Italy's Amnesia over War Guilt. The "Evil Germans" Alibi

Video podcast in English with Filippo Focardi, Full Professor of Contemporary History at the University of Padua, and distinguished scholar of the memory of the Second World War in Italian society. Introduction by Lutz Klinkhammer, ca. 57 min.
As part of the series The Ends of War. Internationale Perspektiven auf den Zweiten Weltkrieg − conceived by the Max Weber Foundation − German Humanities Institutes Abroad.

The Second World War in the Italian perception is connected to two different dates of the end of war, two caesuras which donꞌt correspond to the German memory or that of other countries in Europe and in the World.
Italy ended its war with the entrance of Resistance fighters in the heart of the industrial capitals in Northern Italy on 25 April 1945; but if we look at a state level – we can underline that the hostilities against the Allied powers, the UK and the USA, ended with the Italian surrender in World War II already in September 1943 − earlier than the other allies of the Third Reich. 

This complicated political situation and ambivalent perception has had and has still a very strong influence not only on public memory in Italy, but on the development of the character of Italian democracy since 1946 as well.

Römische Horizonte – Orizzonti romani
Video-Podcast, episode six, ca. 25 min.

Episode four
Composer: Giacinto Scelsi
Title of the piece: Arc en ciel (1973).

Römische Horizonte – Orizzonti romani
Video-Podcast, episode two, ca. 21 min.

Römische Horizonte – Orizzonti romani
Video-Podcast, first episode, 22:39 min.

Episode one
Composer: Jörg-Peter Mittmann
Title of the piece: Lamento (Musica con Monteverdi per sette strumentisti) (2008).

Lecture
Filippo Forlani
Schiavi e Concili. I canoni conciliari sulla schiavitù dall'antichità al Lateranense IV
with an introduction by Andreas Rehberg.

MedAtlantic. Perspectives on the Past
Genuese Merchant Networks
Documentary film, 20 min.
Based on a research project on the Genoese Merchant Networks in Africa and across the Atlantic Ocean, as part of the international project of the Max Weber Foundation Knowledge Unbound. The period from ca. 1450–1530 is investigated through archival studies. And with it, the trade of enslaved persons, which already began in the Atlantic region in the first decades of the 16th century, comes into view. The film journey through the Mediterranean region and the Atlantic presents new perspectives and assessments on this research topic.

The Global Papacy of Pius XII: Catholicism in a Divided World, 1945–1958
Project presentation of the International Research Group
Principal Investigator: Dr. Simon Unger-Alvi

16–18 May 2022
The Return of Looted Artefacts since 1945. Post-Fascist and Post-Colonial Restitution in Comparative Perspective

International conference of the Max Weber Stiftung, organised by the German Historical Institute in Rome,
at the Goethe-Institut Rome (Via Savoia, 15).
Programme (PDF, 1 Mb)

17 May 2017
Musica e pace. Nuove ricerche sull'Età moderna

Concert on the occasion of the one-day workshop, which was organised within the framework of the international joint project "'Dass Gerechtigkeit und Friede sich küssen'. Repräsentationen des Friedens im vormodernen Europa".

Iustitia et pax osculatae sunt. "Friedensmusik". Musica e pace dal Quattro
al Settecento

Ensemble Chordis
Christine Streubühr – Vocals
Andrea Damiani – Lute and Chitarrone
Sabine Cassola, Stefania Grillo, Valentina Nicolai – Viole da gamba

Programme (PDF, 3 MB)
Conference report (PDF, 0,6 MB)