Kosmopoles in Bochum: European culture with a Polish focus from the Ruhr area

Kosmopolen is dead, long live Kosmopolen

The association was founded on 19 May 2008 in Bochumer Hellweg (the little street in the town centre, not the DIY store). On this day, there were 11 artists in Emanuela Danielewicz’s old apartment at house number 18. The apartment with the green sofa (“the green salon”) had been famous in the Ruhrgebiet art scene for some time for anything from cosy evening get-togethers, to philosophical nights, to wild dance parties, recalls the photographer and raves about the wonderful outlook across Bochum’s rooftops.

“Kosmopolen brought people together”, she says One example of this is the musical duo Kasienki made up of Kasia Bortnik and Katrin Mickiewicz, both of whom studied at Folkwang University, but only got to know each other through the cooperative. Kasia Bortnik was an official member of Kosmopolen e. V., but for her it is more than a membership. She starts by using this term, but then corrects herself by using the term “commitment” and concludes that it is “friendship” that she most connects with the Kosmopolen.

Today, the singer Kasia Bortnik lives in Cologne, the viola player Katrin Mickiewicz in Berlin. Whilst Kasia Bortnik was friends with many Kosmopoles, the distance to Bochum was a bit too far for a spontaneous catch-up for coffee or to talk about the world and his wife. Exchanging views with other Polish artists, let alone getting anything off the ground, is difficult in Cologne too; but the Kosmopoles seemed to make it work.

Concerts, readings, memorial services or even festivals – all these event require a lot of work and a lot of helping hands. Technology, advertising, hospitality, looking after guests, admissions – and, of course, the concept and the programme itself. Emanuela Danielewicz was responsible for many events. She is a doer, an organisational talent. But she held out the hope of taking the Kosmopole idea out of the Ruhr area without the demands of a functioning cultural operation. At the last members’ general meeting on 27 January 2019, it was resolved to dissolve the association.[7]

Emanuela Danielewicz does not appear to be too sad about this. She had never expected the association to exist for more than two or three years. And apart from which, the “Kosmopolen” brand still exists. The art concepts were too successful, so many evenings too memorable, the message too effective. There will still be a Kosmopolen stage at the “Bochumer Musiksommer” in the future. “Kasienki & Kolędy” or “Kasienki & Benjamin” will continue to delight children of all nationalities with Christmas songs and stories. The music festival “New Polished Tunes”, like so many other events, had to be cancelled in 2020 due to the coronavirus. The former members of the association can continue to do their own thing under this label. All this proves that the association's structure was just a formality. Culture and commitment are not dependent upon an entry in the register of associations.

Danielewicz is now on the board of the Deutsch-Polnischen Gesellschaft Bochum NRW e. V. which was founded on 23 September 2020. This association also aims to promote Polish aspects within NRW culture, but it is a bit more institutional. Big names from politics and science are members, including Jürgen Mittag, political scientist at the Cologne University and Chair of the Europa-Union in Bochum, and Thorsten Klute, the Polonia representative for NRW. So this kind of association is not so useless after all. “That’s how it works in Germany”, says Emanuela Danielewicz.

Marek Firlej, march 2021