In the service of the future
In the service of the future. United Germany’s historical policy is a collection of texts in which experts take an in-depth look at selected aspects of Germany’s historical policy. Although the country has still not fully come to terms with its past, it serves as a model example of how, through immense effort, decades of work, and considerable financial and institutional resources, it is possible to build both a collective memory of oneself on the international stage and a new national identity.
The authors – analysts from the Centre for Eastern Studies and specialists from other institutions – present the various actors and their activities in the field of historical policy. Above all, they show how the German state – its strongest and most centralised actor – is able to steer memory by deciding what is remembered and what is not. A monument, a museum, a reconstructed church, a textbook, an educational campaign, or a cultural institution all become part of this process as instruments for shaping the future.
It is a book for those who wish to understand that memory policy is neither an abstraction nor merely an academic exercise, but a real process in which decisions taken today shape our tomorrow. Insightful and, one hopes, inspiring – from the first to the last page it compels reflection and asks how we, in Poland, wish to pursue our own historical policy.
Contents
Introduction
(Anna Kwiatkowska)
He who tells history, owns the future. The success of German politics of history and the Polish sin of omission
(Anna Kwiatkowska)
Helmut Kohl and the paradigm shift in German historical policy. Context of Polish–German relations, German reunification, and the end of the Cold War
(Marek Cichocki)
The fire over Germany. The evolution of the collective memory of Germany’s own victims, and of historical policy: the example of the Allied bombing of Nazi Germany
(Wojciech Pięciak)
Overcoming trauma, reclaiming identity. The reconstruction of historic monuments in Germany
(Wojciech Konończuk)
History museums in Germany’s memory policy
(Robert Kostro)
The failure of ‘exclusive reconciliation’ – the Berlin-Karlshorst Museum
(Ryszarda Formuszewicz)
A German house. Controversy over the commemoration of the Polish victims of the Second World War
(Kamil Frymark, Anna Kwiatkowska)
Historical maps of the Germans. German perspectives on 20th-century history and Poland
(Mateusz Fałkowski, Hanna Radziejowska)
Memory lessons. The image of Poland, France and Israel in German history textbooks
(Kamil Frymark)
