Authors
Millington, RichardAffiliation
University of ChesterPublication Date
2020-07-21
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This article analyses the politics of anniversaries through examination of the role that the anniversary of the East German uprising of 17 June 1953 has played in German politics since 1990. Prior to reunification, West Germany commemorated the date as the ‘Tag der deutschen Einheit’. This annual public holiday was a chance for politicians to express their views on the possibility of German unification and to lambast the East German regime. After 3 October became the ‘Tag der Deutschen Einheit’ in 1990, German politicians all but ignored the anniversary of 17 June until political commemoration of the date enjoyed a revival in 2003. This article shows that the ‘genre memory’ (Olick) of a commemoration ensures that continuities in political commemoration of an anniversary persist, even after long periods in which an historical event is not commemorated. Significantly, the analysis demonstrates further that consideration of the drivers of political mnemonic activity in the twenty-first century must now take into account the technology-led ubiquity of the media in motivating politicians to act. Moreover, the article concludes that politicians’ internationalisation of anniversaries has enabled them to find new political capital in dates that may appear to be politically redundant.Citation
Millington, R. (2020). The Anniversary Politics of 17 June 1953 since 1990. German Life and Letters, 73(3), 401-419.Publisher
WileyJournal
German Life and LettersAdditional Links
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/glal.12274Type
ArticleDescription
This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Millington, R. (2020). The Anniversary Politics of 17 June 1953 since 1990. German Life and Letters, 73(3), 401-419, which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1111/glal.12274. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Use of Self-Archived Versions.ISSN
0016-8777EISSN
1468-0483ae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.1111/glal.12274
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Except where otherwise noted, this item's license is described as http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/