The conference wants to investigate the dynamics of the reappraisal of Europe’s past, raising awareness for the fact that this process is no longer a national issue. Recently, debates about coming to terms with the national socialist, fascist and communist past have to an increasing degree moved to a transnational and European level. Significant examples for this development are the two resolutions that were discussed by the Council of Europe in 2006: The resolutions “Condemnation of Totalitarian Communist Regimes” and “Condemnation of the Franco Regime”.
Processes like the Europeanization of the past are decisive for the construction of a European identity. Thereby, this process reveals massive tensions and discrepancies between the different European actors in the question of how to deal with the past. These discrepancies become especially obvious in the different approaches of Eastern and Western European actors. Western European actors are to some extent irritated by their Eastern European counterparts, who demand the consequent recognition of their sufferings under communism, partially using a problematic scheme of equalizing communist and fascist crimes. Major changes in the academic approaches since the downfall of the Eastern communist regimes between 1989 and 1991, however, not only affected the politics of memory, but also the research about the overcoming of dictatorships itself. The use of a new type of the totalitarianism theory seems to have re-emerged as a frequently used research tool, especially in Central and Eastern Europe, but also, for example, in France.
Furthermore, this conference wants to critically investigate public debates as well as research on the topic of European politics of memory. Therefore, new national, transnational and European perspectives of the reappraisal of dictatorships are going to be discussed by young researchers during three days. They will be supported by the presentations of experienced scholars. A round table discussion at the evening of the 3rd conference day is going to focus on “The return of the Theory on Totalitarianism in a United Europe?”. We have invited outstanding experts from Eastern and Western Europe to examine the use of the rhetoric of totalitarianism. The emphasis of this round table discussion will be put on the different approaches towards this topic in the old and the new EU states.
The conference languages are German and English.
We invite proposals addressing issues such as:
I. Overcoming dictatorships on a national level
- Instruments for the national reappraisal in comparative European perspective
- Reappraisal of dictatorships - examples from the new and the old EU states
II. Transnationalization of the process of overcoming dictatorships
- Apologizing and condemnation gestures
- Transfers of expert knowledge and experiences
- Transnational landscapes of memory and commemoration dates
III. Europeanization of the process of overcoming dictatorships
a) On the practical level
- Institutionalizing of the reappraisal of the past on a European level
- Influence of the EU on national approaches of coming to terms with the past
- European integration and the formation of a European identity by creating a collective politics of memory
- Conflicts about different national understandings of the past in Europe
b) On the theoretical level
- New perspectives on the theories of overcoming dictatorships in Europe
- The European comeback of the totalitarianism theory
Contributions may be in German or English. However, a passive understanding of both languages will be required.
If you are interested in participating in our conference, please send a short CV and a 1-page abstract (not more than 450 words), which should include the general outline of the paper as well as the main thesis. The CV should also include your affiliation (university) and your university degree. Application deadline is May 15, 2007. Please send your applications electronically to: grako.zeitgeschichte@uni-hd.de
Successful applicants will be contacted by the end of June at latest. For the conference, participants are requested to prepare research paper by September 30, 2007. On the basis of this paper the participants will hold a 20-minutes presentation at the conference, which should summarize the main arguments of the paper. The presentations will be followed by a discussion.
The conference will take place at the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences (http:// www.haw.baden-wuerttemberg.de). The organizers will cover the costs of accommodation and travel (based on a 2nd class railway ticket or a comparable flight). Participants are required to make their own travel arrangements and will be refunded at the conference.