Figli del Muro. Dialoghi generazionali e memoria della ex Germania Est

Abstract

The reunification process of the two Germanies has nowadays been accomplished on a formal level, while there is still a long way to go in terms of the feeling of memory, identity and national unity. Wende- and Nachwendekinder, the generations born between 1974 and 1985 and those born after 1989, contribute today to investigate the family involvement in the state dynamics of the former socialist state. Thus, a new kind of literary genre dedicated to this research, the so-called Familiengespräche, emerged. Intergenerational family dialogues front (sometimes for the first time) choices, behaviors and roles of the family past through direct questions. Interviews lack a pre-established plot, but they are interwoven by emotionality, compassion and shame linked to the act of confession on the one hand and to the one of listening on the other. Therefore their ethical and educational value is undeniable for the resolution of those ideological conflicts which still burden the former inhabitants of eastern Germany and which, even today, prevent the formation of a unique national identity.

10.4424/lam112022-9