On 22–24 November 2022, the German Historical Institute in Warsaw hosted a conference entitled Forbidden Fruit. It was devoted to sexual life and Churches in Central Eastern Europe in different epochs. The programme opened with a very interesting keynote lecture given by Klaus van Eickels, professor at the University of Bamberg in Germany. The lecture dealt with the changes in the attitude of society and the Church towards marriage in a broad perspective from the Middle Ages to the 20th century. Other conference participants also presented their papers within this time frame. One of the participants was the investigator of our project Alice Velková, who presented a paper entitled Non-elite Behaviour of Elites. Extra-marital Relationships, Illegitimate Children and Divorce in the Families of Deputies and Senior Civil Servants in the Second Half of the 19th Century and the First Half of the 20th Century. She showed that even among members of the elites, significant dynamics in sexual and partner relationships can be observed in that period, reflecting the overall transformation that society underwent in terms of religiosity. You can read more about the conference here.
