Remembrance and Historicization: Transformation of Individual and Collective Memory Processes in the Federal Republic of Germany

Abstract

For a long time, a collective defense against acknowledging and taking responsibility for the horrific Nazi crimes was prevalent in German society. As a result, the memory culture was characterized by contentious memories, which repeatedly provoked new debates, but nevertheless made historical clarifications possible and gradually removed the ground from the tendencies towards denial and not wanting to know. Understanding them in depth requires the insights of psychoanalysis on how to deal with affect-laden memories, with feelings of fear, guilt, and shame, and with the defensive movements to protect a self-image experienced as threatened. The phases of the societal struggle to remember the Holocaust and other Nazi crimes are described together with its transgenerational consequences. In Germany the memory cannot be a purely victim-identified memory culture. The perpetrators and their deeds must be included in a so-called “negative memory” which cannot be outsourced from a positive collective identity or purified from it. A further question is discussed how the abysmal nature of the crimes and the immeasurable suffering of the victims can be transmitted to the memory formation of future generations.