Memory | Gedächtnis

The relationship between social remembering and identity forms the framework through which representations of collective memory are analysed. 'Places of Memory' are generally understood as those locations – both topographical and metaphorical – which are assigned a collective 'memory function' by a given community. This relationship between memory and identity forms a framework for the analysis of representations of memory in a range of different social practices, for example the creation of visible symbols of memorial culture in public space, and of narratives which construct concepts of the ‘Self’ and the ‘Other’. One particular area of investigation is the question of how societies engage critically with a traumatic past (e.g. National Socialism and the Holocaust) at a local, national and trans-national/European level.