Public history, emlékezetkultúra, történelempolitika. Helyük Németország jelenkori történettudományában
Public History – Historical and Commemorative Culture – Politics of Memory. Their Position in Contemporary Historical Science in Germany

Summary/Abstract: Based upon the current discussion within the historical science in Germany the paper deals with the terms of public history, historical and commemorative culture and politics of memory. The following aspects will be analyzed: – Divergent contents and definitions of the terms mentioned above as well as other terms used within the domain – The system of terms and its interrelations – Genesis of the three terms – Topics towards which the scientific discourse is geared – Forms of institutionalization. The main focus of the paper lies on the concept of politics of memory, analyzing the conceptual bases, the application and functions (of the concept), its players/participants and the media used, as well as its political functions. The most important stages in the development of politics of memory and topics used for leading the discussion of the concept will be presented as follows: – National Socialism and its comparison to as well as its equalization with Stalinism – The Holocaust, particularly in regard to the question of victims and perpetrators, plus the role of memorial sites – The problem of continuity following the Fischer controversy – Germans as victims of World War II – History of the GDR – The involvement with the past in Eastern and Western Germany – The collective memory of the Federal Republic and differences thereof in East and West. The debate in historical science in Germany demonstrates that politics of memory is not a targeted process which leads society to historical insight, but a political field with explicit social functions. The process connects history to the present by the contemporary political constellation determining how and which past occurrences are interpreted; yet, as a consequence of the open process, a uniform view of history cannot be implemented nor is such a view desired – herein lies a crucial difference in comparison with the development in the once Communist states of Eastern Europe. The article is supplemented by numerous references to publications and to the historiographic analysis of the topic in historical science in Germany.

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