International Traditions of Historical Consciousness (completed)

Funded by:

Volkswagen Foundation
Hamburg Foundation for the Advancement of Research and Culture
Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities (KWI), Essen
Bucerius Institute for Research of Contemporary German History and Society, University of Haifa

The question, how individuals, collectives and societies remember their history, has gained more and more attention over the last years. Issues, as i.e. “collective memory” or the relation between history and memory, are not only been discussed by social scientists and life scientists but also by the general public. The discourse is about what the societal meaning of history could be and how societies can learn from their pasts in order to create social cohesion.

The research group “Traditions of Historical Consciousness” - based at Witten/Herdecke University and Free University Berlin - investigates how images of the past are transmitted via intergenerational communications. Research for this programme is conducted in six European countries (Croatia, Denmark, Germany, Netherlands, Norway, Serbia and Switzerland) and Israel.

Special attention is paid to the analysis of the contemporary impact and function of the Second World War and of the growth of National Socialism within specific group memories, such as the family. Of particular interest is the tradition of images and opinions as well as the question how this relates to the more cognitive historical knowledge as it is taught in schools.

In each of the researched countries 20 families consisting of at least three living generations are interviewed with the help of qualitative individual and group conversations. In addition, group discussions with members of four different age groups will be carried out in each country. The collected material will be processed by different steps of interpretation including both hermeneutic case studies and qualitative content analyses. A total of roughly 750 interview transcripts will thus be analysed.