Recovered Territory

From 1919 to 1989, the borderland of Upper Silesia, one of Central Europe''s most important industrial regions, was at the center of a conflict between Germany and Poland. In their interaction with - and mutual influence on - one another, political and cultural actors from both nations developed a transnational culture of territorial rivalry. Architecture, spaces of memory, films, radio auditions, museums, folklore, language policy, mass rallies, and archeological digs marked just some of the features that gave the borderland a "German" / "Polish" face. This case, representative of the wider politics of twentieth-century Europe, played a critical role in one of history''s most violent and uprooting eras.