Die Idee anamnetischer Solidarität : Erinnerungskultur, Gedächtnispolitik, Gerechtigkeit

Abstract

Proponents of anamnestic solidarity - W. Benjamin, J. Habermas, P. Ricoeur and others - argue that it is an ethical duty to remember political crimes and the suffering of the victims. The article analyses the idea of anamnestic solidarity and identifies five different argu-ments, namely (i) the strong argument for justice based on religious and metaphysical pre-suppositions, (ii) the weak argument for justice focussing on the beneficial effect of re-memberance for those who are closely related to the victims, (iii) the argument from guilt and/or responsibility pointing to the collective identities of the victim and the malefactor, (iv) the universality argument, and (v) the preventive argument. I claim that (ii) and (iii) are important arguments for anamnestic solidarity whereas (i), (iv), and (v) are either not con-clusive or not sufficient to justify the thesis of the proponents.