The History and Philosophy of the Peaceful Revolution in East-Central Europe

FAIN: FV-50177-08

University of Northern Colorado (Greeley, CO 80639-6900)
Christiane Olivo (Project Director: March 2008 to June 2010)

A four-week seminar in Germany for fifteen school teachers on the background of the dissident movements leading to the peaceful revolution in East-Central Europe in 1989.

Taking place for four weeks in Berlin and Leipzig, Germany, this seminar examines the history and philosophical ideas of dissident movements in East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Poland. It seeks to answer three main questions: What role did democratic opposition movements play in the fall of communism? What were the philosophical ideas developed by dissidents while living under communism? And, what is the ongoing significance of these philosophies? This is a topic of historical significance as the fall of communism was one of the defining events of the twentieth century. It lends insight into the power of people to resist totalitarian rule and the extent to which philosophical ideas developed in resistance to communism still have relevance today.