The Future of Berlin’s Memory Landscape

Course by Dr. Marcus Funck at the Center for Research on Antisemitism at the Technical University of Berlin, Winter Term 2023/24

Over the last thirty years or so a large number of memorial sites, museums, documentation centres, educational sites etc. have been created in the city of Berlin and its surroundings, representing and commemorating various aspects of more than a half-century of violence, war, and (state) terror. Together they form a unique memorial landscape that relates to National Socialism, World War II, the Holocaust and East German dictatorship.

So far, these sites have been representing an ever widening and deepening culture of rememberance. In this excursion seminar we will engage in discussions about what is to come after the „age of growth“. What are the greatest challenges ahead? How will the various memory sites correspond with each other? Is it necessary to to develop the memorial sites towards further inclusiveness? How might Berlin’s memorial landscape adapt in a changing world? These are some of the questions we might want to address together.

The course will be taught in English. International students are very welcomed.