Civil Society and Memory in Postwar Germany

Erscheinungsjahr 2018
ISBN: 978-1-316-62837-9
Verlag: Cambridge University Press

Buch, Englisch, 354 Seiten, Format (B × H): 152 mm x 229 mm, Gewicht: 516 g

Blending history and social science, this book tracks the role of social movements in shaping German public memory and values since 1945. Drawn from extensive original research, it offers a fresh perspective on the evolution of German democracy through civic confrontation with the violence of its past. Told through the stories of memory activists, the study upends some of the conventional wisdom about modern German political history. An analysis of the decades-long struggle over memory and democracy shows how grassroots actors challenged and then took over public institutions of memorialization. In the process, confrontation of the Holocaust has been pushed to the centre of political culture. In unified Germany, memory politics have shifted again, as activists from East Germany have brought attention to the crimes of the East German state. This book delivers a novel and important contribution to scholarship about postwar Germany and the wider study of memory politics.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Wüstenberg, Jenny

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Europäische Geschichte
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politische Systeme Demokratie
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politische Systeme Kommunal-, Regional-, und Landesverwaltung
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Geschichte einzelner Länder Europäische Länder
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politische Systeme Vergleichende Politikwissenschaft

Inhaltsverzeichnis

List of illustrations; Preface; Acknowledgements; Abbreviations and German terms; 1. Civil society activism, memory politics and democracy; 2. Memorial politics and civil society since 1945; 3. Building negative memory: civic initiatives for memorials to Nazi terror; 4. Dig where you stand: the History Movement and grassroots memorialization; 5. Memorial aesthetics and the memory movements of the 1980s; 6. A part of history that continues to smolder: remembering East Germany from below; 7. Hybrid memorial institutions and democratic memory; Interviews; Bibliography; Index.

Über Autor(innen)

Wüstenberg, Jenny
Jenny Wüstenberg is DAAD Visiting Assistant Professor of Political Science at York University, Toronto. She has been active in developing the field of memory studies, most notably as co-chair of the Research Network on Transnational Memory and Identity in the Council for European Studies and as co-founder of the Memory Studies Association.