Memory learning

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Memory learning refers to the comprehensive research and practice of memory-related learning by individuals, groups and societies and was developed by Geert Franzenburg as an integrative concept on the basis of approaches and findings on the topic that have existed since antiquity and on the basis of international studies. The concept complements Reinhold Boschki's religious education approach , who, following Johann Baptist Metz, recommends an “anamnetic” learning culture (biography-oriented commemoration in school) in view of the Shoah.

Holocaust memorial in Berlin

concept

While in the German-speaking countries work with memories, above all with the "Education after Auschwitz" and with memorial site education, such as those used in B. the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge organizes - also the work with " stumbling blocks " is part of it - or is connected with biography work in adult education , gender and racism issues or neurological-psychological issues are the focus in English-speaking countries. Memory learning combines these different aspects with cultural history, mentality history, religious history and social science aspects, topics and questions to form an experience-based, multidimensional and interdisciplinary educational concept.

aims

In contrast to “memory learning”, it is less about physiological, neurological or psychological aspects of remembering or learning than about a combination of historical, educational, sociological and philosophical-theological approaches to the phenomenon of individual and collective memory . It thus deals with individual memories as well as with cultures of remembrance . Therefore, learning to remember is to be compared more with the social anthropological concept of memory work, but less ethnologically shaped than this approach and instead more historically, sociologically and educationally oriented; gender and political interests (Haug) also play a subordinate role in memory learning compared to value issues. Since cultural memory is based on commitment and reflexivity and has clear ethical implications, memory learning is also ethically and value-oriented. Both approaches, however, share the conviction that memories as resources help to better understand oneself and the world around us.

subjects

Memory learning overlaps with the topic of memory studies; This can be seen in the topics of the Memory Studies Journals, which mainly deal with the following topics: the connection between collective memory and the erosion of the nation state , the contexts of diaspora , genocide , memory politics, war memorials, colonialism , military conflicts, as well as the Holocaust , i.e. topics that are also relevant for the social aspect of memory learning, especially insofar as they concern the relationship between nation and collective memory .

These topics also underline the central aspect of all memory research and practice: the relationship between individual and collective memory: Since immediate memory becomes impossible with the development of a memory, since it is linked to social frameworks over time and thus changes, one has to choose between individual memory (linked to experience) and cultural memory (linked to objects and practices).

Learning to remember starts with this distinction: Memory as a performative, socially influenced construction of identity connects individual and collective verbally and non-verbally coded contents and forms of memory, which must be deciphered with the help of the respective language culture and using deconstructivist text and discourse analysis in order to identify identity reconstruct. Therefore, the aspect of individual and collective / social identity is also the focus of memory learning. Visual media can also provide important impulses by connecting past and present in a special way through subjectification and contextualization.

Methods

Even if remembering is one of the basic skills of human beings, it does not automatically work as it should, because it is subject to an abundance of influences and conditions of all kinds. The basic task of learning to remember is to examine these and control them self-determinedly. This happens in very different ways, whereby the focus is always on the person or group who remembers, who is accompanied by a “memory coach” who, in the concept presented here, proceeds according to the principles of humanistic or person-centered and form-oriented pedagogy . The contents are as diverse as the people involved who confront their counterpart with a memory-related concern, e.g. B. as learners their teachers or vice versa, in the family their relatives, as carers their carers in hospitals, old people's or nursing homes (or vice versa), as refugees their language teachers or supervisors (or vice versa).

In such cases it is helpful to decipher this often encrypted memory concern in order to give the other person the opportunity to use what has been remembered or the experiences constructively. The knowledge and experiences of the biography work are helpful here, as they enable access and provide interpretation aids. The same also applies to groups, if z. B. In discussions, different experience backgrounds or traumatizations lead to conflicts. The knowledge and experiences of group work and group dynamics help here, as they reveal the often unconscious dynamics in group processes. At a meta level, such conflict potentials can also be shown on a social, national or intercultural level and evaluated for conflict management. The knowledge and experiences of an "education after Auschwitz" are important here, as social influences (stereotypes, taboos and repression, memory cultures and politics) on individual actions are shown. In particular, the focus is on the characteristics of cultures of remembrance, not least the role of places of remembrance. It is therefore not about learning mnemonic techniques or other forms of memory training, but rather about sensitizing all those involved to essential mostly neglected but influential elements of memory.

