Understanding Controversies over Memorial Museums: The Case of the Leistikowstraße Memorial Museum, Potsdam

Abstract

Focusing on the case of the Leistikowstraße Memorial Museum in Potsdam, which commemorates victims of Soviet occupation after 1945, this article seeks to understand how conflicts can arise over such institutions, paying attention to the politicization of memory, the professional discourse of historians and museum practitioners, the demands of victims, and institutional factors. It examines the context of the development of this memorial museum in order to understand the decisions that determined the particular ways in which the past is presented at this site.