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What is Europe?
Constanze Itzel 

Please note that this video is available in German.

German art historian Dr. Constanze Itzel poses the question of the essence of Europe and talks about possible foundations of a common European heritage.

In her lecture, Constanze Itzel questions ideological concepts in relation to Europe and specifically to the current exhibition Europe: Ancient Future. Engaging with a possible construction of European heritage, Itzel asks: what is Europe? What do we Europeans recognize as part of a common heritage and what not? As museum director at the House of European History in Brussels, Itzel explores the history of Europe along the exhibition there and, referring back to various exhibits, points to the constructed nature of heritage, history, and identity. In her lecture, she further explores such questions and searches for hidden histories: Is there something unifying between the states of the Union?

Dr. Constanze Itzel (*1974 Nürnberg, lives in Brussels) is a German art historian and director of the House of European History in Brussels since 2017. From 1993 to 1998, Itzel studied art history as well as French and Italian literature at the universities of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Nantes, and Heidelberg. She received her PhD from the University of Heidelberg and was a scholarship holder of the state of Baden-Württemberg, working at the Heidelberg Central Institute for Art History as well as for the Scientific Service and for the Cultural Committee of the European Parliament.

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