NO FUTURE EDITED BY WITHOUT MEMORY BÄRBEL FÖRSTER or, archives require a present TWENTY-YEAR ARCHIVES DEMOCRATIC SOCIALISM OF THE ROSA-LUXEMBURG-STIFTUNG TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION Dagmar Enkelmann 4 Editorial Florian Weis 6 The Value of Breathing Deeply Evelin Wittich 10 Founding Moments CREATORS OF MEMORY PARTY PARLIAMENT FOUNDATION MOVEMENT INDIVIDUAL Bernd Riexinger 16 Memory Thomas Händel 20 Learning from History Jochen Weichold 24 In the Footsteps of Die Linke’s Council of Elders Claudia Gohde 27 On Archiving in Die Linke’s Party Central Office Petra Pau 30 My Blue Notebook Sahra Wagenknecht 32 Homesick for the Future Dietmar Bartsch 36 On Elation and Remaining Grounded Margret Geitner 40 Who Writes History? Jan Korte 43 Die Linke’s Memory Work in Parliament: “Parliamentary File Creators?” Bernd Hüttner 47 Preserving Movements Peter Delis 51 Specific Features of the Tradition of the German Peace Union Gregor Gysi 54 Archives and Personal Testimonials Friedrich Burschel 56 Your Own History Wolfgang Gehrcke 63 Looking Back Without Anger USERS OF MEMORY POLITICS SCIENCE JOURNALISM Tom Strohschneider 70 A Question of Transmission Alex Demirovic´ 74 Archives and Politics Albert Scharenberg 77 Wresting History from the Grips of Conformism Jörn Schütrumpf 81 Archives Against Historical Amnesia Marga Voigt 84 “Left-Wing Memory” in Letters: Perspectives of History? CUSTODIANS OF MEMORY DUTIES CHALLENGES DEMANDS Andrey K. Sorokin 90 The 20th Century: Learning from History Anja Kruke and Andreas Marquet 93 The Archives of Collective Memory Uwe Michel 97 Knowledge of the Future Andreas Steigmeier and Tobias Wildi 99 A Digital Memory? Christian Koller and Urs Kälin 103 Trust is Good – and Essential Bärbel Förster 107 Ethical, Responsible, Professional, and Comprehensive FRAGMENTS OF MEMORY STORIES FROM A 20-YEAR PERIOD Jochen Weichold und Christine Gohsmann 114 Files Sitting on the Shelves of Strangers? Archival Work in South Africa Only a “Thin Booklet” “But Everything is Online!” The Autumn Meetings In Contrast to the Archives of King Solomon Detailed Forensic Work “Archives Aren’t Profitable, But They Do Pay Off!” A Last-Minute Visit 123 INDEX OF AUTHORS processes, about political actors, and their thoughts and decisions. The documents in the files, the pictures, the sound and video recordings preserve what has been said and written as testimonies to certain historical periods. They are a prerequisite for future EDITORIAL DAGMAR ENKELMANN generations to be able to authentically en- gage with this period of time, ask new ques- tions, and perhaps find surprising answers Dear Readers! and other assessments. The Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung archive has existed for 20 years, and it is no secret that our Archives for Democratic Socialism is something special. It is one—perhaps even the—memory of leftist movements, social- ist ideas, left-wing party-political develop- ments, and democratic action since 1989. And yet our archive is only as good as we When I think about our Archives for Demo- make it. cratic Socialism, this quote from Peter Weiss Of course, sifting through personal docu- comes to mind: “Speaking, reading, and ments after an active political life and en- writing are in flux over the course of time. trusting them to an archive requires effort Sentences beget their opposites, questions and can in some instances even be painful; beget answers, answers beget new ques- it is not an easy decision to make. But let tions. Claims are revoked, what has been us be honest: when held in private owner- revoked is subject to renewed evaluation. ship, documents are often stored in boxes The writer and reader are in motion, they are in a basement or on the floor, of course al- always subject to change.”1 ways with the intention of taking good care Archives provide generations to come with of them, of one day looking through them, information about specific periods of time, perhaps writing a book, or considering pro- about views and insights, about events and fessional archiving at a later date. 4 INTRODUCTION It is up to us to keep our history and that of collective memory of the left. The authors Die Linke and its predecessors—be it the So- describe what they associate with left-wing cialist Unity Party of Germany (SED)/ Party memory from the perspective of the writers of Democratic Socialism (PDS), Die Linke. and readers, as well as why they consider PDS, or Labour and Justice – The Electoral such memory necessary, what it consists of, Alternative (WASG)—authentic and alive whom or what it serves, and what demands in historical memory. But we are not start- it must meet. For the most part, these are ing from scratch. Twenty years of archival personal views and assessments. I would work have made numerous documents on like to thank all those involved. the origin and development of our party and I wish you a thought-provoking read! leftist movements available, as well as on the effect of