Die Erfindung der Erinnerung

Abstract

Wie entsteht ein kollektives Gedächtnis? Wie erinnern sich Menschen im sozialen Raum? Und wie wird Erinnerung gemacht? So lauten die Fragen, denen der Soziologe Michael Heinlein in seinem hoch aktuellen Buch zur Erinnerungskultur nachgeht. Mit kritischem Blick widmet sich seine Studie der Konstruktion der so genannten »Generation der Kriegskinder« und den damit verbundenen medizinisch-psychologischen Diskursen zum kollektiven Trauma der Deutschen. Dabei erschließt der Autor nicht nur Neuland für eine weitgehend »gedächtnisvergessene« Soziologie, sondern leistet auch einen wichtigen Beitrag zur Diskussion um das Ende der Zeitzeugenschaft des Zweiten Weltkriegs.

Cradle and Crucible of ‘Vergangenheitsbewältigung’: Representations of the War Child in the Occupation Period (1945–9). An Introduction1

“…11 But as Heinlein points out, the war children are not merely subjects of their own memories, but also objects of remembering: he refers to a simultaneous 'Selbst-' and 'Fremderfindung einer Generation', where the term 'generation' allows the war children to appear as a more or less homogenous group and so makes it easier to instrumentalise them as a cultural or political collective in public discourse. 12 The very title of Sabine Bode's bestselling Die vergessene Generation: Die Kriegskinder brechen ihr Schweigen (2004), demonstrates how neatly war children's allegedly repressed experiences fitted into the prevailing discourse of German victimhood, while also providing a welcome reservoir for national re-conceptualisations. Thus Bode claims that understanding this generation's experience is crucial not just for the individuals concerned, but 'für die Identität und die Zukunft der Deutschen als Europäer'.…”

“…Paradoxically, what is traditionally associated with passive suffering in the pastthe role of the victimbecomes the source of agency in the present, for the subject position of the war victim is one of great moral authority that brings with it the power to persuade or to convince. To some extent, the reverence accorded to 'Zeitzeugen' is due to the ability of latter-day ageing survivors to 12 speak with a double moral authority based on the coexistence, in one person, of the remembering adult looking back on their lives from today's vantage point, and their remembered younger selves whose youth was blighted by war and persecution. If this subject position is assumed without justification it can cause outrage, because the expectation of authenticity has been violated, the 'autobiographical pact' 37 broken.…”

‘WIR WOLLTEN DOCH WISSEN, WIE GROß DIE GEFAHR WAR’: THE GERMAN WAR CHILD AS ICON AND AGENT IN BERLIN SCHOOL ESSAYS, 1946

“…Objekt der Erinnerung, zum anderen aber auch als aktive Akteure des Erinnerns'. 14 Moreover, children can be viewed not only as active agents within memory culture, but also as having been agents within the historical reality in which they found themselves. Indeed, historians of childhood have increasingly pointed to the importance of distinguishing between childhood as a concept and children as individuals.…”

Growing up in the shadow of the Second World War: European perspectives

“…25 Sociological research, in its turn, has explained the boom by the recent needs of members of this generation to reflect on the past, to ascribe important meaning to themselves, and to attract media attention. 26 In this issue, we broaden the concept of 'war children' and turn it into an umbrella term for all sorts of children who experienced war and its direct consequences such as forced migration, violence, the loss of family members and others. Inspired by Monika Janfelt's claim in the Encyclopedia of Children and Childhood that 'every country that has experienced war or armed conflict has produced war children' 27 , we decided to assess critically to what degree the Second World War cast a shadow over the lives of children in Europe growing up in its aftermath.…”