Mourning with the “force of history”: National Days of Remembrance in Great Britain and Germany since 1945 (rescheduled)

National days of remembrance play a central role in the cultural and collective memory of a society. As crystallization points, they capture the essential relationship of a nation with its own past and therefore with itself. Not only do they connect specific parts of the remembered past with current ideas of the future, but they also connect different levels of publicity with each other. Grief as a central but initially personal or individual emotion is transferred onto the mourning collective and perpetuated in ritual form. Thus, the grief of some may be shared by all and ultimately, a nation as a whole is in mourning.

There has already been said and written a lot about the way the World Wars are remembered calendrically. However, transnational comparisons are scarce and especially since the end of the ‘short 20th century’, a lot has changed. New commemorative days were introduced along with new ways to observe them. Many of the traditions, symbols, narratives and most importantly the objects of remembrance – those, who are being commemorated – have been the subject of intense discourses.

Focusing on the notion of ‘nation’, James Krull explores the languages, politics and customs of mourning on national days of remembrance in Great Britain and Germany since 1945. What has been changed? What was left untouched? Who was remembered – and who wasn’t?

About the speaker

James Krull is a Research Associate and PhD candidate in Modern and Contemporary History at the University of Bonn. His dissertation, like this talk, focusses on national days of remembrance in Great Britain and Germany since the end of the Second World War. He is a freelancer at the Haus der Geschichte der Bundesrepublik Deutschland and an active member of Open History e. V. When not at his desk or buried in an archive somewhere, he can be found either in a theatre or hiking in the woods.

Book tickets