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Accepted Paper:
Countering heritage-regimes: Populist appropriation of monuments and memorials in Germany
Pia Schramm
Focusing on German monuments and memorials, this research delves into the far-right influence on public remembrance, exploring how they manipulate historical events for their narratives alongside hegemonic actors.
Paper Abstract:
In the context of heritage studies, much has been said about combats over memory by civil initiatives and the tensions within heritage regimes, f.e., in the context of de-colonial activism. Yet, fewer studies include the doings of the far-right and right-wing populists in public remembrance. Those supporters of ideologies of inequality and exclusion often challenge pluralist memory politics by idealizing specific parts of history and decontextualizing fragments of the past as a legitimation for their beliefs (Valencia-García 2020). This paper looks at the memory practices of different revisionist actors in Germany in the context of the co-memorations at national monuments and memorial sites of dark heritage. For example, the memory of fallen soldiers in WWI and WWII is frequently hijacked by far-right groups to strengthen narratives of the ‘glorious’ nation. But also hegemonial actors use such events for their purposes. In my contribution, I want to look at the relation of both hegemonial and far-right memory practices. How do they inform each other? What does this tell about coming to terms with the past in contemporary politics in Germany?