The German Review

The German Review

Hands off our Erinnerungskultur!

Should Germany's official remembrance of the past just be focused on 20th dictatorships, or should it be broadened?

Jörg Luyken's avatar
Jörg Luyken
Aug 20, 2024
∙ Paid
closed black metal gate
Photo by Terence Burke on Unsplash

Dear Reader,

Since 2018 at the latest, we have known how sensitive appeals to widen the lens of Germany’s historical remembrance can be.

That was the year when former AfD leader Alexander Gauland shrugged off the Nazi era as “only a bird poo in 1,000 years of German history.”

In deploying that now infamous phrase, Gauland …

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