A conference about Rijeka from the end of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, during D’Annunzio’s rule and the period of fascism, to antifascism and the end of the Second World War.

The aim of the conference is the encouragement of academic research and dialogue about the history of Rijeka from the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy to the end of the Second World War. Apart from the historical themes linked to Rijeka, the conference includes comparative and European perspectives, and the themes of violence, power, borders and identity in the considered period.

The conference presents the city of Rijeka in the historical and cultural settings of belonging to the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy from the beginning of the 20th century to the end of the First World War with an emphasis on the places of memories in Rijeka and the surroundings which are noted as places of power or places of the resistance to power. The targeted thematisation of such places represents a specific history of the city of Rijeka in a wider political and social context.

The themes of the conference follow the exhibition After the Great War, which problematizes the great changes in Europe after the Great War and the rise of radical ideologies – fascism, national socialism and communism. The aim of the conference is to shed light on the role of Rijeka in the context of European totalitarianism and to allow visitors to think about the dangers of dictatorship and the emancipatory potential of resisting aggression and authoritarianism. Particular attention is dedicated to the theme of the volunteers in the Spanish Civil War.

The conference’s programme was created by Vjeran Pavlaković, University of Rijeka (HR) and Boris Stamenić, Documenta – Centre for Dealing with the Past (HR), and taking part in the conference are lecturers Jay Winter (US), Pieter Judson (IT), Bartosz Dziewanowski-Stefańczyk (PL), Ulf Brunnbauer (DE), Jeremy F. Walton (DE), Dominique Reill (US), Mila Orlić (HR), Ivan Jeličić (HR), and many others.