80 Years After – Ways to a common German-Polish Culture of Remembrance? Cover Image

80 Jahre danach – Wege zu einer gemeinsamen deutsch-polnischen Erinnerungskultur?
80 Years After – Ways to a common German-Polish Culture of Remembrance?

Author(s): Waldemar Czachur, Heinz-Helmut Lüger
Subject(s): Applied Linguistics, Semantics, Politics and communication, WW II and following years (1940 - 1949), Rhetoric
Published by: Wydawnictwo Naukowe Uniwersytetu Marii Curie-Sklodowskiej
Keywords: World War II; discourse analysis; collective memory; persuasive strategies; political argumentation;

Summary/Abstract: The article analyses two speeches commemorating the 80th anniversary of the outbreak of the Second World War, delivered by the German President Frank Walter Steinmeier and the Polish President Andrzej Duda. The authors examine the two texts and ask what aspects of World War II the politicians evoke in their speeches, what images of the Self and the Other are created and what goals are pursued. In the beginning, the article outlines the different meanings of World War II in Polish and German collective memory, and then it proceeds to briefly characterize the commemorative speech as a type of speech. A special emphasis is placed on the analysis of the perspectives underlying the speeches, including the theses presented, as well as on the comparison of the most important differences.

  • Issue Year: 45/2021
  • Issue No: 2
  • Page Range: 93-105
  • Page Count: 13
  • Language: German