Preservation and National Belonging in Eastern Germany: Heritage Fetishism and Redeeming Germanness PDF
Preview Preservation and National Belonging in Eastern Germany: Heritage Fetishism and Redeeming Germanness
PalgraveMacmillanMemoryStudies SeriesEditors:AndrewHoskinsandJohnSutton International Advisory Board: Steven Brown, University of Leicester, UK; Mary Carruthers, New York University, USA; Paul Connerton, University of Cambridge,UK;AstridErll,UniversityofWuppertal,Germany;RobynFivush, EmoryUniversity,USA;Tilmann Habermas, UniversityofFrankfurtamMain, Germany; Jeffrey Olick, University of Virginia, USA; Susannah Radstone, UniversityofEastLondon,UK;andAnnRigney,UtrechtUniversity,Netherlands The nascent field of Memory Studies emerges from contemporary trends that includeashiftfromconcernwiththehistoricalknowledgeofeventstothatof memory,from‘whatweknow’to‘howwerememberit’;changesingenerational memory; the rapid advance of technologies of memory; panics over declining powersofmemory,whichmirrorourfascinationwiththepossibilitiesofmemory enhancement;andthedevelopmentoftraumanarrativesinreshapingthepast. Thesefactorshavecontributedtoanintensificationofpublicdiscoursesonour pastoverthelast30years.Technological,political,interpersonal,socialandcul- turalshiftsaffectwhat,howandwhypeopleandsocietiesrememberandforget. This groundbreaking series tackles questions such as: What is ‘memory’ under these conditions? What are its prospects, and also the prospects for its inter- disciplinary and systematic study? What are the conceptual, theoretical, and methodologicaltoolsforitsinvestigationandillumination? AleidaAssmannandSebastianConrad(editors) MEMORYINAGLOBALAGE Discourses,PracticesandTrajectories AleidaAssmannandLindaShortt(editors) MEMORYANDPOLITICALCHANGE BrianConway COMMEMORATIONANDBLOODYSUNDAY PathwaysofMemory RichardCrownshaw THEAFTERLIFEOFHOLOCAUSTMEMORYINCONTEMPORARYLITERATURE ANDCULTURE AstridErll MEMORYINCULTURE AnneFuchs AFTERTHEDRESDENBOMBING PathwaysofMemory,1945tothePresent IrialGlynnandJ.OlafKleist(editors) HISTORY,MEMORYANDMIGRATION PerceptionsofthePastandthePoliticsofIncorporation YifatGutman,AdamD.BrownandAmySodaro(editors) MEMORYANDTHEFUTURE TransnationalPolitics,EthicsandSociety AmyHoldsworth TELEVISION,MEMORYANDNOSTALGIA JasonJames PRESERVATIONANDNATIONALBELONGINGINEASTERNGERMANY HeritageFetishismandRedeemingGermanness MikyoungKimandBarrySchwartz(editors) NORTHEASTASIA’SDIFFICULTPAST EssaysinCollectiveMemory EmilyKeightleyandMichaelPickering THEMNEMONICIMAGINATION RememberingasCreativePractice PhilipLeeandPradipNinanThomas(editors) PUBLICMEMORY,PUBLICMEDIAANDTHEPOLITICSOFJUSTICE EricaLehrer,CynthiaE.MiltonandMonicaEileenPatterson(editors) CURATINGDIFFICULTKNOWLEDGE ViolentPastsinPublicPlaces MottiNeiger,OrenMeyersandEyalZandberg(editors) ONMEDIAMEMORY CollectiveMemoryinaNewMediaAge AnnaSaundersandDebbiePinfold(editors) REMEMBERINGANDRETHINKINGTHEGDR MultiplePerspectivesandPluralAuthenticities VictorJeleniewskiSeidler REMEMBERINGDIANA CulturalMemoryandtheReinventionofAuthority EvelynB.TribbleandNicholasKeene COGNITIVEECOLOGIESANDTHEHISTORYOFREMEMBERING Religion,EducationandMemoryinEarlyModernEngland Forthcomingtitles: OwainJonesandJoanneGarde-Hansen(editors) GEOGRAPHYANDMEMORY ExplorationsinIdentity,PlaceandBecoming PalgraveMacmillanMemoryStudies SeriesStandingOrderISBN978–0–230–23851–0(hardback) 978–0–230–23852–7(paperback) (outsideNorthAmericaonly) You can receive future titles in this series as they are published by placing a standing order. Please contact your bookseller or, in case of difficulty, write to usattheaddressbelowwithyournameandaddress,thetitleoftheseriesand oneorbothoftheISBNsquotedabove. Customer Services Department, Macmillan Distribution Ltd, Houndmills, Basingstoke,HampshireRG216XS,England Preservation and National Belonging in Eastern Germany Heritage Fetishism and Redeeming Germanness