Collective memory

Schematic representation of the forms / functions of memory in the sciences

The term collective memory describes a common (= collective) memory performance of a group of people. Just as every individual is situationally capable of an individual memory, a group of people (people or humanity) is assumed to have a common memory performance. The collective memory is understood as the framework of such a group: It forms the basis for group-specific behavior between their members, as it enables the individual to imagine similarities. With a view to the cultural past, collective memory refers to the current social and cultural conditions, has an individual effect on a group of people and transmits common knowledge.

The concept of collective memory comes from the French philosopher and sociologist Maurice Halbwachs , who introduced the term in the 1920s. It has been used more recently as an analysis category in several disciplines, including history.

In collective memory, a distinction is made between communicative memory and cultural memory . Communicative memory provides orally passed on experiences and traditions; but only in a period of about three generations after the time of the event. This form of memory is therefore tied to people because it lives from the narration. In contrast to this is the cultural memory, which is not tied to people. Rather, memories are written down and thus preserved for posterity, even beyond the third generation after the event. For example, past events written in library scripts count towards cultural memory.

The Institutional memory is also a non-bonded to individuals memory.

Examples

The following section is not adequately provided with supporting documents ( e.g. individual evidence ). Information without sufficient evidence could be removed soon. Please help Wikipedia by researching the information and including good evidence.

See talk page Receipts Missing; especially no connection between the list and the literature (Halbwachs; Assmann). It might make more sense to do without the list here (selection problem. What is relevant? The list concentrates on war events of the past century that affected and caused Germans to suffer. If list, then: Holocaust / Shoa. Atomic bombing of Hiroshima. And happy occasions too like Woodstock. Armstrong on the moon.). In addition: Theory applies to long periods of time. The examples here are contemporary history (technical problem. What fits the method from which the term comes?) - Christianvater ( discussion ) 08:42, 23 Jun. 2020 (CEST)

• The devastating Allied air raids in the summer of 1943 are in the collective memory of the people of Hamburg .
• The same applies to the air raids on Dresden from 13-15. February 1945, which 70 years later still have their own culture of remembrance.
• In the decades that followed, the trench warfare of the First World War was in the collective memory of the Germans . Most were all the more astonished when the Wehrmacht was on the coast after a blitzkrieg at the beginning of the western campaign after a few days and the English troops left the continent during the Battle of Dunkirk .
• The two currency reforms (1923 and 1948) in Germany and the difficult times before them (1923: galloping inflation and hyperinflation; 1948: black market ) were in the collective memory of Germans for decades .
• In the collective memory of many Germans, 1914 was the quick victory in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870/71 . This was a reason for many to volunteer for the army and enthusiastically go to the First World War.
• The September 11, 2001 terrorist attack on the towers of the World Trade Center in New York City became part of the collective memory of New York, the United States, all developed countries and many countries around the world.

See also

• Culture of remembrance
• Place of remembrance

literature

• Jan Assmann : The cultural memory, writing, memory and political identity in early advanced cultures . Beck, Munich 1997, ISBN 3-406-42375-2 .
• Jennifer Cole: Forget colonialism? : sacrifice and the art of memory in Madagascar. Univ. of California Press, Berkeley et al. 2001, ISBN 0-520-22846-4 .
• Oliver Dimbath, Michael Heinlein: Memory sociology . Wilhelm Fink (UTB), Paderborn 2015, ISBN 978-3-8252-4172-8 .
• Matthias Eitelmann: Beowulfes Beorh: the old English Beowulf epic as a cultural memory storage (= English research , volume 410), Winter, Heidelberg 2010, ISBN 978-3-8253-5787-0 (dissertation University of Mannheim 2009, 295 pages).
• Astrid Erll: Collective memory and cultures of remembrance. An introduction. Metzler, Stuttgart / Weimar 2005, ISBN 3-476-01893-8 .
• Astrid Erll, Marion Gymnich, Ansgar Nünning (eds.): Literature - Memory - Identity. Theory concepts and case studies . WVT, Trier 2003, ISBN 3-88476-611-2 .
• Maurice Halbwachs : La mémoire collective . Presses Universitaires de France, Paris [1939] 1950. (Introduction: Mary Douglas)
  • German: The collective memory . Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 1991, ISBN 3-596-27359-5 .
• Institute for cultural policy of the cultural political society (ed.): Cultures of remembrance and history policy. (Yearbook for Cultural Policy Volume 9). Klartext, Bonn / Essen 2009, ISBN 978-3-8375-0192-6 .
• Nicolas Pethes, Jens Ruchatz (ed.): Memory and memory. An interdisciplinary lexicon . Rowohlt TB, Reinbek 2001, ISBN 3-499-55636-7 .
• Harald Welzer : The communicative memory. A theory of memory. Beck, Munich 2002, ISBN 3-406-49336-X .
• Nieper, Lena and Schmitz, Julian (ed.): Music as a medium of memory. Memory - past - present. transcript-Verlag, Bielefeld 2016, ISBN 978-3-8376-3279-8 .