Republika Berlińska. Ewolucja niemieckiej polityki pamięci a niemiecki patriotyzm
The Berlin Republic. Evolution of Germany's politics of memory and German patriotism

Author(s): Krzysztof Marcin Zalewski
Contributor(s): Katarzyna Kazimierska (Editor), Anna Łabuszewska (Editor)
Subject(s): Politics / Political Sciences, Politics, History, Social Sciences, Sociology, Political history, Recent History (1900 till today), Government/Political systems, WW II and following years (1940 - 1949), Post-War period (1950 - 1989), Sociology of Politics, Politics of History/Memory, Politics and Identity, Identity of Collectives
Published by: OSW Ośrodek Studiów Wschodnich im. Marka Karpia
Keywords: The Berlin Republic; Germany; politics of memory; German patriotism; collective identity of German people; The Second World War; democracy; German contemporary history;
Summary/Abstract: The object of this paper is to evaluate German memory in the year of the double anniversary of 1949 and 1989 and analyse its influence on the collective identity of the German people. It would not be legitimate to simply say that the memory of Nazism has been replaced by a sense of success stemming from the achievements of the Federal Republic of Germany. The essential characteristic of German memory today is that responsibility for the shameful chapters of history and the recognition that Germans were also victims of the war (discussed in part one of the text) coexist with the ‘new patriotism’ derived from the pride of the German democracy founded on constitutional values (discussed in part two of this paper). This second component seems to have become more preeminent recently, and for this reason 1949, the year in which the Federal Republic of Germany was established and its constitution was enacted, is increasingly perceived as almost marking the beginning of Germany’s contemporary history.

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