Opportunities and Challenges in Memory Activism: The Case of the Mittenwald Protest Campaign (2002–2009)
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Soňa Mikulová
Abstract
This article examines how memory activism can contribute to the democratizing of history through the example of a specific protest campaign in which activist historians among other groups and civil society actors attacked the dominant narrative of the “clean Wehrmacht” represented by a veteran association of Mountain Troops. It interrogates the Public History approaches of the activists and their impact on the local level of the Bavarian town of Mittenwald, where the protests took place between 2002 and 2009, in order to find out how participatory their construction of an alternative historical narrative actually was. Although memory activism has obvious benefits especially in dealing with painful pasts, the article also reveals its limits, as such benefits are contingent on the extent to which historian activists share their authority and the way they deal with public, as well as their own, emotions.
© 2022 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Special section on: “Towards a Democratization of History? Public History and Europe’s ‘Difficult’ Pasts of the 20th Century”
- Introduction: Understanding Diverse Uses of Painful Pasts. A Plea for Conscious Normativity
- The Haunting Past of Colonialism in Belgium the Death of Patrice Lumumba in Public Memory
- Opportunities and Challenges in Memory Activism: The Case of the Mittenwald Protest Campaign (2002–2009)
- Representing the Other and the Democratization of History. Polish Reenactors in Nazi Uniforms
- Article
- In the Shadow of the Queen: On UNESCO’S Universal History, the Women of the Petit Trianon, and Tourist Meaning-Making
- IFPH 10th Anniversary
- Locally Grounded Practices, Global Conversations
- Public History in
- Perspectives on Public History in Colombia
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Special section on: “Towards a Democratization of History? Public History and Europe’s ‘Difficult’ Pasts of the 20th Century”
- Introduction: Understanding Diverse Uses of Painful Pasts. A Plea for Conscious Normativity
- The Haunting Past of Colonialism in Belgium the Death of Patrice Lumumba in Public Memory
- Opportunities and Challenges in Memory Activism: The Case of the Mittenwald Protest Campaign (2002–2009)
- Representing the Other and the Democratization of History. Polish Reenactors in Nazi Uniforms
- Article
- In the Shadow of the Queen: On UNESCO’S Universal History, the Women of the Petit Trianon, and Tourist Meaning-Making
- IFPH 10th Anniversary
- Locally Grounded Practices, Global Conversations
- Public History in
- Perspectives on Public History in Colombia
