What are cultural places of memory? - Memory, place and the cultural memory according to Aleida and Jan Assmann

Abstract

The study of places of memory is an expanding field in international geography, in which the concept of cultural memory by Aleida and Jan Assmann, which has its origins in German-language cultural studies, has received little attention. However, in a concentration of the concept on the specific concerns of a cultural-geographical study of places of memory lies the possibility – especially as an important intellectual style of German Theory – to explicitly ask about the mechanisms of origin and function of places of memory. The basic assumption of the concept is that cultural memory functions as a medial storehouse of experiences from the past. Based on the assumption that places of memory cannot be a storage, but only an anchor of memories, the article develops a space-oriented conception of cultural memory spaces derived from the basic features of cultural memory. The following four characteristics are elaborated: Cultural memory spaces are (1) dynamic and (2) present-related (3) supports of memory, (4) in which individual memories intertwine with cultural memory.