15th International Conference of Editors of Diplomatic Documents
5 June – 7 June 2019 in Berlin

 Conference Programme (as of 9 May) 

Wednesday, 5 June
18:00 h:  Opening reception, Hans-Dietrich Genscher-Forum, Federal Foreign Office 

Thursday, 6 June
09:00-09:30 h: Arrival at the conference venue (Federal Foreign Office, Europasaal), registration
09:30 h: Opening of the conference: Official welcome by Maria Margarete Gosse (Director-General for Central Services, Federal Foreign Office), and Andreas Wirsching (Director, Institute for Contemporary History Munich–Berlin)
10:00-10:30 h: Marc Dierikx (Netherlands) and Sacha Zala (Switzerland): Presentation of the joint edition: “When the Wall Came Down”
10:30-11:30 h: Session 1: The chances and risks of transnational cooperation in editing

  • Chair: Matthias Peter
  • Sacha Zala (Switzerland): Publishing Diplomatic Documents of the Counterpart?
  • Carola Tischler (Germany): German-Russian Edition on German-Soviet Relations 1933-1941

11:30-12:00 h: Coffee break
12:00-13:00 h: Session 2: Editing in times of various “turns”: cultural, emotional, linguistic

  • Chair: Michael Kennedy
  • Ilse Dorothee Pautsch (Germany): Diplomatic documents and the emotional “turn”: an experiment
  • Włodzimierz Borodziej (Poland): Some critical remarks

13.00-14:00 h: Lunch break
14:00-15:30 h: Session 3/1: 1961/1989: When the Wall went up/When the Wall came down: editorial perspectives of two crucial years in world history

  • Chair: Richard Smith David Geyer (US): Berlin at three pivotal moments of the Cold War: 1961, 1971, 1989
  • Antonio Varsori (Italy): Italian diplomacy’s reaction to the construction and the fall of the Berlin Wall on the basis of Italy’s diplomatic records
  • Mechthild Lindemann (Germany): The year 1961 in West German foreign policy  

15:30-16:30 h: Coffee break and conference picture  
16:30-17:30 h: Session 3/2: 1961/1989: When the Wall went up/when the Wall came down: editorial perspectives of two crucial years in world history

  • Chair: Helena Pinto Janeiro
  • Louise Fisher (Israel): Israel and German Reunification
  • Andreas Schmidt-Schweizer (Hungary): German-Hungarian Relations 1987-1990

18:00 h: Conference Dinner   

Friday, 7 June
08:30-09:30 h: ICEDD Bureau meeting (Bureau members only)
09:30-11:00 h: Session 3/3: 1961/1989: When the Wall went up/when the Wall came down: editorial perspectives of two crucial years in world history

  • Chair: Marc Dierikx
  • Patrick Salmon/Richard Smith (GB): Three approaches to editing documents on 1989
  • Gusztáv Kecskés D. (Hungary): A view from Brussels. Secret NATO Reports about East European Transition 1988-1991.
  • Tim Geiger/Daniela Taschler (Germany): The special edition “Die Einheit” and a work report on AAPD 1989

11:00-11:30 h: Coffee break
11:30-12:30 h: Session 4/1: Questionnaire updates and presentation of country programmes

  • Chair: Sacha Zala
  • Miruko Atsuta: Japanese Country Programme
  • Francesco Lefebvre D’Ovidio: Italian Country Programme
  • Zoltán Garadnai: Hungarian Country Programme

12:30-13:30 h: Lunch break
13:30-14:15 h: Session 4/2: Questionnaire updates and presentation of country programmes

  • Chair: Sacha Zala
  • John Gibney: Celebrating the Centenary of Irish Foreign Policy: A photographic edition
  • Helena Pinto Janeiro: Editing Portuguese Diplomatic Documents, between dictatorship and democracy

14:15-15:30 h: Session 5: New tasks and challenges, esp. in the field of digital editing

  • Chair: Stephen Randolph
  • Michael Rossyiskii: Digital editing – the Russian experience
  • Christiane Sibille (Switzerland) and Joe Wicentowski (US): Handbook of best practices for digital diplomatic documentary editions
  • Melissa Jane Taylor (U.S.): Using Diplomatic Documents to Teach Leadership and Decision making

15:30-16:30 h: ICEDD General Assembly
18.00 h: Closing reception at the event location “217 ft.” 

Saturday, 8 June
11:15 h: Guided tour of the Berlin Wall memorial site, Bernauer Strasse (approximately 1 hour)