September 22 and 30, 2024
A key challenge of our time lies in establishing successful resistance practices and building resilience against right-wing populist and far-right movements. A pluralistic culture of remembrance can play a significant role in this process.
In the context of a rightward shift across Europe and considering the recent regional election results in Thuringia, Brandenburg, and Saxony, spaces of exchange and opportunities that promote participation are needed to establish a democratic and nuanced culture of remembrance.
Since 2021, the Coalition for Pluralistic Public Discourse (CPPD), a collaborative network of over 200+ partners, has been developing artistic, civil society, and educational-political concepts for a pluralistic remembrance. This includes the festival series “Memory Matters.”
Against the backdrop of the rise of anti-democratic movements across Germany—particularly in Dresden and Saxony over the past decade with Pegida and the so-called Monday demonstrations—the CPPD, together with „Faiths in Tune“ the Dresden Foreigners’ Council, and the Staatsschauspiel Dresden, presented new approaches to remembrance with the “Memory Matters” festival on September 22, 2024.
The event focused on the intersection of memory culture and resistance: What forms of resistance must memory culture be able to withstand? How can remembrance practices in East Germany also be understood as acts of resistance? What role can a resistant culture of remembrance play in the face of a Europe-wide right-wing backlash?
Author Anne Rabe highlighted the lack of engagement with GDR history, explicitly pointing to certain generations and their disorientation in a society with new values and options for action. Historian Sarah Grandke emphasized that the victims of the SED regime also need to be given a dignified space in society, which open discussions about personal experiences can support. Only in this way can the ongoing silence be broken. Similarly, in essays read by journalist Andrea Hanna Hünniger, resistance to reunification through silence was addressed. Multidirectional connections to the theme were drawn by Kelly Laubinger, Chairwoman of the Federal Association of Sinti and Roma, and Dan Thy Nguyen, director, actor, and essayist. They consistently stressed the importance of promoting a pluralistic culture of remembrance across Germany. CPPD member Anja Fahlenkamp moderated the event. Additionally, a participatory city tour through Dresden focused on issues of discrimination and asylum, and a workshop at the Dresden State Theater’s Monday Café for people with migration and refugee backgrounds allowed further exploration of resistances within memory practices.
Formats for exchange and spaces for participation are urgently needed for a reflective engagement with current political developments and the role of memory culture in these contexts. Such spaces will continue to be essential for further developing our local cultures of remembrance. The event in Dortmund was part of the CPPD’s “Memory Matters” festival series, which, in 2024, was held in four German and two European cities and included events, workshops, artistic positions, and discussions.
The final “Memory Matters” event will occur in Berlin on October 19, 2024, under the theme “Where do we go from here? Remembering the Present: February 24, October 7, and June 9.”
