Ruth Leiserowitz (German Historical Institute Warsaw) and Gintare Malinauskaite (Branch Office Vilnius of the German Historical Institute Warsaw) in cooperation with the Thomas Mann Cultural Centre and the Max Weber Stiftung (Web)

Venue: Neringa, Lithuania
Time: 26.-27.05.2021
Proposals by: 21.12.2020

Summer is the time of year that is marked by specific characteristics such as sunshine, warmth, and growth, and because of all this, it has always had a special place in culture and society. The beginning and the end of the summer was and still is partly connected with certain rituals. It should be noted that summer in life has always been a moment of freedom, looseness, and possibly relaxation in personal experience. The summer palaces of the monarchs bear witness to this. But it can also be seen in rural and urban cultures of the 19th century.

With the advent of holiday travel, another special ritualization of summer began, which of course only included certain strata of the population and also focused on certain landscapes, such as the sea coasts. Summer could mean not only working less, taking on other jobs or seasonal work but also going to war. For instance, the Franco-Prussian war of 1870 or both World Wars started in the summers of 1914 and 1939.

The study of summer and its holidays could be well situated within the field of leisure studies. Social historian John Walton saw leisure as “an expression of class identity and culture under attack from the repressive and manipulative forces of middle-class authority.” According to him, this simplified dichotomy between “class expression” and “social control” remains a valuable component while analyzing this phenomenon and allows connecting the study of holidays with other topics in modern social history. Read more and source … (Web)