Wissenschaftliches Gedächtnis als Erinnerungskultur : Zwei Fallstudien zum Kolonialkrieg in Namibia

Abstract

This contribution is based on the premise that remembering as representation of the past is always also the (re-)construction of reality and that the same applies to scientific memory. The generation of historical and ethnological knowledge of other times or cultures is not fundamentally different to everyday cultural memory, except that it is bound to specific institutions with specific practices of their cultural knowledge. In this paper, two such constructions of scientific memory on the colonial war in Namibia will examined in terms of their respective narratives of cultural memory. These are the historiographic work by Gesine Krüger Kriegsbewältigung und Geschichtsbewusstsein. Realität, Deutung und Verarbeitung des deutschen Kolonialkriegs in Namibia 1904 bis 1907 (1999) and the ethnological work by Larissa Förster Postkoloniale Erinnerungslandschaften. Wie Deutsche und Herero in Namibia des Kriegs von 1904 gedenken (2010). In so doing, this article is also participa-ting in an academic practice of remembering.