With its motto reading “Ways to the future”, the festival was organised by the Archaeological Museum of Biskupin, University of Warsaw, the Polish Ministry of Science and Information Society Technologies, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Stadtmuseum Berlin foundation, as well as the Museumsdorf Dueppel open-air museum in Berlin.

The Dueppel open-air museum seems to be the perfect spot to hold the main celebrations of the Polish-German Year. A settlement inhabited by Slavs and Germans existed in the area in the 13th century. The main goal of the event inaugurated in April this year by president Aleksander Kwaśniewski and the president of Germany Horst Koehler is to present our common history, scientific achievements and the effects of long-term research programs.

Participants of the festival’s opening ceremony stressed the importance of cultural exchange between neighbouring nations. Michał Kleiber, the Minister of Science and Information Society Technologies, pointed out that notwithstanding the hindered communication, experienced not that long ago, scientists from Poland and Germany had effectively co-operated, seemingly in defiance of the then-existing political situation. Dr Kurt Winkler, director of the Stadtmuseum Berlin foundation, admitted that sad though it is, science had never been free of politics. “In the times of the German Empire a dispute was held regarding the settlements in this area, and the history of archaeology displayed in Berlin’s museums at that time had much in common with the politics of the era. (…) In the times of National Socialism, Nazism, these issues were raised as well, and a proof was sought that these were Germanic territories. In a way, archaeologists started the changes that took place in Europe. It is a good thing that experimental archaeology is not just a branch of science; it allows the popularisation of science as well.”

In an interview for PAP (Polish Press Agency), Andrzej Byrt, the Ambassador of the Republic of Poland to Germany, added that “Germans know less about the history of Poland than Poles do about the history of Germany." According to the Ambassador, the Polish Archaeological Festival in Berlin may contribute to smoothing these differences away.
Lech Wałęsa, the former president of Poland, made a special statement for the festival’s participants as well. In a letter passed to Professor Alexander Burche (one of the main organisers and originators of the event) he pointed out that the Dueppel settlement is an example of a European community that had existed ages before it was formally named. Lech Wałęsa expressed a wish that the “open festival bodes well for solidarity.”

“The Archaeological Museum of Biskupin and the Dueppel open-air museum have been cooperating for 20 years now,” said Wiesław Zajączkowski, director of the museum. Most of the reconstructed monuments located in Dueppel are the works of the specialists from Biskupin. That is why a group of more than one hundred Poles, who each year present the examples of everyday medieval life during the archaeological festival in Biskupin, acted as hosts in most of the historical abodes. Visitors to the open-air museum can learn, among others, traditional methods for hammering coins, using the loom, making ceramics on a pottery wheel and smelting iron. A display of a medieval skirmishes and numerous contests were planned as well, and were accompanied by the sounds of early music.

A detailed agenda of the festival is available at a purpose-established website www.dueppel.polska.pl. The service, prepared by by the Polska.pl web portal, is updated daily with new photographs presenting the life of the settlement. All information published on this website is available in three languages: Polish, English and German.