Jurgen Zimmerer, "Memory Wars: New German Historical Consciousness" (Reclam Verlag, 2023)

Published: Nov. 29, 2023, 10 a.m.

Erinnerungsk\xe4mpfe: Neues deutsches Geschichtsbewusstsein\xa0(Ditzingen: Reclam, 2023) is\xa0a new, provocative\xa0volume on German memory cultures and politics\xa0edited by J\xfcrgen Zimmerer. What can be loosely translated as\xa0Memory Wars: New German Historical Consciousness\xa0is a collection of chapters that lay bare a mosaic of a diverse German memory landscape as well as the\xa0major debates and turning points by which it is continuously shaped. It is subdivided in five sections together encompassing 23 chapters and covers\xa0German\xa0Empire and colonialism,\xa0National Socialism and the Second World War,\xa0the Holocaust and multidirectional memory,\xa0East/West Germany and reunification, and, finally,\xa0today's\xa0Berlin Republic. This volume gains in relevance by the day and\xa0shows how the German past(s) and the way they are debated, commemorated, and weaponized\xa0today and by whom\xa0has real-life, if not existential, consequences. It is far from an exclusively German matter.\xa0Memory Wars: New German Historical Consciousness\xa0is of interest for all those who critically engage with\xa0the instrumentalization of memory in\xa0ongoing cultural wars\xa0in other national contexts as well, such as the heated debates and rightwing attacks in the United States and elsewhere\xa0surrounding fields such as Critical Race Theory, Gender\xa0or Queer Studies that emerge out of the White Supremacist backlash and the concomitant increase in\xa0racism, trans- and homophobia.\nJ\xfcrgen Zimmerer\xa0is Professor of Global History and the head of the research center \u201cHamburg\u2019s (post-)colonial legacy\u201d at the University of Hamburg. He served as the founding president of the International Network of Genocide Scholars for twelve years until 2017 and was the Senior Editor of the\xa0Journal of Genocide\xa0from 2005 to 2011. His research interests include German Colonialism, Comparative Genocide studies, Colonialism and the Holocaust, and Environmental Violence and Genocide and, for the specific German context, his work has been crucial in revealing the deep connections between the Holocaust and German colonialism \u2013 up until that point two German histories of violence hegemonically thought of as ontologically different, if thought together at all. His publications include\xa0German Rule, African Subjects: State Aspirations and the Reality of Power in Colonial Namibia\xa0(2021) and\xa0From Windhoek to Auschwitz? Reflections on the Relationship between Colonialism and National Socialism\xa0forthcoming in English in 2024.\nMiriam Chorley-Schulz\xa0is an Assistant Professor and Mokin Fellow of Holocaust Studies at the University of Oregon and the co-founder of the EU-funded project\xa0We Refugees. Digital Archive on Refugeedom, Past and Present. She holds\xa0a Ph.D. in Yiddish Studies from Columbia University and\xa0is the author of\xa0Der Beginn des Untergangs: Die Zerst\xf6rung der j\xfcdischen Gemeinden in Polen und das Verm\xe4chtnis des Wilnaer Komitees\xa0(Berlin: Metropol, 2016) which was awarded the \u201cHosenfeld/Szpilman Memorial Award.\u201d\nHenriette S\xf6lter is a communications and PR consultant with expertise on the interface of contemporary art and culture, international perennial formats, and strategic institutional positioning. She has worked with institutions such as\xa0documenta,\xa0Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art, and\xa0Haus der Kulturen der Welt\xa0(HKW), is a member of\xa0Bergen Assembly's executive board and is part of the\xa0New Patrons\xa0network for citizen-commissioned art.\nLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices\nSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/genocide-studies