Jason James UniversityofMaryWashington,USA ©JasonJames2012 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2012 ISBN 978-0-230-32034-5 Allrightsreserved.Noreproduction,copyortransmissionofthis publicationmaybemadewithoutwrittenpermission. Noportionofthispublicationmaybereproduced,copiedortransmitted savewithwrittenpermissionorinaccordancewiththeprovisionsofthe Copyright,DesignsandPatentsAct1988,orunderthetermsofanylicence permittinglimitedcopyingissuedbytheCopyrightLicensingAgency, SaffronHouse,6–10KirbyStreet,LondonEC1N8TS. Anypersonwhodoesanyunauthorizedactinrelationtothispublication maybeliabletocriminalprosecutionandcivilclaimsfordamages. Theauthorhasassertedhisrighttobeidentifiedastheauthorofthiswork inaccordancewiththeCopyright,DesignsandPatentsAct1988. Firstpublished2012by PALGRAVEMACMILLAN PalgraveMacmillanintheUKisanimprintofMacmillanPublishersLimited, registeredinEngland,companynumber785998,ofHoundmills,Basingstoke, HampshireRG216XS. PalgraveMacmillanintheUSisadivisionofStMartin’sPressLLC, 175FifthAvenue,NewYork,NY10010. PalgraveMacmillanistheglobalacademicimprintoftheabovecompanies andhascompaniesandrepresentativesthroughouttheworld. Palgrave®andMacmillan®areregisteredtrademarksintheUnitedStates, theUnitedKingdom,Europeandothercountries. ISBN 978-1-349-34019-4 ISBN 978-1-137-03283-6 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/9781137032836 Thisbookisprintedonpapersuitableforrecyclingandmadefromfully managedandsustainedforestsources.Logging,pulpingandmanufacturing processesareexpectedtoconformtotheenvironmentalregulationsofthe countryoforigin. AcataloguerecordforthisbookisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary. AcatalogrecordforthisbookisavailablefromtheLibraryofCongress. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 Contents ListofFigures vi Acknowledgments vii 1 TheHistoricCityscapeandtheUnifiedNation 1 2 Heimat Eisenach 28 3 CulturalHeritageandGermanness 62 4 HeritageFetishismandtheHeimat Imaginary 92 5 ClaimingCulturalBelongings 127 6 RedemptionandtheVoiceofTrauma 156 Notes 178 WorksCited 197 Index 212 v Figures 1 Historicstructuresassymbolsofrecovery:thecontrast betweenpre-andpost-unificationfaçades 4 2 GDRPlattenbauapartmentblocksinEisenach-North,a settlementontheoutskirtsofthecitybuiltinthe1980s 37 3 TheSophiencenter,alsoknownas“littleManhattan,”from thesoutheast 42 4 ThecompletedadministrativecomplexonEisenach’s marketplace.Totheleftistheoldtownhall,totheright (barelyvisible)ahalf-timberedhousedatingfromthe seventeenthcentury 46 5 Lutherplatzlookingwest,neartheentrancetothe Karlstrassepedestrianzone 55 6 “Alien”architectureinKatharinenstraße 120 vi Acknowledgments The road from the inception of this project to its completion has been long, which means that the number of individuals who have played a directorindirectroleinmakingitpossibleandtowhomIowethanks isquitelarge.Ifmypoormemoryhasledmetoneglectanyone,Ihope theywillforgivethezerstreuteProfessorforthelapse. I owe an immense debt of gratitude to the people of Eisenach who generously offered me their time, help, hospitality, and trust. I hope that I have done justice to their concerns and efforts in both my descriptions and critiques. Surely not all of them will agree with my assessments, but I hope they will see that this work expresses in its own way my sense of attachment to the city. The friends I made dur- ingmytwoyearsinEisenachmadeitahome,andtheirencouragement and loyalty have done more than they know to help me complete this project. I owe special thanks to Klaus Wugazzer, Ulrike Quentel, JörgDeußing,JacquelineGrundt,EllenAckermann,RomanHadaschik, Simone Möller, Heidi Hanisch, Jennifer Green, and the Thiebe family. The Institute for Cultural Anthropology and European Ethnology at the University of Frankfurt am Main offered me valuable institutional support during my initial period of fieldwork and a warm welcome