Fith joint meeting in Szczekociny (Poland) − 3

S E C O N D Y E A R 2013 - 2014
Fith joint meeting in Szczekociny (Poland) − 3rd- 9th October 2013
(Reports in French or in German are available on DVD or on paper; on our homepage:
www.ourpastisunifyingus.com up to Dec 2016, the homepage will be transferred to eTwinning )
The emphasis of our meeting in Poland was on “Variety through emigration and mobilities”.
Early forms of emigration can be found in ancient Europe. One major form is mass migration,
to be observed from the earliest of times; another minor form of migration is the steady
stream of relatively independent migrant craftsmen. The latter have been giving a huge
contribution to the economical and social development throughout Europe up until today.
One paper in specific dealt with the history of beekeeping. Honey and wax had sometimes a
similar value to gold. By leaving Anatolia over Egypt and trailing back through regions of
Eastern Europe, beekeepers were “following the road of blossoms”. Thereby new seeds and
plants were spread all over Europe. In some parts of Europe a kind of industrial bee culture
developed itself some 3000 years ago, organized by specialists, who knew the European
regions like the back of their hand.
Beekeeping was among the leading forces for the
development of the agriculturally cultivated landscapes in early times.
It’s already a good example for unity and
variety.
According
to
various
climatic
conditions different methods of beekeeping
and agriculture were developed under the
same principles. The topic was so fascinating, that some partner schools have a
new project: “Beekeeping and our ecological balance”. Even the first own honey
“Alois” – our teacher doesn’t need any protection
could be tasted.
The other papers were dealing with the Jewish contribution to the European culture, the
Amber road, and the specifics of our Polish partner till modern time concerning European
immigration and emigration. We discussed various aspects of the so called “partial and
parallel cultures” and its reciprocal self assertion in multicultural societies - as well as the different kinds of migration, tackling labor and educational migration etc.
S E C O N D Y E A R 2013 - 2014
So called pure national cultures in
Europe became the exception
rather than the majority. The
Islamic world was the object of
interest to Goethe. One reason
could be, that he had probably
Turkish forefathers. A paper, enhancing this subject was as likely
interesting as the one contribution by Szczekociny, which
dealt with the polish emi-gration
to Turkey.
Michał Czajkowski changed his name to Sadık Pasha
One Polish village still exists today near Istanbul, founded in 1842 by Polish refugees during
the Crimean war. They changed their names, changed the religion – and also like other
Europeans, many people today don’t know of their Polish ancestry. Some of them were
famous and still well known today – under their Turkish names.
During our meeting in Szczekociny we
made several excursions – e.g. the
reenacted battle of Melchów (1863).
We tried the old uniforms on and
some could even participate in the
middle of the last row. We visited
famous churches and sanctuaries.
One day we spent in Krakow with its
wonderful
renovated
architecture and its castle.
old
town
S E C O N D Y E A R 2013 - 2014
It’s not easy to use these
unknown devices. At the
end nothing was dangerous, even if it looks
like this.
↓ “The Comenius group”
on the market place of
Krakow
We learnt a lot about Polish and European history including its dark sides. We were
particularly hard hit and affected by our visit to Auschwitz. We decided not to take any
pictures there.
S E C O N D Y E A R 2013 - 2014
Sixth joint meeting in Pécs (Hungary), − April 3rd- 8th 2014
The main issue of our meeting in Pécs
was to discuss variety and unity during
the Renaissance period. All partners
presented their specific contributions.
Anyhow we started with the Roman
period, because Pécs was founded by
the Romans at the beginning of the 1st
century AD. There is a Mediterranean
atmosphere in this region specifically
the climate. The archaeological work
started 200 years before, so today there
is a lot to see. Again we were
The Comenius workshop in Pécs in front of our school
concentrating on the mosaics, one of
Concerning the Renaissance we got a lot of our favorite topics from the first
unknown information. Not well known to us, the meeting in Planegg to our last one in
Ottoman Empire had a Renaissance-like period of Adana.
its
own,
developing
coherently
and
simultaneously to western lands. It did not have a
big impact, and failed to prevail, due to lack of
inner diversity. Comparative studies have though
demonstrated the importance of such
Renaissance movement in the Ottoman Empire.
Anyhow such research is still in its infancy. It is
burdened by century-old prejudices and historical
dislikes by western contemporary writers, poets
and modern historians. Ottomans - even other
nationalities within the Ottoman Empire were
generally not considered equivalent – because it
is easier to criticize than to be constructive. The
historical roots of the current problems between
Western Europe and Turkey (and several Mosaics 43 AD by Emperor Claudius
countries in Eastern Europe) should be noted.
