Collective Experiences, Intergenerational Memory and Identity Constructions in Luxembourg : Witnesses of World War II, Peasants, Industrial Workers, Immigrants - LUX-ID

Coordinating Institution: Université du Luxembourg
Contracting Partner(s): Centre National de l'Audiovisuel , Fonds Belval
Other Partner(s): Kulturwissenschaftliches Institut, Essen (D) , Université Libre de Bruxelles (B)
From: 15/01/2007
To: 14/01/2010
Budget: 500,000.00€
Contact(s): Boesen Elisabeth , Margue Michel

Summary

Following the work on lieux de mémoire au Luxembourg, memory research is further pursued at the Research Unity IPSE (FLSHASE) at the University of Luxembourg in the context of a project on specific collective experiences and their handing down from one generation to the next. We concentrate on four “fields of recollection” that would seem to be constitutive for images of Luxembourgian identity:

1. the Second World War and the occupation by Nazi Germany,

2. the social and economic changes agriculture and the rural world have undergone in the 20th century,

3. the socio-economic developments in the realm of the steal industry, 4. the experiences related to immigration to Luxembourg. Our interest is directed to the memory processes in the family, that is, the way the experiences and memories of the historical witnesses become part of the social memory through family tradition, and to the developments these memories undergo during these communicative processes.

The project is linked to the work of the Center for Interdisciplinary Memory Research (CIMR, Kulturwissenschaftliches Institut Essen) on memories of war in Germany and the comparative endeavours which followed on an international scale. In contrast to the studies conducted so far, the Luxembourg project tries to apply the conceptual and methodological approach to fields of recollection that do not constitute prominent elements of the public memory culture. We thus look at social groups – peasants, steal-workers, immigrants – whose historical consciousness and contribution to social memory have hitherto been more or less neglected. The third phase of the project was first and foremost devoted to the analysis and comparative interpretation of the empirical data collected in the four sub-projects.

Preliminary research results were presented in various individual conference contributions (see below) and in a collective contribution to the annual conference of the section “Family research” of the International Sociological Association (Oslo, June 2009). This meeting offered a welcome opportunity to treat certain aspects of familial memory processes in a comparative perspective and to discuss basic conceptual issues in a circle of international specialists in family sociology. One part of the presentation (“Family memory and social change”, Boesen & Scuto) is currently being prepared as a contribution to a conference reader (Journal of Comparative Memory Studies, special issue).

The development and testing of comparative perspectives was also one of the main aims of the conference on “Grand narratives and peripheral memories” (Luxembourg, November 2009), organised by members of the project and presided by Prof. M. Margue. The three-days gathering which brought together an international group of researchers from different disciplines was mainly dedicated to the following themes: relation between public and private remembering; family communication and generational memories; social constitution of memory communities. Part of the contributions will be revised and published as a conference reader.

Refereed Scientific Publications
  • Lenz, Claudia & Kirsten Heinsohn 2008 De-coding the gendered order of memory in German TV series “Hitlers Frauen”. German Politics and Society Journal 4/2008: 134-149
  • Boesen, Elisabeth & Denis Scuto (in prep.) Historical testimony, social change and experiences of loss: Familial memory in Luxembourg. Journal of Comparative Memory Studies (special issue)
Other Publications:
  • Boesen, Elisabeth & Fabienne Lentz (ed.) 2010 Migration und Erinnerung, Konzepte und Methoden der Forschung / Migration et mémoire. Concepts et methodes de recherche, Münster: Lit Verlag (in print)
  • Boesen, Elisabeth, Lentz, Fabienne, Margue, Michel, Scuto, Denis & Renée Wagener (eds.) (in prep.) Grand Narratives and Peripheral Memories” (conference reader)
  • Boesen, Elisabeth 2010 Migration und Erinnerung. Einleitung (Migration et mémoire. Introduction). In: Boesen, Elisabeth & Fabienne Lentz (eds.), Migration und Erinnerung, Konzepte und Methoden der Forschung / Migration et mémoire. Concepts et methodes de recherche, Münster: Lit Verlag (in print)
  • Boesen, Elisabeth (in prep.) Erfahrungen des Wandels und familiäre Erinnerungsgemeinschaft in der bäuerlichen Welt. In: Boesen, Elisabeth et al. (eds.), Grand Narratives and Peripheral Memories” (conference reader)
  • Lenz, Claudia 2009 Gedenkorte als Laboratorien histoischer Sinnbildung: Geschichtspolitik, öffentliche Erinnerung und individuelle Erinnerungs-Skripte. In: Harald Schmid (ed.) Geschichtspolitik und kollektives Gedächtnis, Göttingen: V&R unipress
  • Lenz, Claudia Konstruksjon av den andre? teoretiske og historiske perspektiver. In: Hoffmann, Christhard & Øivind Kopperud (eds.) Jøden som kulturell konstrukjson (submitted)
  • Lenz, Claudia & Helle Bjerg Time-out for national heroes? Gender as an analytical category in the study of memory cultures? In: Langenbacher, Eric & Bill Niven (eds.): European Memory Cultures (submitted)
  • Lentz, Fabienne (2010) Réflexions sur les discours et la mémoire de l’immigration italienne au Luxembourg. In : Boesen, Elisabeth & Lentz, Fabienne (eds.), Migration und Erinnerung. Konzepte und Methoden der Forschung/Migration et mémoire. Concepts et méthodes de recherche. Münster : Lit Verlag (in print)
  • Lentz, Fabienne (in prep.) “Italienische Einwanderung in Luxemburg: zwischen öffentlicher und privater Erinnerung” In: Boesen, Elisabeth et al. (eds.), Grand Narratives and Peripheral Memories” (conference reader) Lentz,
  • Fabienne & Sonja Kmec (forthcoming) L’Immigration. In : Kmec, Sonja & Pit Peporte (eds.), Lieux de mémoire au Luxembourg II. Luxembourg, Édition St. Paul
  • Lentz, Fabienne, Amman, Wilhelm, Bourg, Viviane, Dell, Paul, di Felice, Paul & Sebastian Reddeker (forthcoming) Bilder und Identitäten. In : Identitätskonstruktionen und sozio-kulturelle Milieus in Luxemburg (IPSE – Identité, Politiques, Sociétés, Espaces (ed.), Bielefeld : transkript
  • Wagener, Renée (forthcoming) National community, border region and transnational mobility in family recollections of the Second World War". In: The Experience of War in a Border Region: Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Germany 1914-1945. Jahrbuch des Zentrums für Niederlande Studien, Münster: Aschendorff
  • Wagener, Renée (in prep.) Familiengespräche in der Erinnerungsforschung zum Zweiten Weltkrieg: Erwartungen und Enttäuschungen. In: Boesen, Elisabeth et al. (eds.), Grand Narratives and Peripheral Memories” (conference reader)
Project Website:

Figure 1: World War II: Political poster showing Luxembourg’s position against Nazi occupation

Figure 2: Italian Families at the entrance of their house in the working-class area Esch-Hoehl, 1954 (collection Peruzzi family)