"It took Germans some time to learn this after the second world war, but they finally invented a concept for it: Vergangenheitsaufarbeitung, which translates as "working off the past". Now Berlin has a dizzying number and variety of monuments to the victims of its murderous racism. By choosing to remember what its soldiers once did, Germany made a choice about the values it wants to reject. Other choices, such as erecting glass walls in government buildings, reflect the values it wants to maintain: democracy should be transparent. The rebuilding of Berlin – a long, discursive process in which historians, politicians and citizens debated for more than a decade – was aspirational. No one, least of all a German, would claim the rebuilding and renaming of Berlin’s landscape eradicated the roots of racism. The city’s public space represents conscious decisions about what values the reunited republic ought to hold."
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Philosophers from the United StatesEssayists from the United StatesJews from the United StatesWomen academics from the United StatesPeople from Atlanta
Original Language: English
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"Germany confronted its racist legacy. Britain and the US must do the same", The Guardian (13 June 2020)
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Susan_Neiman
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Susan Neiman
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