Page 71 - Studia Universitatis Hereditati, vol 11(2) (2023)

sense of a meta-message” (Knigge 2002, 385), the richtung durch den Beauftragten der Bundesre-
idea behind the documentational principle is to gierung für Kultur und Medien: Fortschreibung
avoid imposing such a (potentially ideologically der Gedenkstättenkonzeption des Bundes; Ver-
loaded) meta-message, and more so, a judgment antwortung wahrnehmen, Aufarbeitung ver-
for the visitor, by following a “quasi forensic” ap- stärken, Gedenken vertiefen).
proach (Wagner 2022, 11), in which objects, doc- As Gundula Bavendamm explains:
uments and traces are conceived of as testimo- Well, I think we are just filling a gap on the
nies (of the crime). This form of exhibition puts
the visitors in an active position. They are of- national level, [...] until recently, [...] such
fered “the possibility to form their own opinion a place of remembrance, whose founding
about history by being presented with an exhib- idea revolved around the topic of the flight
its landscape open to multiple perspectives and and expulsion of the Germans, did not ex-
as large interpretations as possible” (p. 12). The ist. In this respect, we are definitely on the
approach relies on the belief in the aura of ob- same level as the Topography of Terror, as 71
ti jects which are not only treated as visual aids to in the future perhaps as the Exile Museum
the Memorial to the Murdered Jews, and
illustrate the narrative, but as “documentary ev-
diagonally opposite to us at the Anhalter
idence of the criminal action” (Wagner 2022,
ta 12; Knigge 2002, 378–379). As such they serve Bahnhof [...] and we see ourselves in this cir- a visible sign with a “quiet gesture”?
cle of institutions that refer in very different
to prevent against negationist tendencies in so-
ways to the deep ambivalences of contem-
ciety. The “documentation principle” is usually
porary German history and illuminate the
used on authentic sites of violence - like camps
different aspects that are part of it. I think
di for example – (documenting the side of the vic- we can say quite confidently that this is how
tims) or on sites that are intimately connected to
we were founded, that we are now part of it.
the perpetration of violence (documenting the
And from our perspective, with our found-
side of the perpetrators) – like the Central com-
mandment of the Gestapo, the SS, at the Topog- ing mission, we want to keep this topic alive.
here inscribe the memory of “flight and expulsion” in isation of negative pasts (Knigge 2002; Kosel-
[Möck 2021]
raphy of Terror Documentation Centre in Ber-
lin. Using this denomination is thus a way to
Drawing on the reflections on the museal-
the nexus of the commemoration practices of ge-
leck 2002; Becker and Debary 2012; Bechtel
nocide and mass crimes, and can also be unders-
and Jurgenson 2016; Wahnich 2011; 2017; Wag-
tood as a reaction to the fact that “flight and ex-
ner 2022), I will now examine to what extent the
pulsion” had been kept out of the official federal
“documentation principle”, as described above,
Memorial Conception (Gedenkstättenkonzepti-
studiauniversitatis
12
on) adopted by the Bundestag in 1999 (Unter-
and expulsion” and used in the new institution.
richtung durch die Bundesregierung: Konzepti- is appropriate for the musealisation of “flight
In doing this I will first consider the political di-
on der künftigen Gedenkstättenförderung des mensions of the announced mode of exhibition
Bundes und Bericht der Bundesregierung über (documenting the crime, preventing negationist
die Beteiligung des Bundes an Gedenkstätten in tendencies and oblivion) by looking at the mis-
der Bundesrepublik Deutschland) and of its Up- sions assigned to the Documentation Centre. I
date (Fortschreibung) adopted in 2008 (Unter- will then examine whether this form of exhibi-
12 The Gedenkstättenkonzeption is a central document dedi- tion is appropriate for an institution located on
cated to the politics of history and memory of the unified
FRG, adopted by the Bundestag in 1999, that recognised a site that has only a very weak direct historical
the federal responsibility for the legacies and traces of the connection with what it is documenting. I will
sites of terror of the Nazi regime and the need for a feder- thus investigate whether and with what means a
al financing of those - especially of the ones located in the
former GDR. public institution like the Documentation Cen-