„Der Hahn kräht überall genauso.“

Experiences from South Bohemia with the upheavals in agriculture in 1950/60 and 1989/90 up to the present day

Lecture in German language with pictures by Dr. Alena Wagnerová (Brno-Saarbrücken) & Dr. Iris Berndt (Potsdam) and discussion

It was the resolution of the Information Bureau of the Communist Parties of June 23, 1948, which declared the collectivization of agriculture, following the Soviet model of collective farms, to be the obligatory line of march for all countries of the Eastern Bloc. For the traditional forms of life and work in the countryside, this decision from above meant a serious break; especially since the emerging tendencies to develop cooperatives from below were thus interrupted.

In 2014, a project lasting several years was completed in Zbudovská Blata in southern Bohemia, in which people from eight villages in the region shared their experiences. In 2021/22, the publicist Dr. Alena Wagnerová, who was actively involved in this project, was able to translate the most important Czech-language texts into German. Together with the historian and author Dr. Iris Berndt, she also explored the Niederer Fläming region in 2021/2022. Again and again they came across similarities and small differences in the processes in Czechoslovakia and Germany – the comparison was enlightening and this is what they now want to present in Jüterbog.  The 2022 project was funded by the Deutsch-Tschechischer Zukunftsfond and the Heinrich Böll Foundation Saarbrücken.