Page 70 - Studia Universitatis Hereditati, vol 11(2) (2023)

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to the 1950s, and to the dozens of more profes- rors), one of the most influential memory sites
sionalised and institutionalised Ҥ96 regional linked to the Nazi Regime. In fact, in Germa-
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museums” dedicated to wider areas of expul- ny this term is mainly used by institutions ded-
sion (Vertreibungsgebiete) like Silesia, Eastern icated to the documentation of the crimes of
Prussia, and Western Prussia, and to the settle- both totalitarianism of the twentieth century
ment areas of Germans from Bohemia, Moravia on German soil, that were created in the end of
and Slovakia, of Transylvanian Saxon, of Dan- the 1980s and in the 1990s, a time the exhibitions
ube Swabian, of Russian-German, etc., which dedicated to the national-socialist past started
display historical, as well as cultural and ethno- being strongly criticised for their praxis of “re-
graphic, material, that have been created or ex- ducing the NS past to fright and repugnance
panded in the last decades (Perron 2016). The without knowledge basis” (Knigge 2002, 384)
Documentation Centre must also position itself and where there was a wish to get rid of the heav-
70 in the more general museal and memorial land- ily ideologised memorial practice of the GDR in
scape of the Federal republic. the new Länder. At the time and based on the
studia universitatis hereditati, letnik 11 (2023), številka 2 / volume 11 (2023), number 2
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The term “Documentation Centre”, which Beutelsbach Consensus which was achieved a de- ti
was chosen by the federal government instead of cade earlier in the realm of political education,
“museum” or “memorial” to name the new in- there was an attempt to move away from emo-
stitution, deserves a closer look. According to tionalising exhibition practices that aimed less
the director, Gundula Bavendamm, its mandate at informing and stimulating critical thinking ta
goes well beyond creating an exhibition (Möck than at purifying German society from possible
2021). Thus, choosing this name is first and fore- remains of national socialist ideology.
most a way to stress the educational and research In fact, the “Documentation Centre” prin-
goals of the institution, which is presented as “a ciple, which is born out of the museography of di
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unique place of learning and remembrance”. national socialist crimes, hints at a particular
Yet, this denomination has several further im- way of exhibiting violence marked by a specif-
plications in the realm of memory politics, like ic equilibrium between narration and objects.
the fact that it strongly echoes the neighbouring It implies a specific way of conceiving the exhi-
Topography of Terror Documentation Centre, bitions of institutions dedicated to violent epi-
(Dokumentationszentrum Topographie des Ter- sodes, following a documentational principle
(dokumentierendes Prinzip) (Knigge 2002, 384–
6 If the form of the Heimatstube/Heimatmuseum dates back here
to the late nineteenth century, after World War II the ones 387; Wagner 2022, 11–12) which has been devel-
dedicated to the lost homelands in the East were a new oped in opposition to narrative presentations. If
phenomenon. They were set up by the refugees and expel- a narrative can be defined as “a chronological-se-
lees (with the active support of their Homeland associa-
tions) to mourn the loss, cultivate the memory of the lost mantic entity preceding the exhibits, which reg-
homeland, collect cultural artefacts but also everyday ob- ulates the arrangement of the exhibits in the
jects from those areas, and as a place to meet. Their collec-
tions were made of a range of disparate items, sometimes 9 Both memorial institutions lie a few metres away from
originals, often recreations recalling the flight or the ex- each other in the very centre of Berlin.
pulsion (Eisler 2011). 10 The Topography of Terror Documentation Centre initiat-
7 Those are funded by the Länder and the federation by ed what can be considered one of the most important me-
means of the §96 of the law on expellees of 1953, and often morial civic initiatives that took place in Berlin at the end
display exhibitions that are a mixture of history and eth- of the 1980s. It was dedicated to securing the traces of the
nography. Their collections are made of historical and cul- headquarters of the Gestapo and the SS and of the Reich-
tural objects and artefacts, pieces of art and ethnographic sicherheitshauptamt on the area of Prinz Albrecht Strasse,
material. where they were located. It was transformed it into a site
8 As announced on the homepage of its website: “a unique dedicated to documenting the perpetrators’ side of the na- studiauniversitatis
place of learning and remembrance on displacement, ex- tional socialist terror regime (Wüstenberg 2020).
pulsion and forced migrations in history and in the pres- 11 The main of the three points of the Beutelsbach consen-
ent” (Dokumentationszentrum Flucht, Vertreibung, sus was “a prohibition against overwhelming the pupil”
Versöhnung n.d.a). (Landeszentrale für politische Bildung n.d.).