The words "remembrance" and "memory" play a particularly important role in the context of historical studies. Interviews with contemporary witnesses are conducted in order to gain an understanding of a past reality. Memory is flexible and cannot reproduce the past objectively, but adapts to the present identity of a contemporary witness. It is therefore clear that a strong distinction must be made between personal memory and reality, as it is possible that our memory is pure fiction, fantasy and perhaps wishful thinking, as in the example described above. To circumvent this problem, the historian Jakob F. Dittmar suggests: "What is essential [...] is the preparation of the historical background for the individual narrative and its sequence of social action sequences."[1]

But what does this mean? When is something considered "historical"? First of all, history is always written from the perspective of the present. A time is categorised into historical events - these events are selected according to their relevance and categorised historically. Cultural memory forms the basis of this relevance. It is therefore also an important component of historiography. History is always the cultural memory of a generation. However, categorising memories that are similar but different for each individual, as they are perceived and stored in memory differently, also poses problems for historiography. We rely on historians to make a selection of collective memories that coincide and to integrate them into political and social events as 'historically relevant'.

According to Ricœur, taking up this problem and the concrete meaning of historical science is the public discussion of testimonies[2]. For a public discussion, a leap of faith is obligatory, based on the assumption that what the witnesses say is true (cf. ibid.). This can happen, for example, when communicating history. Further considerations on communicating history with the help of comics can be found here.

It is not only necessary to examine the truthfulness of what is remembered, but also what relevance it has within cross-societal memory and what place it should occupy within the collective memory. It is therefore the task of society to discuss and weigh up cultural memory on the basis of subjective memories in order to subsequently link them to historical events.

[1] Dittmar, Jakob F. : Comic and historical consciousness: Mythisierung im Gegensatz zur Historisierung, in: Ralf Palandt (ed.): Rechtsextremismus, Rassismus und Antisemitismus in Comics, Berlin 2011, p. 420.

[2] Cf. Ricœur, Paul: Geschichtsschreibung und Repräsentation der Vergangenheit. Edited by Colliot-Thélène, Catherine. Münster 2002, p. 23f.