Place of remembrance

The term place of remembrance ( French : un / le lieu de mémoire , technically also mnemotope ) goes back to the French historian Pierre Nora . Associated with this is the idea that the collective memory of a social group (for Nora the French nation ) crystallizes in certain places and, as a historical-social point of reference, is formative for the respective memory culture . The term “place” is to be understood in a figurative sense and, according to Pierre Nora, can manifest itself in different ways. For example as a geographical location, but also as a mythical figure, as a historical event, institution or concept, as a book or work of art, etc. These “places” have a particularly charged symbolic meaning that has an identity-creating function for the respective group .

The places of memory of France , compiled by Nora in a seven-volume work, have stimulated similar publications in other European countries. Since 2001, German places of remembrance have appeared in a three-volume work . The three-volume work European Places of Remembrance was published in 2012 . In the meantime, edited volumes on ancient places of remembrance, the Middle Ages and places of remembrance of Christianity have been published by CH Beck .

Examples of places of remembrance

• The Reichstag
• The Reformation
• The Peace of Westphalia
• Johann Wolfgang Goethe
• fist
• Weimar
• Friedrich Schiller
• Heinrich Heine
• Carl Spitzweg
• The Wartburg
• Karl Marx
• The Paulskirche
• Cologne cathedral
• The allotment garden
• Richard Wagner
• Konrad Roentgen
• Friedrich Nietzsche
• Albert Einstein
• Versailles
• " Knowledge is power "
• Made in Germany
• The welfare state
• The German Civil Code (BGB)
• " Heil "
• Auschwitz
• Flight and displacement
• The Volkswagen
• D-Mark
• The miracle of Bern
• The wall
• The highway
• The Palace of the Republic
• Schwabing riots
• Sixty-eight
• The kneeling
• Memorial site of the Olympic assassination attempt
• The follower
• The Bundesliga
• « We are the people! »
• The National anthem
• Humberghaus

other countries

• Geographical location: the Rütli , place of the legendary Rütli oath , has the character of a Swiss national monument
• Buildings: Reims Cathedral , coronation church of the French kings, symbol of Franco-German friendship
• Events:
  • the Battle of the Blackbird Field (1389) for the Serbian national consciousness
  • Moulin de Laffaux to the fighting on Chemin des Dames in World War I.
  • Westerplatte near Danzig in the battle for the Westerplatte of the Polish defenders
• historical figures, some of which were mythically transfigured: Jeanne d'Arc for the French nation, Arminius for the German
• Pieces of music: the Marseillaise for the French nation

literature

• Pim den Boer, Heinz Duchhardt, Georg Kreis , Wolfgang Schmale: European places of remembrance. 3 volumes. Oldenbourg, Munich 2012, ISBN 978-3-486-71694-8 (complete edition).
  • Volume 1: Myths and Basic Concepts of the European Self-Image, ISBN 978-3-486-70418-1 .
  • Volume 2: The House of Europe , ISBN 978-3-486-70419-8 .
  • Volume 3: Europe and the World , ISBN 978-3-486-70822-6 .
• Andreas Degen: What is a place of remembrance? On the concept and theory of topographical memory in political and phenomenological terms , in: Narrative regions. Regional telling and telling about a region. A Polish-German-Norwegian symposium , edited by Bernd Neumann, Andrzej Talarczyk. Shaker, Aachen 2011, pp. 70–91, ISBN 978-3-8440-0526-4 .
• Étienne François, Hagen Schulze (ed.): German places of memory . Complete edition. 3 volumes. CH Beck, Munich 2008 ISBN 978-3-406-56896-1 ; a selection from: Federal Agency for Political Education : series of publications , 475. Bonn 2005 ISBN 3-89331-587-X .
• Johannes Fried , Olaf B. Rader (ed.): The world of the Middle Ages. Places of remembrance from a millennium. CH Beck, Munich 2011, ISBN 978-3-406-62214-4 .
• Claus Leggewie with Anne Lang: The struggle for European memory. CH Beck, Munich 2011, ISBN 978-3-406-60584-0 .
• Pierre Nora : Between History and Memory . Fischer Taschenbuch, Frankfurt am Main 1998, ISBN 978-3-596-12295-0 .
• Pierre Nora, Étienne François : Places of memory of France . CH Beck, Munich 2005, ISBN 978-3-406-52207-9 .
• Christoph Markschies , Hubert Wolf with the collaboration of Barbara Schüler (ed.): Places of Remembrance of Christianity. CH Beck, Munich 2010, ISBN 978-3-406-60500-0 .
• Burkhard Olschowsky, Ivan Petransky, Attila Po'k, Andrzej Przewoznik Matthias Weber (ed.): Places of remembrance in East Central Europe: Experiences of the past and perspectives (= writings of the Federal Institute for Culture and History of Germans in Eastern Europe , Volume 42). Oldenbourg, Munich 2011, ISBN 978-3-486-70244-6 .
• Patrick Ostermann, Claudia Müller, Karl-Siegbert Rehberg (eds.): The border area as a place of remembrance. About the change to a post-national culture of remembrance in Europe . transcript, Bielefeld 2012, ISBN 978-3-8376-2066-5 .
• Martin Sabrow (ed.): Places of memory of the GDR. CH Beck, Munich 2009, ISBN 978-3-406-59045-0 .
• Elke Stein-Hölkeskamp , Karl-Joachim Hölkeskamp (ed.): Places of remembrance of antiquity. The Roman world. CH Beck, Munich 2006, ISBN 978-3-406-60496-6 .
• Elke Stein-Hölkeskamp, ​​Karl-Joachim Hölkeskamp (ed.): Places of remembrance of antiquity. The Greek world. CH Beck, Munich 2010, ISBN 978-3-406-60496-6 .
• Georg Kreis : Swiss places of remembrance. From the memory of Swissness. Neue Zürcher Zeitung , Zurich 2010, ISBN 978-3-03823-591-0 .

Web links

• Web portal for historical culture with texts about the places of remembrance , Cultura Histórica (English / Spanish).
• Cornelia Siebeck: "Places of Remembrance" , in: Docupedia-Zeitgeschichte , March 2, 2017 - on the history of the concept as well as current approaches and perspectives in research.

Remarks

1. ↑ Pim den Boer… (Ed.): European Places of Remembrance , Complete Edition, 3 volumes, Oldenbourg, Munich 2012, ISBN 978-3-486-71694-8 .
2. ↑ German places of remembrance, selection, table of contents
3. ↑ Table of Contents Places of Remembrance of Christianity