How can we keep the memory of historical events alive? And what role could places such as the "Pole Memorial" demanded by a citizens' initiative play in this? Historian Stephan Scholz talks about this on the occasion of the anniversary of the outbreak of the Second World War.
80 years ago, on 1 September 1939, the Second World War began with Germany's attack on Poland. Only a few witnesses to this time are still alive today. What does this mean for the culture of remembrance in this country?
The generational loss of contemporary witnesses always marks a decisive change in a culture of remembrance. However, this does not necessarily have to be a disadvantage. It can also make society's view of the past more sober and broaden its perspective. The existence of contemporary witnesses in recent decades has at least tended to lead to the war against Poland and the German occupation being trivialised or even hushed up on the German side. Awareness of the fact that a war of extermination began against Poland on 1 September 1939, with numerous massacres of civilians and prisoners of war, as well as aerial bombardments of major cities with their terrible consequences for the civilian population, has not yet been very pronounced in Germany.
What role can memorials play in the culture of remembrance?
Monuments are often believed to be able to keep the memory of historical events alive. At the moment, for example, there is an initiative for a central memorial to the Polish victims of the German occupation in Berlin. Numerous historians, intellectuals and politicians support this initiative. However, memorials do not develop their effect on their own, but are usually only points of reference or, in the best case, a source of inspiration in a culture of remembrance. They remind us of something that we already know - and unfortunately that is not very much for most people with regard to the war and the German occupation in Poland. An alternative or supplement could also be an occupation museum, which would be better suited to imparting basic knowledge in the first place. Such a museum could also extend the view beyond Poland to the rest of Eastern Europe.
Why is it so important that we have places that inspire us to remember?
Memory is often linked to specific places. These are often places where actual events took place, such as Auschwitz or Verdun. Then there are memorial sites whose location itself is not historically charged. But they also have a place in the topography of remembrance of a country or a city. Berlin as a location has a different quality on a national level than Oldenburg, for example; the central square in a city has a different value than a traffic island on the periphery. The proximity and distance to other memorial sites also plays an important role. The "Polendenkmal" in Berlin, for example, is to be erected on Askanischer Platz opposite the future permanent exhibition on flight and expulsion. It is also intended to make a statement about the relationship between historical causes and effects. And finally, there are the so-called "places of remembrance", which are not necessarily bound to a specific location, for example in the areas of media, education and (everyday) culture. As "monuments in time", as the cultural scientist Aleida Assmann once called them, these also include anniversaries such as 1 September.
Interview: Constanze Böttcher