Territory and Memory in Bohemia: The post-socialist management of the German past along the Czech-German border
Abstract
More than twenty years after the collapse of the socialist regime in Czechoslovakia, the traces of German past in Czech lands are being integrated in the cultural heritage. This phenomenon is symbolized by the opening in 2012 of a museum in northwestern Bohemia in honor of the cultural heritage of former German speaking citizens of pre WWII Czechoslovakia.
Starting from this example, this paper aims to examine the management of the German past in Czech borderlands within the analysis of the relation between social memory and territory since 1990. To do so, the article first presents the notion of social memory and its potentially valuable assets for social and cultural geographical inquiries.
It then describes the evolution of the relation between society and space in Bohemian borderlands since 1945. Finally, the analysis highlights the spatial social frameworks called on to mobilize the German past in the present.