BER_T_01 Telling Stories of Cohesion: Solidarity, Conflict, and Crisis in Memories of the Post-reunification Period

Objective / Research Questions

The transfer project consists of a biographical survey on the period of the fall of the Berlin Wall and the post-reunification period and is designed as a practical intervention. The most important goal of this intervention is to provide a space for biographical narratives that have so far received little attention and research in public discourses.

A total of about 80 guideline-based, narrative, autobiographical interviews and group discussions that encourage autobiographical narration will be collected. In selecting the interviewees, migrant, Jewish, and non-right-wing perspectives will be specifically included.

The transcribed and edited narratives will become part of the web portal Narrating Cohesion – Stories of Solidarity, Conflict, and Crisis, which is to be set up in cooperation with the Konstanz section. In the first stage of development, this portal will consist of, on the one hand, the stories collected in Konstanz by active solidarity and refugee workers since 2015 (KON_T_03) and, on the other hand, the stories collected in Berlin during the time of and after the fall of the Berlin Wall (East and West, with a focus on East Germany). The project can be expanded – the initiators are planning to include the topic “Migrant Family History(ies)”.

The portal is aimed at a broad public and should not only be easily accessible but also be structured and indexed. The interviews and discussions are also available for scientific evaluation (within the framework of RISC through the closely linked project BER_F_01).

From the scientific evaluation (see project BER_F_01), generally understandable short essays will be regularly published on the web portal, which will strengthen the dialogue between practice and science and make the research-based reflection broadly accessible.

Thematic reference to social cohesion

The initial hypothesis is that it is of great importance for the feeling of belonging (as a central indicator of social cohesion) whether one’s own biographical memories can be told – and whether they are listened to. This is based on the assumption that social cohesion is determined materially and semantically: it is the result of structures and relationships as well as narratives. These narratives include historical narratives of collectives and biographical narratives of individuals. When people experience that their life stories are unwanted in public discourses, this undermines the feeling of belonging, an often unconscious but sometimes also conscious and intentional process.

The project aims to test practical models with which social cohesion can be strengthened through participation and integration of particular perspectives. In order to record potential effects of the intervention, those interviewed in the first round of interviews will be asked again in a second, small collection about selected, semi-standardized indicators of cohesion that are already part of the primary guide.