Imre Kertész Kolleg Jena

Professor Piotr M. Majewski

Fellow Piotr Majewski

October 2020 - March 2021
Mail:
pm.majewski2(at)uw.edu(dot)pl

Piotr M. Majewski (born 1972) works at the University of Warsaw. His main scientific interests are focused on the history of Czechoslovakia and Czech lands and on the Czech-German relations in 19th and 20th century. He has conducted also research on the Polish foreign policy after 1945 and on the forced migrations in Europe during the Second World War. In 2009-2017 he was deputy director of the Museum of the Second World War in Gdańsk, responsible for development of the permanent exhibition. In 2006/2007 he was a Gastdozent at Ludwig-Maximilan Universität in Munich. He graduated in 1996 history at the University of Warsaw, where he has continued then his scientific career (a doctorate in 2000, habilitation in 2008).

Research project at the Kolleg

My project aims to examine how Wehrmacht soldiers perceived the Polish Campaign of 1939. First of all, it tries to investigate their self-perception and German perception of Poles, including effects of the Nazi propaganda. I am going to research then how did German soldiers remember particular events from the campaign. What did impress them? What was for them the most exhausting or the most difficult experience? What were they afraid of? What did they usually complain about? I would like to analyze, as well, a discipline and a morale of the German army. How did Wehrmacht commanders react to the cases of disobedience or insubordination? What was a role of religion practices during the campaign?  How important was for German soldiers to be a part of group? How did their Kamaradschaft work in practice? Was it exploited by officers to command the units? Was there any specific esprit de corps among the Wehrmacht officers? How did it influence their positions vis-á-vis soldiers, fellow officers and enemies?

 

Main areas of research

  • History of Czechoslovakia and Czech lands
  • History of the Second World War
  • Czech-German relations in 19th and 20th century
  • Role of museums in shaping of the collective memory of the Second World War

Monographs

Piotr M. Majewski, Edvard Beneš i kwestia niemiecka w Czechach (Warszawa: DiG, 2001)

Piotr M. Majewski, Nierozegrana kampania. Możliwości obronne Czechosłowacji jesienią 1938 roku, (Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Trio, 2004)

Piotr M. Majewski, „Niemcy sudeccy”: historia pewnego nacjonalizmu (Warszawa: Wydawnictwa UW, 2007)

Piotr M. Majewski, Sudetští Nĕmci. Dĕjiny jednoho nacionalismu (Brno: Conditio Humana, 2014)

Piotr M. Majewski, Zmarnowana szansa? Możliwości obrony Czechosłowacji jesienią 1938 r. (Gdańsk: Muzeum II Wojny Światowej, 2016)

Piotr M. Majewski, Bojovat či ustoupit? Možnosti obrany Československa na podzim 1938 (Brno: Conditio Humana, 2018)

Piotr M. Majewski, Kiedy wybuchnie wojna? 1938. Studium kryzysu (Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Krytyki Politycznej, 2019)

 

Edited volumes

Piotr Buras, Piotr M. Majewski, eds., Pamięć wypędzonych. Grass, Beneš i środkowoeuropejskie rozrachunki (Warszawa: Wydawnictwo „Znak”, Warszawa, 2003)

Piotr M. Majewski, ed., Polskie Dokumenty Dyplomatyczne, Vol: 1973 (Warszawa: PISM, 2006)

Piotr M. Majewski ed., Polskie Dokumenty Dyplomatyczne, Vol: 1977 (Warszawa: PISM, 2009)

Piotr M. Majewski, ed., Dzieje Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego 1915-1945 (Warszawa: Wydawnictwa UW, 2016)

Piotr M. Majewski, ed., Dzieje Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego po 1945 (Warszawa: Wydawnictwa UW, 2016)

 

Articles

Paweł Machcewicz, Piotr M. Majewski, ‘Muzeum II Wojny Światowej. Zarys koncepcji programowej’, Przegląd Polityczny 91/92 (2008): 46-51.

Piotr M. Majewski, ‘Freimaurer, Feigling, Russophiler, Intrigant: Edvard Beneš in den Augen der Polen 1918-1945‘, in Edvard Beneš: Vorbild und Feindbild. Politische, mediale und historiographische Deutungen edited by Ota Konrád, René Küpper (München: Oldenbourg 2013), 71-91.

Piotr M. Majewski, Rafał Wnuk, ‘Between Heroization and Martyrology: The Second World War in selected museums in Central and Eastern Europe’, Polish Review 60, no 4 (2015): 3-30

Piotr M. Majewski, ‘Społeczność akademicka 1915-1939’, in Dzieje Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego 1915-1945 edited by Piotr M. Majewski (Warszawa: Wydawnictwa UW, 2016), 51-324

Piotr M. Majewski, Jan Vajskebr, ‘Sytuacja w Generalnym Gubernatorstwie w świetle niemieckich statystyk policyjnych: Próba analizy ilościowej’, Przegląd Historyczny, no 4 (2016): 581-617

Piotr M. Majewski, ‘Polskie badania na temat najnowszych dziejów Czech: kontynuacja i nowe tendencje‘, Český časopis historický116, No 2 (2018): 486-501

 

Reviews

Mnichov, Británie a pokus o revizi českého pohledu, review of Vít Smetana, In the Shadow of Munich: British Policy towards Czechoslovakia from Endorsement to the Renunciation of the Munich Agreement (1938-1942), (Praha: Karolinum, 2008) in Soudobé dějiny, no 1 (2009): 174-176

Review of Eagle Glassheim, Cleansing of the Czechoslovak Borderlands: Migration, Environment and Health in the Former Sudetenland (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2016) in Slavic Review,  no 76 (4/2017): 1088-1090