The Anniversary Politics of 17 June 1953 Since 1990

Abstract

This article analyses the politics of anniversaries through examination of the role that the anniversary of the East German uprising of 17 June 1953 has played in German politics since 1990. Prior to reunification, West Germany commemorated the date as the ‘Tag der deutschen Einheit’. This annual public holiday was a chance for politicians to express their views on the possibility of German unification and to lambast the East German regime. After 3 October became the ‘Tag der Deutschen Einheit’ in 1990, German politicians all but ignored the anniversary of 17 June until political commemoration of the date enjoyed a revival in 2003. The article argues for a development of Jeffrey K. Olick's framework of ‘genre memory’ regarding the drivers of political mnemonic activity. It shows that, alongside social and political contexts, the contemporary ‘media context’ and its ability to inspire politicians to commemorate a historical anniversary must also be considered. The technology‐led ubiquity of the media in the twenty‐first century enables them to impact the political‐historical agenda as never before. Moreover, the analysis here reveals that the ‘anniversary context’ of a date must also be taken into account. Political actors can be motivated to commemorate a historical anniversary by its perceived links with other significant dates in the same historical canon.

Far-right anniversary politics and social media: The Alternative for Germany’s contestation of the East German past on Twitter

“…In many instances, there is also the suggestion that, as indicated by others (see Merrill and Lindgren, 2020), major anniversaries influence the extent of political commemoration, although this is less discernible for the 1953 Uprising and reunification in 1990. While the political commemoration of the Uprising has been known to be boosted by other events experiencing major anniversaries (see Millington, 2020), the peak in anniversary tweets for this case in 2020, when the other events seemingly experienced a dip in political anniversary tweets (including reunification during its 30th anniversary), also suggests the influence of other factors.…”

“…Each of the four GDR-related events that serve as case studies in this article has its own complex history of commemoration (see Art, 2014;Harrison, 2019;Millington, 2020;Sabrow, 2019) that have sometimes become entangled. For example, between 1954 and 1990, the anniversary of the East German Uprising was marked by a West German public holiday called Tag der Deutschen Einheit (German Unity Day).…”

“…While the commemoration of key historical events by parties and politicians has been a mainstay of political communication in Germany (Olick, 1999), little research has considered how 'anniversary politics' (Millington, 2020) unfolds on social media. Investigating the role played by the AfD in this respect is valuable because far-right parties have traditionally been perceived to be early adopters and skilful operators of social media, which have been regularly considered to be an influential way for such parties to gain political influence and to normalize and transnationalize their associated discourses (Fielitz and Thurston, 2019).…”

“…Besides the Wall's fall (9 November 1989) and Germany's formal reunification (3 October 1990), other GDR-related events commonly commemorated within German mainstream politics include the 17 June 1953 Uprising (by East Germans against state socialist rule that was violently suppressed by Soviet military force) and the 13 August 1961 construction of the Berlin Wall. All four provide opportunities for the AfD to contest the country's commemorative norms, making the anniversary sites of mnemonic conflicts.…”