Introduction
Ingo Richter
The 11th Berlin Roundtables on Transnationality were held in Berlin in October 2009; the event was organized by the Humboldt University, Berlin, the Social Science Research Center Berlin (WZB), and the Irmgard Coninx Foundation. Its theme was "Memory Politics: Education, Memorials and Mass Media", and it was conducted in the framework of a series of events entitled "I have a Dream - Political Culture in Divided Societies". The keywords are an indication of its thrust: divided societies, political culture, memory politics, "I have a dream" - the vision of a society in the process of overcoming its divisions though culture and, in particular, through remembrance. Remembrance can in fact contribute to overcoming conflicts in societies deeply divided by them, to strengthening weak states, indeed even to laying the groundwork for viable states to emerge from torn societies. It is, after all, the remembered legacy of William Tell that holds Switzerland together; remembrance of the 14th of May 1948, the day on which the state of Israel was proclaimed, is a source of strength for Palestinians; and remembrance of the 1930 Salt March to Gandi was a factor contributing to India's independence.
Yet nurturing memories can also divide societies, or at any rate sustain or deepen existing divisions. The memory of Christopher Columbus' "discovery" of America on October 12,1492, maybe celebrated in the US, on October 19, as Columbus Day; among America's indigenous peoples , though, the very same day is a day of remembrance of conquest, disenfranchisement, and extermination. In Belfast the annual Orange Walk, experienced year after year as a provocation by the Catholic population, serves to commemorate the victory of William of Orange over James II on July 12,1690. And finally, while remembrance of the commencement of the genocide on Rwanda, in 1994, may now contribute to national unity and development, it serves again and again as an incitement for Hutu rebels based on Congolese territory to commit new massacres and atrocities.
However, one of the functions of memory politics being to strike an arc from the past to the present, the governments of virtually all nations seek to place their educational system in the service of memory politics. Schools are named after national heroes; classrooms and libraries are furnished with fitting pictures and books; school curricula include days of national commemoration; schoolbooks are expected to reflect national narratives; teachers are called upon to take special care in cultivating remembrance of key national events. It goes without saying that the main reason that governments do all this is to strengthen national unity, and to shore up their own standing. And this is why minorities again and again demand that their memory be honored fittingly in the educational system.
This special issue of IJELP is devoted to the papers held on this issue at the conference referred to above. But before we come to the papers, a few introductory remarks may be in order on the central concepts involved.
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