Eremenko I.A. (2019). Historical Memory and its Institutionalization in Cultural Heritage Sites on the Example of Russia and Germany. Vestnik of Perm University. History, 2019, Issue 4 (47), pp. 41-49.

Текст статьи на сайте журнала URL: http://press.psu.ru/index.php/history/article/view/2951 (дата обращения 17.02.2020)

Abstract

The World Cultural Heritage (WCH) status is awarded to sites on the basis of criteria that record the specific historical segment to which the site belongs. In this paper, we consider what role historical memory plays in the process of applying for the status of the WCS object. Is the status of WHС recognition a way for them to show the value of preservation of historical memory?  As materials for the article expert interviews with representatives of the city administration, local businesses, employees of the tourist center and local activists, collected in two Russian (Veliky Novgorod, Pskov) and two German cities (Wismar and Stralsund) were used.  The research has shown that the goal of obtaining the status of WHС among other things is the preservation of historical memory, however, this is not a primary goal of the actors. The initial purpose of obtaining the status of the WCH for the city administration in Russian cases was to fulfill the order given from above. For German cities, the status of the WCH was primarily of symbolic value; it confirmed that these cities located in the territory of the GDR, had the same cultural value as the cities in the territory of the Federal Republic of Germany.