Erinnerungen der Bürger in Großbritannien

The perception and interpretation of conflicting mnemonic narratives: Post-communist remembrance in East Germany and Poland

“…Third and finally, conclusions can be drawn about how subjective knowledge (whether firsthand or transmitted) about the communist past is interpreted against the background of hegemonic knowledge, which spans a normative value framework that no one can defy (Fiedler, 2021). In a related study, Gerhards et al (2017) have observed that in their FGD, the more nostalgic recollection of everyday life was almost detached from other interpretations about communism: for example, that the broad lines of missing rule-of-law principles were juxtaposed with nostalgia at an individual level. The researchers interpret this finding to mean that focus group participants would “negotiate the different aspects on different levels” and that it was thus apparently possible for them to speak “positively about everyday life and their individual and family memories” while adopting anti-communist elements, such as oppositional goals (Gerhards et al, 2017: 47, 103).…”

“…What Gerhards et al (2017) have tried to describe using the somewhat vague notion of different levels is, in our view, the discernible effect of subjectification through hegemonic memory, which always runs along as a kind of background foil in the recollection process. Like an “elephant in the room,” hegemonic memory manifested most clearly in moments when interviewees from both countries indulged in positive, “nostalgic” memories—such as the mutual respect and solidarity they experienced under the communist system.…”