Fields of application

On the basis of the theoretical discussions mentioned, the following practical suggestions result:

1. In dialogue:
When it comes to individual memories, the first step is to find out whether it is about working with resources or trauma. According to the suggestions from biography work and gestalt pedagogy or humanistic pedagogy, perceptions are formulated without evaluating. In a second step, the mostly ambivalent perceptions are questioned for their constructive content in order to make it clear that every experience can be viewed from two sides. A third step is about a transformation process: It is about integrating the historical into the development of the ego and about developing a differentiated, complex and orientation-enabling historical consciousness, which is made up of time, reality, historicity, identity. political, economic-social and moral awareness of historically shaped reality, and as a construct also includes emotions, relationships, interests, strategies, addressees, conveying values ​​and similar topics of discourse, and even projecting into the future.

2. In the group:
Here, too, the first step is to clarify whether the experience or memory is more resource-oriented or trauma-oriented. This is why it is initially about perception without evaluating. The special group situation means that - depending on the size of the group - the results have to be categorized. Since the reminder or hint presumably comes from a group member, the other participants are asked to make non-judgmental associations in the style of "collegial advice" in order to gain as comprehensive an insight and overview as possible. It is the task of the contributor to integrate the suggestions of the others for himself; If necessary, this can be done in private dialogues. If someone from the other participants feels motivated to give another or new reminder impulse, the procedure is repeated accordingly. Here, too, the decoding of narratives, rituals, images, sounds, and staging is important.

3. In society:
The investigation of memory cultures and memory politics in a social context is less about dealing with traumatizations or best practice experiences, but about the question of how individuals and groups deal with given forms of memory. This applies above all to dealing with the Nazi era, the World War and the Holocaust (Boschki / Schwendmann), especially in the area of ​​adult education. Therefore, the first step here is to find out whether there is a single, dominant or several competing cultures of remembrance for a particular commemorative event. In a second step, each of these cultures of remembrance needs to be examined in all aspects and, in a third step, to be related to one another. In this way, dimensions of historical consciousness become clear (von Borries, 2001) and it can be determined whether the historical formation of meaning is based on “traditional” (myth, tradition), “exemplary” (doctrines, guidelines), “critical” (interpretation patterns, questioning ) or "genetic" (continuity as development, integration) way happens. In this way, a kind of “memory grammar” can be developed.

Examples of memory learning in practice

Dialogue:
Dealing with autobiographies can - depending on the context of the memory in question - help to gain access to one's own life story and in this way to integrate the remembered experience into the living environment. This includes B. preoccupation with initiations or life transitions (e.g. with theologians) as well as with detachment or resistance (like with Nazi resistance members) through identification with historical actors, who at the same time protect against all too intimate confessions of their own.

Discussion:
As mentioned, the "collegial consultation" or intervision, normally common in coaching or supervision processes, can also be used sensibly for memory learning and can have a liberating effect. This can e.g. For example, a trauma that breaks or breaks open in a group process is depersonalized and dealt with together. It could e.g. B. treated as an independent being and addressed by the participants, e.g. B. the experienced disregard as a shadow with which those present, with the exception of the person who is listening, make contact in different ways in order to illuminate as many aspects as possible.

Society:
The Baltic countries are an important example when it comes to the interplay between competing cultures of remembrance. This example shows and examines how different political and national interests (Russian vs. Estonian or Latvian) have an impact on the content and forms of the culture of remembrance and commemoration.

