„Varnsdorfer Generation“ oder wie aus Erinnerungen Geschichte wurde

Abstract

The “Varnsdorf Generation” or How Memories Became History

This article focuses on the memories of the so-called “Varnsdorf Generation”of their school years in Northern Bohemia after the Second World War, which were published in the Sorbian media between 1993 and 2011. The article interprets collective remem­bering as a dynamic process, examining the conditions of its emergence, the actors in­volved, their motivation, and the function of this act of remembering. To categorize the sources, cultural approaches from Oral History and Memory Studies are employed. The central thesis claims that this memory process, initiated by the consequences of the 1989/90 political changes, offers identity and interpretative frameworks. This thesis is supported by systematic research, comparison of memory texts, and contextualization.