Episode 123: An Expanding German Memory Culture

For decades, memory culture in Germany has largely focused on coming to terms with and memorializing the Holocaust. In recent years, however, memory discourses have expanded to include, among others, Germany’s colonial history, particularly crimes committed in the territory of contemporary Namibia. Dr. Priscilla Layne discusses how German memory culture is evolving, how analogies can aid in understanding atrocities, and how the arts can bring awareness to overlooked histories. Host Jeff Rathke, President, AGI Guests Priscilla Layne, Professor of German, Adjunct Associate Professor of African and Afro-American Studies, and Director of the Center for European Studies, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Eric Langenbacher, AGI Senior Fellow; Director, Society, Culture & Politics Program Transcript Jeff Rathke I want to welcome all of our listeners to this episode of The Zeitgeist, and we are really proud to have with us today Professor Priscilla Layne. Professor Layne, welcome. Priscilla Layne Thank you. I’m happy to be here today. Jeff Rathke And I am joined by my colleague Eric Langenbacher, who is the director of our Society, Culture & Politics Program at AGI. Good morning, Eric. Eric Langenbacher Good morning, Jeff. Jeff Rathke So today’s topic is the changing memory culture in Germany, which is a topic we’ve touched on a number of times in this podcast, so listeners may be familiar with it. But just a word at the start. This is a follow-up to a conference that AGI co-hosted recently, which was under the title of a “Mnemonic Zeitenwende in Germany.” In other words, how is Germany’s memory culture and how is its memory politics changing as the aperture on Germany’s history widens. This is a really exciting development in this area of studies. I’m really glad we have the chance to talk about this today with two great experts, Eric and Priscilla. Eric, let me just hand it over to you, and we can get started. Eric Langenbacher Thanks, Jeff. Yes, we’re so pleased to be speaking with Dr. Priscilla Layne today, who is a professor of German at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, as well as an adjunct associate professor of African and Afro American Studies and the director of the Center for European Studies. She’s a very widely published academic; I might just highlight two books. Her first book was entitled White Rebels in Black: German Appropriation of Black Popular Culture that came out in 2018. She has a new book that has come out very recently called Out of this World: Afro-German Afrofuturism. She’s also interested in many other topics such as German national identity, conceptions of race and self/other in Germany, cross-racial empathy, postcolonialism, and rebellion. I thought that we might start with just a little bit of context behind today’s podcast. German memory culture is very well-established. I have argued, as have many other people, that what I call “Holocaust-centered memory” has been hegemonic for several decades now. But as is always the case, this sometimes becomes a little contested—maybe contested is a little strong—but there’s been a critique the last couple of years that some people call the German catechism debate that was unleashed by a mutual colleague of ours, Dirk Moses. Many other academics, like Michael Rothberg, have gotten involved in the whole thing as well. It’s obviously a very complex debate and I don’t want to oversimplify it too much, but I think gist of it is that the current hegemony of Holocaust-centered memory has made it difficult for other important mnemonic discourses to find space and voice within German memory...