The Grundtvig Learning Partnership SISIE – Sites and Signs of Remembrance for Democracy, Peace and Reconciliation in Europe – deals with the issue of remembrance cultures with the aim of enhancing democracy and peace.
Currently there are four partner organisations, three countries, four cities and three generations – in September 2006 we set forth to seek out and understand the reasons and the need of places of remembrance in our city.
While the > London Group concentrates on memories of members of ethnic minorities the group in
> Dresden “13th February 1945” delves into the matter of how the “Dresden Myth” affects people outside of Dresden. The > Poznan Group deals with the memories of the “workers’ uprising” in Poznan on 28th June 1956 and the Solidarnosc movement. The group in > Berlin pursues the traces of the city’s division and coalescence; the selected place of remembrance is the park Mauerpark forming the border between the Berlin boroughs of Wedding and Prenzlauer Berg. We were able to view the first results of our activities at the location and, in doing so, engaged in fascinating and partly very controversial discussions about the various approaches, methods and aspects. Important issues emerging were:
What is the relationship between “public” remembrance and private memory? How can we integrate individual remembrance into public “history”?
What could encourage a differentiated discussion of the past? What can be done to avoid the condemnation of an entire period including its individuals and their biographies after a system replacement? In particular: How can we deal constructively with the memory of the socialist period?
What role do the memories of migrants play in our society? What happens to the stories they bring with them and which they experience here? And the other way round: what significance has “European” history for people from other continents?
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