A Day to Remember: East Germany's Day of Remembrance for the Victims of Fascism
Flinders University, Adelaide
peter.monteath{at}flinders.edu.au
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Abstract |
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This article examines the initiation and development of the Day of Remembrance for the Victims of Fascism (Gedenktag für die Opfer des Faschismus) in the Soviet Zone of Occupation and then the GDR. In doing so it is interested in the way in which the annual event, held on the second Sunday of September, was politicized, especially during the onset of the Cold War, which meant that it became a regular feature of official memory in the GDR but was abandoned in the Federal Republic. The theoretical framework is drawn from John Bodnar's distinction between official and vernacular expressions of public memory. The initial observance of the Day of Remembrance is notable for the presence of vernacular elements—the day was initiated by people who had suffered Nazi persecution, it was supported by a broad range of victims, and it contained elements of mourning and contrition. However, a process of political appropriation commenced as early as 1945 and reached a culminating point with the divided rallies of West and East Berlin in 1948. Communist forces—both German and Soviet—played a major role in this, but the hand of other occupying forces is also evident in efforts to restrict the impact of what was conceived as a national event. Over the course of the GDR's history the day became increasingly ritualized, so that its capacity to perform its initial functions was severely compromised. Only with German unification and a modest reinvention of the event has a vernacular form of remembrance been given some scope to re-emerge.
Keywords: German Democratic Republic, remembrance, memorials, Cold War, Division of Germany, victims of fascism