Core Course I: The role of history and cultural legacies in post-socialist politics
Prof. Dr. Gert-Rüdiger Wegmarshaus
About the course:
The political transformations in the societies of Central and Eastern Europe of the years 1989-91 and afterwards were heavily intertwined with a vivid interest in new readings of historical events and cultural legacies. From the very beginning the political change and the historical debate went hand in hand: The strive for civil liberties in the declining years of Soviet Rule was accompanied by a renewed historical interest, which took a strong political direction: There were heated debates on the creation and the persistence of the Stalinist system, on the practice and the dimensions of the GULAG, on the role of the Red Army during and after WWII, on occupation, deportation and forced migration, on the human and ecological price paid over decades for large-scale industrialisation and technological achievements. These debates quickly gained a public audience and they were substantiated by fresh insights of professional historians into previously hidden political and diplomatic documents (re) discovered in and retrieved from once tightly closed archives. These new historical discourses not only paved the way for the regime change in Central and Eastern Europe. More then that: For two decades now these historical debates have played a particularly vital and even crucial role in shaping collective memories and in constructing ethnic, national identities in the young East European democracies. Acknowledging that these memories, legacies and identities are disputed till today the course addresses questions like: What are the ways and forms of debating history as a process and as a result? Are there dominant historical narratives in Eastern Europe? Who are the proponents and who are the recipients of these narratives? Are there political gains or losses attributed to specific readings of historical events? How societies in Central Eastern Europe handle claims originating from national pride and historical glory? Are they prepared to break historical taboos and to tackle issues for a long time silenced? The lectures and seminars of the Core Course I are designed not only to confront the students with these and other questions, but also to enable them to academically coming to terms with the difficult and problematic relationship between history and politics in today’s Post-Socialist Societies.
Recommended reading:
ASSMANN, ALEIDA: Soziales und kollektives Gedächtnis.
Free Full Text at:http://www.bpb.de/files/0FW1JZ.pdf
ASSMANN, JAN: Introduction: What is Cultural Memory? In: Assmann Jan: Religion and Cultural Memory. Translated by Rodney Livingston. Stanford University Press: Stanford 2006, pp. 1-30.
ASSMANN, JAN: Religion und kulturelles Gedächtnis. C.H. Beck, München 2000.
HALBWACHS, MAURICE: The Collective Memory. 1950 Chapter 4
Free Full Text at: http://web.mit.edu/allanmc/www/hawlbachsspace.pdf
MITSCHERLICH, ALEXANDER UND MARGARETE: The Inability to Mourn. Principles of Collective Behavior. Preface by Robert Jay Lifton. Translated by Beverly R. Placzek. New York: Grove Press, Inc., 1975, pp. 4-6. [Originally published in German as Die Unfähigkeit zu trauern. Grundlage kollektiven Verhaltens. Munich, 1967.]
Free Full Text at: http://ig.cs.tu-berlin.de/oldstatic/w2001/eu1/dokumente/Basistexte/Renan1882EN-Nation.pdf
RENAN, ERNEST: Was ist eine Nation?, Vortrag in der Sorbonne am 11. März 1882. Aus dem Französischen von Henning Ritter, veröffentlicht in: Jeismann, Michael / Ritter, Henning: Grenzfälle - Über neuen und alten Nationalismus, Leipzig 1993.
Free Full Text at: http://www.dir-info.de/dokumente/def_nation_renan.html
WEIZSÄCKER, RICHARD VON: Zum 40. Jahrestag der Beendigung des Krieges in Europa und der nationalsozialistischen Gewaltherrschaft. Ansprache des Bundespräsidenten Richard von Weizsäcker am 8. Mai 1985 in der Gedenkstunde im Plenarsaal des Deutschen Bundestages.
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