Analysis of sites of remembrance

History always has both a temporal and a spatial dimension. As chronology has become the fundamental structure of narrated history, the analysis of spatial structures has long been neglected. Inspired by the ideas of Karl Schlögel, Geschichtswerkstatt Europa provides the opportunity to reconsider Europe as a space and to reconstruct it intellectually. Excursions and site visits are therefore a vital element of many projects.

The terms lieux de mémoire or sites of memory/remembrace (Erinnerungsorten) developed by Hagen Schulze, Etienne François and others after Pierre Nora, conceptualise memory/remembrance as an identity-forming process with a spatial dimension. The projects of Geschichtswerkstatt Europa look for these ‚points of crystallisation’ in European cultural landscapes which offer the greatest potential for collective identity creation across the generations.