Coming to Terms with the Past and Political Symbolics in Parliamentary Debates after the End of Dictatorship (Spain, German Democratic Republic (GDR), Poland)

This project explores the discursive translation of political change as reflected in parliamentary debates after the end of dictatorships in three European societies (Poland after 1989, the GDR after 1989, and Spain after 1975), and enquires into the tension which exists between national symbolics and Europeanisation.

The ideas about Europe which arose during the course of the processes of social renewal constituted a projection surface for all sorts of ideas about the future. These ideas likewise determined current debates about fundamental values, objectives and visions, and thereby also influenced retrospectively the way in which the past is perceived.

However, parliamentary debates and the media-driven political public sphere which accompanies them, are fundamental components of political communication in all modern societies. The dynamics and particularly charged debates which occur after the end of dictatorships make it worthwhile exploring questions regarding how to come to terms with the past and what European visions of the future have in store.

This subproject will therefore carry out research about the European dimension of strategies designed to help people to come to terms with the past and about new processes of identity-building, which have become manifest in changes to political symbolics and in parliamentary debates in the wake of systemic changes to political and social systems.