Conclusion: In terms of self-enlightenment for people in the 21st century, the pedagogically, therapeutically, philosophically and ethically reflective use of content, forms and structures of individual and collective memory helps individuals, groups and societies to deal more constructively and thus more satisfactorily with memories.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Boschki, 2005; see www.bibelwissenschaft.de/stichwort/100048/; Johann Baptist Metz: For an anamnetic culture, in: Loewy, Hanno (ed.), Holocaust: The limits of understanding. A debate on the cast of history, Reinbek bei Hamburg 1992, 35–41.
  2. ↑ Reinhold Boschki, / Wilhelm Schwendmann, (Ed.): Four generations after Auschwitz. How is memory learning still possible today? Münster 2009 .; Klaus Petzold: Art. Education after Auschwitz , in: Lexikon der Religionspädagogik I (2001), 451–458.
  3. ↑ Heidi Behrens-Cobet (ed.): Education of adults in memorials and places of remembrance . Essen 1999
  4. ↑ Andrea Kabus, Learning to remember stumbling blocks. Religious didactic opportunities, in: Lindner, Konstantin (ed., Among others), remembering and telling. Theological, humanities, human and cultural studies perspectives, Münster 2013, 393–404.
  5. ↑ Herbert Gudjons: On my tracks. Exercises for biography work. Bad Heilbrunn 2008
  6. ^ Frigga Haug: Memory Work: the Key to Women’s Anxiety. In: Radstone, Susannah (ed.), Memory and Methodology. Oxford / New York 2000
  7. ^ John Sutton: Influences on Memory. In: Memory Studies 4 (4), 2011, 355–359
  8. ↑ Kettner 1998 ;: Kölbl / Straub 2014; Sutton 2011
  9. ↑ Assmann, A., 1999, 2006 and 2007 and Asmann, J, 1992
  10. ↑ Frigga Haug (ed.): Sexualization of the body. Berlin / Hamburg 1991
  11. ^ Jan Assmann: Collective memory and cultural identity. In: Assmann, Jan; Hölscher, Tonio (Ed.): Culture and Memory, Frankfurt a. M. 1988, 9-19.
  12. ↑ Avishai Margalit: Ethics of Memory. Max Horkheimer lectures , Frankfurt am Main 2000; Clemens Sedmak: Europe and an ethic of memory: Pope Benedict and the Holocaust. In: Ders.et al. (Ed.). The soul of Europe, Regensburg 2011.
  13. ^ Elisabeth Roberts: Family Photographs: Memories, Narratives, Place. In: Garde-Hansen, Joanne and Owain Jones (eds.). Geography and Memory. London / New York 2012.
  14. ^ Bernhard Giesen : Collective Identity. The intellectuals and the nation. Frankfurt a. Main 1999.
  15. ↑ Maurice Halbwachs: The collective memory, Frankfurt 1985
  16. ↑ Assmann, 1988
  17. ^ Mattias Berek: Collective memory and the social construction of reality. A theory of cultures of remembrance. Wiesbaden 2009
  18. ↑ See the work of Eder 1990; Erikson 1966 and 1977; Giesen, 1999; Haug, 2000; Straub 1998; Suntrup 2006
  19. ^ Annette Kuhn: Family Secrets: Acts of Memory and Imagination . London 1995
  20. ^ Kuhn 2000 and 2007; see. Roberts, 2012; West 2014
  21. ↑ See Welzer, 2001/2008
  22. ↑ See Robyn Fivush: Remembering and Reminiscing: How Individual Lives are Constructed in Family Narratives. In: Memory Studies 1 (1) 2008, 49–58 .; Geert Franzenburg: Remembering childhood-coping aduldhood, Munich 2008 and Ders .: 'When your son asks you'…. How remembrance can teach life satisfaction, PEC 65/2015, 66-722015
  23. ↑ Gudjons, 2007; Rest, 2008.
  24. ↑ Klaus Antons: Practice of group dynamics. Göttingen 1974; Olaf Geramanis: Mini-Handbook Group Dynamics. Weinheim Basel 2017
  25. ↑ Boschki, Schwendberg man
  26. ↑ Cornelißen, 2003; Erll, 2005
  27. ↑ Carcenac-Lecomte, Constanze. et al., 2000
  28. ↑ Erik H. Erikson : Identity and Life Cycle. Frankfurt a. Main 1966
  29. ↑ Hans-Jürgen Pandel: Dimensions of the historical consciousness . An attempt to make its structure for empiricism and pragmatics open to discussion. In: History Didactics. Problems, projects, perspectives. Vol. 12, H. 2, 1987, 130-142
  30. ↑ Harald Welzer: The communicative memory. A theory of memory, Munich 2008
  31. ↑ Sarah Willner, Georg Koch, Stefanie Samida (eds.): Doing History. Performative Practices in Historical Culture, Münster 2016
  32. ↑ Eder 1990; Part 2009
  33. ↑ Jörn Rüsen: What is historical awareness? Theoretical considerations and heuristic hints . In: J. Rüsen, Historical Orientation, Cologne 1994, 3–24
  34. ↑ Geert Franzenburg: Remembers expressing: reflections on a grammar of memory . In: Gabriele Münnix, Bernd Rolf (Eds.) Tra-Duire Translating Trans-Late Europe Forum PHILOSOPHY bulletin 65/2016
  35. ^ Franzenburg, 2008
  36. ↑ Heiko Haumann: Lifeworlds and History: On Theory and Practice of Research, Vienna 2009 .; Alf Lüdtke (ed.): Everyday history. For the reconstruction of historical experiences and ways of life, Frankfurt / New York 1989.
  37. ↑ Brinkmann, 2002; Tietze, 2010
  38. ^ Klaus Breuning: Liberating Memory , Düsseldorf 1986.
  39. ↑ Franzenburg Trimda forum Draudziba Journal, Franzenburg 2012, 2013.

literature

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