1989 in Germany: Legacy and Remembrance Thirty Years After

Abstract

The article deals with the changes and transformations in the remembrance of
the East German revolution of 1989. After a first period of very strong state control over the
official forms of collective memory the discovery of the international and comparative di-
mensions of a European or even global 1989 followed the anniversary in 2009. However, in
more recent times, right-wing populist movements use 1989 as a point of reference for resis-
tance against state authority and exploit the dissatisfaction of many East Germans with the
way their life-balance is (not sufficiently) included into the official forms of remembrance as
well as into the historiography of the decades before and after 1989.

Biographical Note

Matthias Middell (SFB 1199 & Leipzig University, Germany)

Matthias Middell is a professor of cultural history at Leipzig University as well as a speaker of the SFB 1199 and director of the Global and European Studies Institute at Leipzig University. He studied history earning his PhD from Leipzig University with his research focusing on the French Revolution. Since 2013, he has served as the director of the Graduate School Global and Area Studies in Leipzig and is currently the head of the Erasmus Mundus Global Studies Consortium. He teaches regularly at partner universities and co-supervises PhD candidates with colleagues from France, South Africa, and Ethiopia. His current research interests include the history of the French Revolution from a global perspective, history of cultural transfers around the world, and the role of space in the understanding of the current world being the result of long-lasting global connections.