In the summer of 2024, for the 80th anniversary of D-Day, 16 students of various programs at MLU (English, French, History, Politics, Media), accompanied by two staff, Julia Nitz and Esther Wetzel, set out to study the memorial sites of the Allied landings in Normandy. The Second World War resulted in a new world order that has had a lasting impact on relations between nations today. Therefore, the way in which the events surrounding Operation Overlord in Normandy are remembered plays an essential role in the definition of national identities and geopolitical coexistence in the Western world and beyond. We wanted to trace these cultures of remembrance. To this end, we visited battlefields, cemeteries, memorials and museum facilities that were financed and designed by various nations (USA, Great Britain, France, Canada and Germany). We focused primarily on the sites‘ constructions of what happened, how, why and with what consequences. Students were trained to recognize and discuss different forms and effects of modes of representation and to explore the different narratives of the individual areas of memory.
What emerged from these explorations were dominant historical narratives of liberation, guilt, trauma, and phoenix-like renewal. We were able to detect patterns of memory as well as of forgetting: who is considered as an actor, whose suffering and participation is at the center and which explanatory models are used?
The students are working in groups on particular nations and will be presenting their results in posters at the beginning of October. They were trained in scientific fieldwork as well as conceptual skills and trans-cultural perspectives. The posters will be uploaded here in fall.
Feedback from students
“Museum field trips are close to the working reality of a teacher.”
“In-depth insights into the topic, impressive to visit the historical places in person and to look at the content and media analytically, great discussions and feedback rounds on what was compiled on site, good theoretical preparation for the excursion.”
“The feedback from others in particular is incredibly productive for my own further training as a teacher and the experience abroad also broadens my own perspective.”
During the field trip, the students took over the faculty’s Instagram account. You can find out more here and in the Instagram story highlights: