Comparative German and US Memory Cultures
During my stay at the ZZF I am planning to pursue two projects that deal with history and memory in Germany and the Unites States.
1. I will write an article titled “’Honorable Men’: General Robert E. Lee, Feldmarschall Erwin Rommel, and the Memory and Forgetting of Defeat and Guilt” that shall be published in the next issue of USAbroad - Journal of American History and Politics that focuses on “The Role of Public History Within and Outside the United States: Critical Reflections.” The article analyzes the special places Lee and Rommel have occupied in the memories of the American Civil War and World War II, respectively. I will argue that to find something honorable in all the evil of lost wars that were fought for the wrong ends can also be regarded as an individual and collective way to deal with pain, guilt, and defeat. Part of this is honoring the soldiers and their sacrifices, focus on famous battles, and celebrate distinguished generals while ignoring and “forgetting” what the real goals of these wars had been.
2. Dr. Irmgard Zündorf of the ZZF and I are among of the main organizers of a planned conference and travel project on history and memory in Germany and the United States. The project shall provide a deep comparative look at how the two societies have dealt with their difficult pasts (e.g. memory cultures, policies, and current challenges like racism and growing antisemitism, failures and best practices). The plan is to organize and finance two week-long “sessions” in 2025 (Germany in the spring, United States in the fall) for about 50 scholars and teachers, museum curators and other public historians, people working in foundations and activists from both countries that include conference-style sessions, public events as well as visits to sites and museums.
Key partners are the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, Alabama, the Stiftung Erinnerung, Verantwortung und Zukunft (EVZ), the Smithsonian Institution, the National Park Service, the Carter Presidential Center in Atlanta, Georgia, the German Historical Institute in Washington, the American Historical Association, the Munich Documentation Center for the History of National Socialism. Together with Irmgard Zündorf I will write a major grant application and work on the details of the German itinerary and program.
During his research stay at the ZZF Potsdam Dr. Andreas Etges is a fellow in the Leibniz Research Alliance "Value of the Past".