"We are not ready for musealization – the conflict is not over yet" - A multisource and community approach to a 20th century protest camp site in Germany
Author(s): Attila Dézsi
Year: 2018
Summary
This paper presents my PhD project which investigates the contested site of Gorleben, the iconic camp with 2000 inhabitants protesting against a nuclear waste facility, which was forcibly dismantled by the police in May 1980. Today it is a reference point for the German green movement and the sustainable energy discussion. In a multi-source approach, written accounts, photographs, excavation data and oral history are interpreted in a comparative perspective to reconstruct what happened (everyday life, internal structures and conflicts) and why the event is still central to personal and collective memory. The approach provides new methodological insights for the interpretation of late 20th century sites and artefacts and enables the public to participate in archaeological fieldwork and analysis. I will furthermore reflect on the role of archaeology and critical heritage in present-day Germany and discuss the site’s heritage status.
Cite this Record
"We are not ready for musealization – the conflict is not over yet" - A multisource and community approach to a 20th century protest camp site in Germany. Attila Dézsi. Presented at Society for Historical Archaeology, New Orleans, Louisiana. 2018 ( tDAR id: 441480)
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Keywords
General
Archaeology of the contemporary past
•
community archaeology
•
multi-source approach
Geographic Keywords
Germany
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Western Europe
Temporal Keywords
Late 20th Century
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Recent Past
Spatial Coverage
min long: 5.865; min lat: 47.275 ; max long: 15.034; max lat: 55.057 ;
Individual & Institutional Roles
Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology
Record Identifiers
PaperId(s): 281