when I visited Frankfurt. Special thanks go to Dr Heinz Schilling, a generousandthoughtfulmentor.Ourconversationsdidmuchtoshape thiswork. TheGermanAcademicExchangeServiceprovidedgenerousfinancial support for this project, both in its preliminary stages and in the sec- ond year of my field research. Many thanks also to the Friends of the International Center at the University of California, San Diego, which provided additional funding for my research in Germany, and to the Department of Anthropology at that university for its support in both the research and the writing phases. A Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship in the Humanities at Barnard College provided me with the time and institutional support to begin reworking my dissertation. I received assistance at later stages of the project from the University of Mary Washington. ColleaguesattheinstitutionswithwhichIhavebeenassociatedsince receiving my PhD have also provided me with invaluable guidance vii viii Acknowledgments andcritiqueaswellasencouragement.Iwouldespeciallyliketothank Leslie Sharp, Paige West, and Elizabeth Bernstein at Barnard College; LynnMeskell,MarilynIvy,andCatherineNepomnyashchyatColumbia University; Bill Bissell, Susan Niles, Dan Bauer, Andrea Smith, David Schrag,andToriLanglandatLafayetteCollege;andEricGable,Margaret Huber, Debra Schleef, and Susan Fernsebner at the University of Mary Washington. Fellow students, colleagues, and friends who also deserve acknowledgment and thanks include Ken Maffitt, Sharla Blank, Julia Offen,KevinBirth,JohnCollins,MatthewHill,SusanMazur-Stommen, Robert Rotenberg, Richard Handler, Daphne Berdahl, Amy Howard, SuzanneBessenger,KevinVose,andDebraRodman. I am deeply indebted to my mentors at the University of California, San Diego, for the time and energy they devoted to my education. They have all done much to make me the scholar that I am. I am gratefultomydissertationadvisorMichaelMeekerforhiscarefulcom- ments and frank critiques. When my thinking became too confined to Eisenach and Germany, he reminded me of the need to think com- paratively, and when I became steeped in abstractions and sweeping stories, he drew my attention back to the place and people of my research. His unwillingness to accept my overly modest estimations of myworkandabilitieswasapowerfulformofencouragement.Andhow- ever odd it may seem to suggest that a cultural anthropologist might focus too intensely on culture, it is by virtue of his teaching, along with that of F. G. Bailey, that I keep one eye carefully trained on the social. TanyaLuhrmann,whoservedasmyadvisoruntilherdeparturefrom the University of California, San Diego, always listened patiently and reminded me of the proverbial forest when I got lost among the trees. Ibenefitedgreatlyfromherkeensenseofwhatitmeanstobeaprofes- sional anthropologist, and the enthusiasm with which she approaches thevocationhasbeeninfectious.IamalsogratefultoMarthaLampland for her constant good humor and unmitigated enthusiasm about my work.Ourtalksoverdinneralwaysgavemea(frequentlymuch-needed) morale boost as well as intellectual inspiration. Last but by no means least, Cynthia Walk always helped me to see my work in a refreshing light while helping me to navigate the difficult waters of thinking and writingaboutGermany.Mycompletionofthisprojectowesagreatdeal toherenergeticsupport:herconfidenceinmeandmyworkdidmuch tosolidifymyown. IowemorethanmeregratitudetomywifeAudreyShortandourson Kai.Thetimeandenergyrequiredtocompletethisbookhassubtracted Acknowledgments ix fromthetimeandenergyIcoulddevotetothem.Itwillnotbeeasyto repaytheimmensepatienceandsupporttheyhaveprovided,butIwill certainly try. Finally, I wish to thank my family in Missouri, who have supported me even when they realized that my endeavors would take mefartherawayfromthem.
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