left-wing forces on democratic Yours, Dagmar Enkelmann decision-making processes. The archive also includes documents on individuals that were part of these developments and processes. Scholars, students, and journal- ists already actively use our archives. Every archive is part of the collective memory of society as a whole, including our Archives for Democratic Socialism. We have chosen to seize the archive’s 20th anniversary as an opportunity to take stock and formulate new goals. This includes presenting its various functions as the memory of the party, the memory of the RLS, the memory of parlia- mentary work, the memory of social move- ments, and the memory of political figures, in addition to encouraging reflection and participation. This publication should help you recognize the value of your own docu- 1 Weiss, Peter, „Laokoon oder Über die Grenzen der Sprache“, In Gegen- ments and motivate you to add them to the sätzen denken: Ein Lesebuch, Frankfurt am Main: 1986, p. 217. 5 of which the RLS is a part; a groundswell in the same way the landmark ruling of the Federal Constitutional Court in 1986 formed a central pillar of the political institute. It is no coincidence that the party affiliated with the RLS was called the Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS). It was not until the Histor- ical Centre for Democratic Socialism was founded in January 2017 that the direct ref- erence to democratic socialism was taken up again clearly in organizational policy. This FLORIAN WEIS new department brought the archive and li- brary department together with a number of other colleagues who had worked within the The Value of Breathing Deeply RLS on Rosa Luxemburg and her left-wing socialist environment, as well as on vari- 20 Years of the Archives for ous historical topics. The name of the new Democratic Socialism department was jointly proposed by the employees and approved by the executive board. The name consciously refers both to the archive’s twenty years of work and to the basic political tenets of the RLS. On the other hand, the name “Archives for Democratic Socialism” was intended to make clear that the times when certain left-wing groups or parties could claim to be the sole represent- atives of a tendency should have been over by 1999. Democratic socialist movements, organizations, and people associated with them have a diverse traditional lineage; it As of autumn 2019, the Rosa-Luxem- would be presumptuous to claim only one burg-Stiftung (RLS) had existed for 29 years, site for them, both politically and in archival initially as an association for critical social records. This starting point of the Archives analysis and political education, and since for Democratic Socialism points far beyond 1999 under this main name.1 The RLS began the immediate archival work to the orienta- receiving public funding in 1999, and the tion of the entire RLS; to a plural left, whose Archives for Democratic Socialism (ADS) most important reference point is the party began its work. The name itself is striking Die Linke, but which also includes many and programmatic for two reasons. First, for other actors and figures. This diversity is in- many years it was the only explicit reference creasingly reflected in the areas of collection that the various structural units of the RLS of the RLS archive, which now also include had to the democratic-socialist groundswell the records of organizations, groups, and in- 6 INTRODUCTION dividuals who come from the West German includes remembering the victims of Stalin- or, since 1990, the pan-German social left. ist rule. On the other hand, it was necessary To this end, our archive has been modified to re-formulate a socialist approach, even over the years to include materials from a after the failure of Soviet-style socialism and broader time period: the archive collections under the conditions of the supposed lasting for Die Linke, or previously the PDS and later success of a liberal and capitalist order in the the Labour and Social Justice – The Electoral 1990s. The RLS of today owes much to this Alternative (WASG), begin in December foresight and the two-pronged approach re- 1989 with the transition from the Socialist quired to develop it. Unity Party of Germany (SED) to the SED- When the RLS came into existence in 1990, PDS to the PDS. The RLS was never tasked nobody was certain that socialism would with collecting the holdings of the SED; in- again become democratic and exciting in stead these are stored and accessible in the the foreseeable future, rather than remain- Foundation Archive of Political Parties and ing historically burdened and old-fashioned. Mass Organisations of the GDR (SAPMO) in When the RLS archive was founded in 1999, the Federal Archives.2 militant anticommunism and the bour- For the RLS and its archive, the transition geois-capitalist exuberance of victory had from the SED to the PDS also serves as a po- lost some of its appeal, but a renaissance of litical starting point.