At the same time new approaches need to be developed. With our level of high school
students we cannot contribute essential scientific evidences. Since our last meeting in
Szczekociny (October 2013), starting with the contributions “Polish emigration to the
Ottoman empire” and “Tuerkenmariandl – Ottomans early immigration to Germany” a
working group of all partners turned the topic “Our greater Unity - The Renaissance and the
Ottoman Empire” into the focus of our research. A great part of the Ottoman Empire
including its capital was within the European continent. Tyrannical rulers, militarism etc.
existed as well in western European regions. The Renaissance too had its dark sides as a
considerable component of early modern Europe. The fate of Michael Sattler was described
S E C O N D Y E A R 2013 - 2014
in one of our contributions. He was executed 1527 in Rottenburg (today in Germany),
because of his believes in freedom and peace. Not only America was a refuge to religious
dissenters from Western Europe. Jews, Huguenots, Quakers, Jesuits and others religious
groups fled to Constantinople and spread over the Ottoman Empire. For Jean Bodin the
Ottoman Empire was a model of religious toleration. The French orientalist Guillaume Postel
had a similar opinion in the 16th century. Similar movements like in the western Renaissance
tended in the Ottoman Empire to be more restrained. We find similarities in the puppet and
figure theatres. The same ones to be found on festive occasions to ridicule sections of the
state administration.
The positive trends we already could see on the
opposite side of our school in Pécs. The church
was originally a mosque till 1686. Today on its
dome there is a cross together with the Islamic
crescent moon. We have chosen this motive as
the logo of our project. In Pécs there are nine selfgoverning bodies of recognized minorities as part
of the region. There we find the only Sinti-high
school worldwide. The university was founded
1367, today you can study in Hungarian, English or
German. It is the university that makes the
regional capital a vibrant university town. 2010
Pécs was selected to be one European Capital of
Culture, it became an UNESCO World Heritage Site
ten years before.
Dealing extensively with the Renaissance, we
underwent in Pécs once more the variety of the
European history. Initially Pécs was a purely
Roman town and flourishing region – the
Hungarians came later. The historical excavations have been listed as a UNESCO World
Heritage Site. There are so many historical
places, museums, galleries – we could visit only
some of them: The Gazi Kasim Mosque,
Necropolis of Soptichora, the 700 hundred years
old Cathedral, the Synagogue and many others
Traditional dress (last evening at school)
The old part of Pécs, being an “open
museum” to us, e.g. the National
Theatre of Pécs with its famous Ballett.
There are dance courses for students,
which we could join. Again we learnt
about the “advantage of variety”. The
high level of the theatre goes back to the
variety of people living in Pécs:
Hungarians, Italians, Austrians, Germans,
Bosnians, Sintis, Serbians, Czechs,
Croatians, Moravians and others.
S E C O N D Y E A R 2013 - 2014
We paid special attention to Matthias
Corvinus, and we got a comprehensive
insight on the Renaissance culture in
Hungary as a part of the early modern
age as a whole. One day we stayed in the
Renaissance park of Bikal near Pécs. We
saw shows of old professions, we could
become knights for a short time, and
there was a falconry demonstration and
many other historical events. Finally back
to school we even prepared Medieval
and Renaissance food. We used a cook
book from 1485.
the
falconry
demonstration
was
highly
fascinating→
↑Looks very easy, but for the non-Hungarian
participants it was not even easy to mount a
smaller peaceful horse. . . ↓
The whole school was involved in our Comenius
workshop →
S E C O N D Y E A R 2013 - 2014
Seventh (final) joint meeting in Adana (Turkey) − May 18th- 27th 2014
These two years of our project have really flown by. That’s why we were a little bit in a
gloomy mood. Nobody knew when we will see each other again. Students and teachers have
learnt to communicate via internet chat and Skype. We are now using eTwinning. We
developed several ideas to continue our cooperation. The Turkish/German partner were
lucky to raise a further support from the German Robert Bosch Foundation, our Polish
partner got support for an additional workshop. Together we will have a follow-up contact
with the topic “our new education routes - university and our future professions”. That
means we have a good chance at further discussions.
The issue of our topic “Unity in variety” has become an even more important one since there
is a loss of practical European visions, which can be seen very clearly in Turkey. So we are
hopeful to provide a small contribution for a necessary new impetus for our European goals,
based on our common tradition and European heritage. The European Variety is not only
enriched by the addition of Turkey. Particularly the Cilician region around Adana shows the
historical and ongoing cohesion. Cilicia must be seen as one cradle of European culture,
indissolubly linked with the European art and literature. Here the old Egyptian and Hittite
legends were transferred with a high probability to the Iliad and Odyssey. This region gave
substantial economic and trade impulses since the earliest time for Europe and the entire
Medi-terranean Region. Thanks to the experience of the Turkish historians, archeologists
and excavators around Prof. Halet Çambel we had an extraordinary access to our subject
con-cerning this region and Europe as a whole. Prof. Çambel died 2014; we will devote our
final publication to her. She scientifically co-discovered the Hittite fortress of Karatepe near
Adana 1946, which is very important for our research (the crucial artifact was found by a
local teacher and hobby archaeologist). These were our first considerations starting our
discussions.
←The Archaeological Museum in downtown of Adana. Behind the Sabanci
Mosque, similar to the Blue Mosque in
Istanbul, but only 30 years old yet the
largest one in Turkey. Adana is a modern
city with a small but beautiful historic
town, including old mosques as well. Most
of us were the first time in Turkey. In Pécs
we had small impressions of the Ottoman
influence, but nothing to compared to
Adana. We visited the market place; we
gained insight into the culture and life of
the fascinating town and the region. For
example first the typical ceramic art, its
technique passes from parents down to
their children since generations. There are
fa-mous artists, having their workshops in
Adana, using Ottoman motifs sometimes in
a new design.
