Changing Memory? Remembering the Nazi past in 21st century German literature and film (German Studies Association Conference 2024, Atlanta)

Almost 80 years after the fall of the Third Reich, the memory of the Holocaust and the Nazi past continues to have a striking impact on German society, politics, and culture. This influence has been seen in debates on topics as disparate as German foreign policy in relation to the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, domestic policy regarding the rise of the AfD and other right-wing political groups, and cultural flashpoints such as antisemitic Deutschrap lyrics and the documenta 15 art exhibition. These debates have been shaped by the memorial consensus that arose in Germany out of the Historikerstreit of the 1980s which places the singularity of the Holocaust at the centre of Germany’s public memorial culture. Although this position was contested during the “Germans as victims” debate of the early-2000s, the primacy of the Holocaust in German memorial culture remains strong, as embodied in the statement of Bundespräsident Joachim Gauck in 2015, “Es gibt keine deutsche Identität ohne Auschwitz”.

However, memory is not static and the primacy and singularity of the Holocaust in Germany’s memorial culture has been increasingly challenged in recent years. Demographic changes in German society have raised questions about how the Holocaust should be remembered as members of the eyewitness generation (both victims and perpetrators) reach the end of their lives and as Germany becomes an increasingly multicultural community in which many Germans now have no familial link to the Nazi period. Germany’s dominant cultural memory of the Nazi past has also been challenged by ideas of multidirectional memory, calls for a decolonisation of memorial culture, and an explosion of interest in the crimes of German colonialism (particularly the genocide of the Nama and Herero). All of these factors have raised questions in recent years about the place of the Holocaust in German memorial culture and given rise to intensive public discussions on this topic featuring A. Dirk Moses, Michael Rothberg, Jürgen Zimmerer, Susan Neimann, Saul Friedländer, and Masha Gessen amongst many others.

From the works of the Gruppe 47, through the Väterliteratur of the 1970s to the Generationenromane of the 1990s and early-2000s, German literature has played a crucial role in developing, contesting, and maintaining German cultural memory of the Nazi past. How has contemporary German literature engaged with recent calls for a recalibration of German memory of the Holocaust and the Nazi past? Has it incorporated or critiqued elements of the impetus provided by Rothberg’s work on multidirectional memory? Does it reflect or promote a more diversified approach to the Nazi past, setting it in the context of a broader history? Does it pick up on challenges to the singularity and primacy of the Holocaust in Germany’s memorial culture by comparing it to, for example, the crimes of German colonialism? Or does it simply re-state the status quo? And what are the possible limitations, dangers, or moral implications of such a change in Germany’s memorial culture?

This panel is part of the GSA’s Legacies of Nazism Interdisciplinary Network. We invite papers considering any of the above questions in the context of recent German-language literature and film. Please send a 350-500 word abstract and brief bio to Reinhard Zachau (rzachau@sewanee.edu) and Kylie Giblett (kylie.giblett@sydney.edu.au) by 1 March 2024.

Contact Information

Kylie Giblett, University of Sydney

Contact Email

kylie.giblett@sydney.edu.au