"The Future of Remembrance" - Book presentation in Philharmonie Essen

WOLFSBURG, December 5, 2008 - The Corporate History Department of Volkswagen Aktiengesellschaft presented to the public its anthology entitled “Die Zukunft der Erinnerung. Eine Wolfsburger Tagung” at the Conference on “Europabilder: Innen- und Außenansichten” organized by Kulturwissenschaftliches Institut Essen (KWI) - Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities - on Thursday. The volume highlights specific issues relating to the discussion on the present and future significance of remembrance and memory in Germany and Europe.

"Die Zukunft der Erinnerung" is a book that has its roots in a conference held at the Volkswagen plant in Wolfsburg in November 2006. Experts from German memorial museums, public education institutions, cultural science and the Wolfsburg-based company explored diverse fields of action and problem zones with reference to German and European places of remembrance and the relevance of memory. Claus Leggewie, Director of the Essen-based Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities, addressed the "battlefields" of transnational remembrance in Europe. The Director of "Stiftung Gedenkstätten Buchenwald und Mittelbau-Dora," Volkhard Knigge, argued in favor of a future concept for remembrance as "historic critical self-reflection" which brings enlightenment und an awareness of history and is "the only remedy" for the "clash of memories" in Germany and Europe. Ulrike Jureit from "Hamburger Institut für Sozialforschung" (Hamburg Institute for Social Research) demonstrated how the generation of 1968 had "literally cast in concrete a perspective of remembrance identifying with the victims" in the shape of the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe in Berlin. She would like to take this event as the starting point for a broad-based discussion among German society "to make a new survey of the horizons of remembrance".

"Our collection of essays about the future of remembrance bears testimony to the close interaction between the social and corporate cultures of remembrance," said Dr. Manfred Grieger, Head of the Corporate History Department of Volkswagen Aktiengesellschaft,. "We want to make a proactive contribution to living remembrance across the generations. The collection of essays is a valuable medium facilitating a dialog both within and outside the company on an issue of relevance to the past, present and future which long ago moved beyond the borders of Germany."

"Die Zukunft der Erinnerung. Eine Wolfsburger Tagung" is the second volume in the series called "Forschungen Positionen Dokumente. Schriften zur Unternehmensgeschichte von Volkswagen" published by the Corporate History Department of Volkswagen Aktiengesellschaft and is available from bookshops priced 14.90 €.