Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung 52d ago

The Chornobyl* nuclear disaster of April 1986 is widely regarded as a watershed moment in modern European history. It propelled increasingly intense debates and the growing mobilization around environmental pollution and energy policy—developments that had been building since the late 1970s—to the forefront of public discourse. In environmental and technological history scholarship on Western countries, this event has been used, among other things, to explain the emergence of a broad anti-nuclear consensus in West Germany as well as the Italian referendum on phasing out nuclear power. At the same time, environmental protests had also been gaining considerable momentum in Eastern and Southeastern Europe since the 1980s. In these countries, resistance to ecologically destructive mega-projects promoted by centrally planned economies frequently served as a catalyst for independence movements, which ultimately contributed to the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact in 1991. Marking the 40th anniversary of Chornobyl, the 2026 European History Forum examines, from a historical perspective, the origins and development of environmental movements across Europe and their entanglements with the legacy of Chornobyl. The primary focus lies on socialist and post-socialist states, while also adopting a comparative perspective on West Germany and reunified Germany. What factors contributed to the emergence of environmental awareness and environmental movements? Which groups of actors and political formations developed, and how did environmental protests intersect with other protest movements at both the national and international levels? What political successes were achieved? Where and why were environmental concerns marginalized? On which traditions and experiences can today’s environmental initiatives build? The European History Forum is taking place at a time when Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine has resulted not only in immeasurable loss of life and the destruction of cities and infrastructure, but also in dramatic ecological devastation - often described as ecocide. The Forum will therefore open with a discussion of the relationship between authoritarian rule, violence, and environmental destruction in Ukraine and Belarus, the two countries most severely affected by the Chornobyl disaster. Since 2011, the European History Forum, organized by the Heinrich Böll Foundation (hbs), has provided a vibrant platform for exchange among historians, students, museum professionals, journalists, and activists from non-governmental organizations working on the histories of Eastern and Southeastern Europe. A central aim of the Forum is to foster dialogue across borders and disciplines, bringing these perspectives into conversation with German historiography and scholars based in Germany. In doing so, the Forum seeks to create a genuinely transnational space for debating contemporary history and its interpretations. At the same time, it warmly welcomes all participants who engage critically with the history of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries and with the ways this history is researched, communicated, and discussed—whether in professional, voluntary, or personal contexts.