EUROPE INSIGHT
European
Remembrance
Policies
Markus J. Prutsch
Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and
Humanities, University of Heidelberg,
research project Science, Numbers and
Politics
INTRODUCTION
O
ne of the most powerful tools in welding political identity is to create a
collective historical memory, whereby we generally understand this to mean
a form of collectively remembering or commemorating the past, whatever
concrete form that might have.
Revisiting history and taking up memory in political debate is not only recently gaining
ground, but has to a certain extent been indispensable for any political system throughout
history, since the present is contextualised – and indeed made sense of – with regard to the
past. However, there is an immanent danger of misinterpreting or misrepresenting history
in the framework of collective historical memory, and of its becoming a pawn on the chess
board of politics. In this context, history may even be deliberately misconstrued to achieve
a desired political effect. This is not particularly surprising given that “politics of memory”
is always more or less explicitly intended to legitimise – or, alternatively, to challenge – a
status quo. This in turn underlines the huge responsibility resting on policy makers with
regard to not only the way in which they shape the present and the future, but also deal
with the past.
The European political sphere is no exception, with collective historical memory being
confronted with a singular framework posing particular challenges.
The arguments expressed here can be found in detail in Prutsch, Markus J. European Historical Memory: Politics, Challenges und Perspectives.
Brussels: European Parliament, 2015 (2nd edition).
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Observing Memories
ISSUE 2