Collective Memory and National Identities: German and Polish Memory Cultures: The Forms of Collective Memory

The Second Symposium of the Deutsches Polen-Institut, Darmstadt, took place on October 12-13, 1994 in Dresden, Germany. Like the First Symposium (1993, “Religion and the Church in Modern Society”), it created a forum for German-Polish dialogue. Historians and writers lectured on specifically German and Polish forms of Remembering the Past, on “locations of memory,” and on the role of collective memory in the forming of a national identity. This article highlights the themes of the conference, reporting and analysing the main views expressed.