May 6th to 8th, 2009
Austrian Society for Literature
Palais Wilczek, Herrengasse 5, 1010 Wien

Concept:
Prof. Dr. Penka Angelova

Focus of the conference was the reflection on the impacts of the political turnaround in 1989/1990 various European states’ cultures of rememberance.
Different perspectives on and approaches to the subject were presented by speakers from Leipzig, Nizhniy Novgorod, Munich, Vienna, Czernowitz, Debrecen, Brussels und Veliko Turnovo/Rousse.
They were discussing the multiperspectivity concerning the contruction of history after the end of state socialism in Eastern Europe and East Germany. Under the socialist system the state dictated a certain view on historical events – and hereby, a certain understanding of rememberance – to the people. But after the turnaround of 1989/90, the monopoly of interpretating history doesn’t belong any longer exclusively to the so-called state historians.
A historical-scientific workup of the socialist period has gotten under way only in recent years in many Eastern European countries. Part of this process is the implementation of lustration laws and laws guaranteeing access to archives in post-communist countries.
These are preconditions for the further development of the young democracies in the former Eastern bloc. The numerous contributions to the conference are supposed to be published as an anthology in 2010. Also, further preoccupation with the subject is planned within the frame of an application to the European Union’s 7th Framework Programme for cross-border research and scientific projects.