Conclusion: Extending the Remembering Community

Abstract

In his discussion of the rise of the eyewitness in historical representations of the past, Martin Sabrow (2012, p. 22) concludes that what was once a form of ‘counter-narrative’ has in the last 30 years ‘gradually achieved hegemony’. The analysis of cultural responses to the Stasi in this study can only confirm this statement. Autobiographical writing was one of the principal ways in which individuals remembered the GDR and the role of the State Security Service within it. Memorial museums focusing on the history of repression in the GDR make extensive use of eyewitness testimony to support their interpretation of the past. And each of the documentary films considered in this book deploys the power of first-person narratives to generate authenticity and authority for the versions of history they tell. However, this study has sought to show not only that eyewitnesses are everywhere but also why and how their voices are used and received in popular representations of the past. In this process, two key concepts have emerged that have relevance beyond the scope of this book and are significant for understanding the interplay between individual and collective memory formations: mediated remembering communities and complementary authenticities.