To remember or not to remember? The Germans, National Socialism, and the Holocaust – a typology

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article asks what role National Socialism and the Holocaust play in Germany’s everyday discourse today. How does the population deal with this historical legacy, and how does it evaluate the hegemonic public commemoration of the National Socialist era, especially those parts of the population that do not want to remember it? Based on the concept of mnemonic hegemony and qualitative research, the article argues that National Socialism as a collective frame of reference is still constitutive for constructing national identity in very different ways. This finding is differentiated by a typology of ideal discourse communities within Germany’s population.