S E C O N D Y E A R 2013 - 2014
We visited the Atatürk house and next to it the “Film Museum of Adana”. This museum is
showing the history of the lively regional film culture and is promoting its development. Each
year the film festival in Adana gives a comprehensive review of the actual film production,
focusing very careful on the whole Mediterranean area as a uniting regional unit. It is a very
good example for our topic, showing the variety, but at the same time dealing with similar
problems. There is a local tradition and culture, providing insight into the specific problems.
At the same time there is a commercial globalization, which is undermining these supraregional local roots of culture. Subsequently we had a workshop in the evening, dealing with
this topic. A further priority was the comparison between the French and Turkish laicism. In
1923 Turkey has modeled itself on the French conception of a secular state, removing
religion from any role in politics. It was a difficult subject for everybody, because nobody
really knew much about this subject including our French and Turkish participants – In some
partner countries religious education at school causes no national or international protests.
It was unclear why religious education at Turkish schools is making here a difference.
Religious education at school can help to avoid outside activities, dodging democratic values.
All our discussions during the last two years showed, that on our European scale unity in
variety is not always easy. But there is the adherence to the culture of mutual respect and
acceptance, which gives us the opportunity to understand each other and made use of our
problems in a positive way. There are real and unreal emotions, truth and half truth – we
heard wonderful stories about this topic from Nasreddin Hodscha, the famous Turkish
philosopher . . .
There are so many peaceful antique places in and around Adana; some Roman bridges are still used
S E C O N D Y E A R 2013 - 2014
Some archaeologists are arguing that Schliemann was wrong and Troy is located near
Adana. There is no verifiable evidence on this
issue at all. For us it was just interesting.
Some of us visited the well known Troy near
Çanakkale, we were reading books and
archaeological journals. We compared our
impressions with the landscape and possible
antique places around Adana. Of course we
did not find an answer, but we learnt much.
“Critical thinking” and receptiveness to unknown ideas is the very foundation in the
context of our project. What we found in the
sense of variety can be defined as making
use of diverse opportunities. Where Troy
was located is of secondary relevance.
Important is how people lived that time and
how they are living there today.
May be this is the view from “true Troj” – Homer’s
description fits even more to this landscape. It remains
a matter of faith, so far compelling evidence could not
be found. This begins with Homer, whose existence
has never been proven.. May be the Hittite culture had
major significance for the Ilaid and Odyssee
Our Italian-Turkish team working
Looking at several historical places around
Adana, we met so many interesting people –
pupils from local schools, a lot of older
people, who were working for a long time in
northern Europe, speaking for example good
German, and refugees from Syria, who are
living with their relatives. Always we were
greeted warmly; local people were proud of
their own region and its heritage, yet with a
distinct European approach. The relationships within the families and friends to
Germany, Belgium, and Great Britain etc. till
exist, more or less similar to 2000 years
before, when e.g. beekeepers from this
region started out with its bees searching for
places still abundant with blooming flowers,
and finally reaching northern Europe.
S E C O N D Y E A R 2013 - 2014
Göreme was one of the fascinating places we visited
Our hosts were organizing wonderful excursions and events for us. Historical places/towns
like Mersin; Tarsus the birthplace of the Apostle Paul, and the palace in Elaiussa. We visited
the famous Misis Mosaic Museum with Noah’s Arch, the Zeugma Mosaic Museum. There we
spoke with our archaeologists, still continuing to complete the collection. We saw the former
Christian and Jewish villages – proving the centuries-old Ottoman religious tolerance
towards those whose convictions are different, practicing the right to religious diversity –
which is at the same time a key component of modernity and political stability of the
Ottoman Empire, because it is based on mutual respect.
Also this music instrument made its way to Northern
Europe!
← The old traditions are still alive.↑
We learnt in Adana, that our variety since its early times has taken a dimension which goes
far beyond unilateral cultural prejudices of myths about identity, nation and superiority.
There are enough positive historical examples. Reflecting our variety, an open minded
approach to our cultural diversity and humility are forming the basis for our European
Community. In this sense our project seems successful and sustainable.
Our Turkish Talisman in a tree
near our school in Adana
S E C O N D Y E A R 2013 - 2014
Our final publication is still in progress. Our research had not yet been
concluded. We will have a meeting at the end of March 2015. The temporal gap
results of the related work needed. We – the students of this Comenius project
(including our teachers) are completing our final year, again and again there
are important written tests, and there is a lack of time for our project. We
appreciate your understanding, and ask for your patience. We want to thank
everybody who has been with us and helped us in all possible ways!
Comenius Working Group “Final Publication”
January 2015
Göreme 2014, our ‘final’ working group
First joint meeting in Planegg December 2012
More information and photos on our homepage: www.ourpastisunifyingus.com up to Dec 2016, the
homepage will be transferred to eTwinning