Resistance in Retrospect: Negotiating Narratives of the National Socialist and East German DIctatorships in Contemporary Museum Exhibitions

Abstract

The memory of resistance to National Socialism in the Third Reich and opposition to SED rule in the German Democratic Republic retains considerable political currency in post-Reunification Germany, particularly within the German museum landscape where the double burden of the dictatorial past continues to dominate German identity politics. This study interrogates the relationship between the collective memory of resistance and national identity within the permanent exhibitions at a wide range of German historical museums, particularly in terms of the mobilisation of resistance narratives in the service of diverse political aims. In the process, this project draws on structuralist theories of narratology and sociological narrative theory in order to devise a systematic method of analysis which examines not only the methods by which museum exhibitions construct and communicate narratives of resistance, but also the range of potential interpretations and visitor experiences which are generated by such exhibitions. This interpretational framework identifies and analyses four primary narrative patterns which constitute German memorial culture: heroic, victim, perpetrator, and everyday narratives. Firstly, it explores heroic narratives of resistance as a form of positive national myth which seeks to discredit the National Socialist and East German dictatorships by emphasising the individuals who opposed them. In particular, it examines the relationship between the temporal elements of these heroic narratives and their spatial representation in the exhibition. Secondly, the analysis of victim and perpetrator narratives alongside one another reveals the importance of narrative perspective in shaping visitor interpretations of the past and encouraging, or forestalling, identification with the victims and perpetrators of the two regimes. Finally, this study examines strong and weak constructions of authorship in the paratexts of the museum and the exhibition content itself, and analyses how everyday narratives precipitate a shift from political history to social history or the history of everyday life (Alltagsgeschichte), paving the way for representations of dissent as well as active resistance (Widerstand). This study concludes by examining how these four competing and overlapping narrative strands interact with one another and with other available narratives, and demonstrates how master narratives of national identity, which sought to legitimise the Berlin Republic by discrediting or normalising the National Socialist and East German dictatorships which preceded it, have begun to give way to narratives of post-national European identity, which promote European integration on the basis of commitment to shared democratic values.

Date of Award	31 Dec 2017
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	The University of Manchester
Supervisor	Matthew Philpotts (Supervisor) & Helen Rees Leahy (Supervisor)