Professors Aleida and Jan Assmann – one a cultural and literary scholar, the opposite an Egyptologist – have studied types of collective reminiscence for greater than three a long time. In 2018, the husband-and-wife workforce had been awarded the Peace Prize of the German E-book Commerce in recognition of their work.
By Romy König
For a humane society: Aleida Assmann
Earlier than switching her focus to cultural anthropology within the Nineties, Aleida Assmann printed quite a few works on English literature. Her two most up-to-date books, printed in 2018, cope with human rights and duties – recognized in a subtitle because the “keys to a humane society” – and make clear the remembrance tradition and democratisation of Europe. The writer’s averred intent: to “encourage a depressed public”.
Skilled on the Historical Egyptians: Jan Assmann
Her husband Jan Assmann certified for professorship in 1971 and held the chair of Egyptology on the College of Heidelberg from 1976 to 2003. He then accepted an honorary professorship in cultural research on the College of Constance, which he nonetheless holds in the present day.
The idea of cultural reminiscence
Collectively, the couple developed the fundamental idea of cultural reminiscence. Impressed by analysis on Historical Egypt and constructing on the idea of collective reminiscence superior by sociologist Maurice Halbwachs, they outlined a car by which collected cultural information is handed from one technology to the following – information that determines a society’s consciousness of time and historical past in addition to its self-image and world view. Cultural reminiscence is formed by fastened factors – momentous occasions prior to now – that are stored in consciousness by rituals, memorials and even by common dialogue.
In December 2018, Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier awarded Aleida Assmann the Order of Advantage of the Federal Republic of Germany in recognition of her work on commemoration and remembrance tradition. | Picture: © image alliance/Bernd von Jutrczenka/dpa
Reflection on the previous
The Assmanns are credited with making a decisive contribution to German remembrance tradition by way of their analysis on the politics of historical past, historic trauma, forgetting, processing and reflection. The 2 students imagine finding out the previous is vastly essential in an effort to perceive the current: “We are able to not fake we wouldn’t have a previous and look solely to the long run […] anticipating every thing to be higher,” says Aleida Assmann. The long run invariably derives from the previous.
Peace Prize winners in 2018
When Aleida and Jan Assmann had been awarded the Peace Prize of the German E-book Commerce in autumn 2018, many observers noticed it as an announcement. At a time when the “mental and ethical core” of the nation is “below assault from the far proper”, this award is a “political sign”, wrote the weekly newspaper Die Zeit. The jury’s assertion learn: “Contemplating the rising political instrumentalisation of latest German historical past, she [Aleida Assmann] supplies priceless clarification on issues of nationwide cultural reminiscence. […] Egyptologist and cultural scholar Jan Assmann, by way of his intensive educational work, has stimulated worldwide debate on elementary points raised by the cultural and spiritual conflicts of our time.”