The paper discusses different proposals to transfer the concept of 'sites of memory' from history to the context of teaching and learning German as a foreign language. It is argued that this kind of transfer without reflecting the aims of teaching and learning German and the close connection between language learning on the one hand and cultural und historical learning on the other leads to some severe problems and open questions. The paper finally tries to reestablish the concept of 'sites of memory' within the academic discourses dealing with German as a foreign and second language from the perspective of cultural studies and cultural learning and pleads for a better integration of 'sites of memory' within the already established concept of 'Deutungsmuster' ('patterns of signification').