Lecture by Prof. Dr. Paul Betts (Oxford)
Not so very long ago, the explosive revolutions that rolled across Eastern Europe in that momentous year were routinely celebrated as liberal democracy’s magnificent victory over Soviet-style Communism. Be that as it may, recent developments in Poland, Hungary and elsewhere on the continent – developments that all have their roots in 1989 in one way or another – should prompt us to see Central Europe’s fateful year 1989 from a different perspective.
With the benefit of hindsight, the legacy of that »revolutionary fall« appears more of a mixed blessing, more precarious. This talk investigates aspects of the downside of these events.
Introduction: Professor Martin Schulze Wessel, LMU
In cooperation with the Center for Advanced Studies in "Universalism and Particularism in European Contemporary History"
The MUNICH HISTORY LECTURE series is sponsored by the Münchener Universitätsgesellschaft (Munich University Society) and the Gerda Henkel Foundation.
The event will be held in German. For more information, please visit the website of the Faculty of History and the Arts.