Remembering to forget? Memory and democracy in Italy and Germany

Since the end of the Second World War, controversies surrounding the question of the right format of remembrance and public commemoration of the experience of Nazism/Fascism have troubled politics and society everywhere in Europe. Discussions have been particularly dramatic in the two successor states of the Nazi/Fascist regime where the difficulty of doing justice to different categories of victims and the conscious selection of what has to be publicly remembered and celebrated, has always been a thorny issue, reflecting the general social and political divisions present in both societies. This paper deals with the question of how the experience of Nazism/Fascism has been remembered publicly in Italy and Germany since 1945. By tracing back discussions on how the Nazi/Fascist past should be remembered and by investigating disputes centring on the question of what should be evoked by establishing a specific calendar of official remembrance days, it scrutinizes the way Italy and Germany have come to terms with their past and consolidated their democracy. The examination of results obtained from qualitative discourse analysis conducted on public speeches by Italian and German political leaders held during commemorative events between 1945 and 2009 then serves as an additional observatory lens through which wider social, political and cultural developments can be analysed and put into context