Surveys reveal that the benefits and values of democracy are becoming less important. Also because what it means when democratic rights are curtailed is often forgotten. Experts therefore emphasize the importance of places of remembrance.
Schwerin – According to a commission of experts, the memorial sites in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania need more support from the state in order to be able to continue to fulfill their tasks in imparting historical knowledge and promoting democracy in the future. In the northeast there is a diverse and decentralized memory landscape that needs to be preserved and adapted to current requirements. “The financial resources of all memorials and places of remembrance in the country must therefore be sustainably and permanently improved,” says the final report that the commission set up by Culture Minister Bettina Martin (SPD) in mid-January presented in Schwerin on Wednesday.
According to Martin, the state currently provides 270,000 euros annually for the work of the 26 memorials and places of remembrance across the country, which are mostly run on a voluntary basis. The State Center for Civic Education coordinates their work and will receive ten percent more money from next year. That is an increase of 215,000 euros for political education. “Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania is taking a different path than the federal government, which wants to reduce its funding for political education by a fifth,” said the minister.
In the coalition agreement signed in 2021, the SPD and the Left in the northeast committed to strengthening memorial and remembrance work. “We need this kind of political work to counteract trends that worry us. Democracy is coming under pressure and doubts are arising about democracy. We need places of remembrance that show what it means when dictatorships gain the upper hand,” explained Martin.
Such memorials are also becoming more important because fewer and fewer contemporary witnesses are able to pass on their experiences to younger people, said Anna Kaminsky. The director of the Federal Foundation for Coming to terms with the SED Dictatorship was a member of the three-member commission. According to her, the memorials, which not only address the barbarism of the Nazis or the oppression in the SED state, but also escape and expulsion after the Second World War, must adapt to new viewing and recording habits of visitors. “We have a generation that wants a lot more interaction. The question across the country is: What can we offer to encourage young people to actually engage with history,” she said.
Uwe Neumärker, director of the “Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe” foundation and chairman of the Prora Documentation Center eV, emphasized the importance of schools in teaching history and democracy. Memorials as extracurricular learning places could only supplement school lessons, “they are not reform schools”. “The core of political education is the school, the university and the other state-funded learning places,” emphasized Neumärker. The State Center for Political Education plays an important role as a link to the memorials.
Its director Jochen Schmidt referred to a newly designed website on his company about the memorial landscape in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. All places of remembrance in the country would be presented here, educational offers would be presented and information would be provided about funding opportunities, for example for school trips to the memorial sites. The use of these facilities as extracurricular learning venues for historical and political education was also the topic of the summer academy, in which almost 500 teachers in MV took part during the holidays. dpa
2023-11-01 22:54:39
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