musician with more than 40 years of concert experience, klezmer researcher, composer, book author, photographer, award-winning documentary filmmaker. On almost 80 research trips to Eastern Europe, he has played with and learned from Jewish and Roma musicians, and he has preserved their musical heritage. Yale teaches at the University of San Diego. The son of progressive Jewish parents grew up speaking Yiddish in Detroit and San Diego.

One of his grandmothers, his Bubbe, was from Belarus, but he also has roots in Ukraine, Germany and Lithuania. “Yale is an ambassador of klezmer”, writes the Bremen historical society Lastoria. And that is to be taken literally: According to the European Center for Jewish Music, Hanover, Yale Strom was the first klezmer musician to perform at the United Nations General Assembly. His wife, mezzo-soprano Elizabeth Schwartz, specializes in klezmer from Romania and is also a pioneer: in many a synagogue, she is the first woman to sing in front of an audience. The composition of “Hot Pstromi” changes. As in 2022, the ensemble includes two exceptional instrumentalists from Prague: the renowned double bassist Petr Dvorský comes from the Czech jazz scene. Sascha Yasinski, who comes from Belarus and also lives in Prague, is an enormously versatile accordionist. Together they revive Eastern European Jewish culture and improvise.

Tickets cost 20 euros and are on sale at the Georg Büchner bookshop, Vor dem Steintor 58.

Websites: https://www.yalestrom.com – https://www.elizabeth-schwartz.com – http://petrdvorsky.cz – https://www.yasinski.eu

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08.05. Commemorative event: Liberation Dance, 6.00 p.m.

Commemorative event: Liberation Dance

Photo: Jiří Lubojacký

When: Thursday, 08.05.2025, 18:00 – 19:00 h

Where: Marketplace Bremen

Europe-wide flash mob to commemorate 80 years since the end of the Second World War

2025 marks the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War in Europe with the unconditional surrender of the German Wehrmacht.
It commemorates the liberation from National Socialism and the devastating war with over 60 million dead.

The Liberation Dance will be performed as a flash mob on May 8 as part of the tri-national project “Nazi injustice ‘Degenerate Music’. Persecuted swing dancers and jazz musicians in north-west Germany, the Czech Republic and Poland”.

The title “Jeepers Creepers” by Louis Armstrong was chosen because German swing youths sang it during forced labor in concentration camps, as they were persecuted by the Nazi regime because of their love of jazz and swing.

The Liberation Dance was conceived in Bremen together with dancers from all over Europe in remembrance of the war, but also in view of the strengthening of right-wing groups throughout Europe.

Dancing the choreography together, holding hands and building bridges, which can be recognized in the dance, stands for cohesion, for remembrance, because #Niewiederistjetzt

NS-Injustice "Degenerated Music"

The transnational project takes a comparative look at the Nazi persecution practices of the northwest German swing youth, the Czech potapki and the swing and jazz music scene in occupied Poland and develops multi-perspective, interdisciplinary and participatory mediation formats.

To the project page
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