Proceeding from the most recent controversies surrounding decolonisation and efforts to grapple with historical conflicts through cultures of remembrance, this research lab investigates different social actors’ reassessments of history as well as their societal repercussions in democracies, dictatorships and authoritarian regimes. Professor Arnold Bartetzky, Dr. Heike Liebau (Leibniz Zentrum Moderner Orient, ZMO) and Professor Magnus Brechtken (Leibniz Institute for Contemporary History, Munich, IfZ) coordinate the research lab

This lab focuses on the economic utilisation of the past. It sheds light on creative industries, history marketing and the use of the past for the cultural development of cities and regions. Dr. Corinne Geering coordinates the research lab with Dr. Torsten Meyer (Deutsches Bergbau-Museum Bochum/Leibniz Research Museum for Geo-resources). The lab also includes Dr. Sabine Stach, whose research concentrates on the popularisation, commodification and authentication of contemporary history in today’s tourism industry. The lab receives additional support from Kaja Schelker whose research explores the use of traditional construction techniques and sustainability discourses in modern architecture.

The GWZO contributes two research topics to this lab. Dr. des. Karin Reichenbach explores popular historical approaches to the Early Middle Ages and their politicised reception from the perspective of public history. Taking into account epistemic foundations and evidence practices, she examines the divergences of academic and non-academic knowledge production. Dr. Stephan Krause’s project investigates different types and functions of canonisation, paying equal attention to the canon’s cultural as well as literary significance and to the revaluations of – and alternatives to – mechanisms of inclusion and exclusion.