Memory Politics - How to hold and preserve memory - Dr.Helge Heidemeyer
Dr. Helge Heidemeyer in an interview on memory politics. This interview is part of the interview series " Expert Voices on Memory Politics" realized with the financial support of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation Kanada and Erasmus+ Program of the European Union.
The interviews were recorded during the October 2022 conference "Addressing the Past - Shaping the Future.
Dr. Helge Heidemeyer works at the Berlin-Hohenschönhausen Memorial. It is located on the site of the main political prison of the former East German Communist Ministry of State Security, the Stasi. His work aims to show young generations who have only experienced freedom and democracy, what Germany’s past is made up of. In his opinion, addressing a dictatorial past helps us learn what democracy is. Every ‘remembering’ then reveals how a state dictatorship is fundamentally different from democracy in terms of its fundamental understanding of leadership and legitimacy. It is therefore important to teach history in a critical manner, where we can understand that different ways of dealing with history are possible. Dr. Heidemeyer also presents an important concept of how to hold and preserve memory, especially when a time will come when eyewitnesses no longer exist.
EUCAnet (Europe Canada Network) is a hub for experts primarily located in Canada that work on European and Canadian current issues from a transatlantic perspective. These experts offer commentary and expertise and are available for media interviews and public talks. We are a public outreach platform – that makes scholarly knowledge available and meaningful to the public in times when the need for evidence based knowledge and public debate is crucial. Our goal is to foster the Canada Europe Transatlantic Dialogue with the aim of supporting the process of informing public policy making.
Focus on : European Studies, Transatlantic Studies, Global Studies, Issues of Democracy, Populism, Memory Politics, Migration.
Official Site: http://www.eucanet.org
