The doctoral research project examines the cultural and historical legacies of Bukovina and Galicia in the context of flight and persecution, as well as resettlement and migration.

The focus is on the question of which elements of the former home regions of Bukovina and Galicia, and of the experiences associated with them, continue to have an impact across generations, and how they are preserved or renegotiated through memories, narratives and practices.
In this context, Bukovina and Galicia are understood as cultural and historical fields of memory and reference that are shaped both by mythologised perceptions and by specific traditions, narratives and cultural practices. The primary subject of the study is formed by oral history interviews with descendants of German and Jewish families, supplemented by autobiographical texts, travel accounts and digital contributions.
The aim is to identify the dynamics of continuities and ruptures within four spheres of these legacies – cultural practices and traditions, social affiliations and organisations, spatial references and narratives of origin, as well as political-historical awareness – and to reflect on them in a comparative synthesis for both German and Jewish descendants.

The study thus contributes to research on transgenerational memory, the lasting effects of flight, persecution and migration, as well as the postmemory of Bukovina and Galicia as historical and cultural spaces of remembrance of the former Habsburg Monarchy.