On October 16 and 17, 2019, NYU Berlin hosted a remarkable gathering of scholars that was both reflective and forward-thinking. The gathering being hosted in Berlin was meaningful as this year marks the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Directors from NYU Berlin, NYU Florence, and NYU Prague collaborated in making the occasion, organising the conference, Never-ending History: How did we get to 2019 from 1989?.  This conference provided prominent thinkers to an opportunity to gather and consider a range of issues that have occupied academic and public debates, as well as the people who had lived on either side of the “Iron Curtain” and who became active or passive participants in the establishment of a ‘new’ European and global “post-communist” East. While the conference considered the global dimensions and significance of 1989, Never-ending History also addressed legacies of continuity and change in Germany, Poland, and the Czech Republic in politics, economics, and culture. 

Professor Larry Wolff, NYU Professor of History and NYU Florence C0-Director, gave the keynote address, entitled Everyday Ecstasy: Revisiting 1989 in Sober Perspective and Double Exposure. His inspiring and interesting talk set the stage for the engaging presentations and provocative dialogues that ensued over the two days of this gathering. 

The impressive contributors and panels considered a wide range of topics that were organised into four lively panels: Internationalism, Nationalism, and Identity Formation in Post-1989 Europe; Aufarbeitung? Historicizing East Germany; Redrawing Europe; and Artists as Chroniclers and Storytellers of Political Change. These panel presentations and discussions considered issues as diverse as the successes and failures of liberal democracy and market economy in former Communist/Socialist countries and visions of citizenship and nationality, the impact of the transitions on women and minority groups and media, arts, and culture in post-Communist societies, the resurgence (or continuity) of authoritarianism and nationalism and changing concepts of grassroots democracy / social movements in an age of populism and social media.

NYU Professor of History Mary Nolan delivered an inspiring closing keynote address. Professor Nolan’s impressive scholarship is focused on Europe and America in the Twentieth Century, the Cold War, the history of Human Rights, the global economy in the twentieth century, modern German history, and European women’s history. Her closing keynote, Women and Gender Politics since 1989, was a stirring commentary on how women, gender, and politics have featured in political and social debates Europe over the last thirty years.

While it is hard to distill two days of dynamic conversation into themes, NYU Prague Director Jiri Pehe, noted  the discussions suggested that “there seem to be similar developments in all post-communist countries, which seems to suggest that we need to look for most answers to what is now going on in the region in the era before 1989.” NYU Berlin Director Gabriella Etmektsoglou described the conclusions being drawn, by Mary Nolan and others, as “path-breaking work”.