Including Exclusion in European Memory? Politics of Remembrance at the House of European History
Veronika Settele
Journal of Contemporary European Studies3/9/2015·DOI·Read paper
Abstract
Politicians and scholars agree that a shared historical consciousness could help foster a common European identity, something which is currently lagging behind economic and political integration in the EU. To this end, a flagship of the European remembrance scene is to be opened to the public in Brussels in 2015: the House of European History (HEH). Here, we see that European institutions can play an important role in developing historical narratives that more accurately reflect European political and social reality today than the national paradigms originated from the 19th century. My article investigates the role of ‘marginal voices’ in the HEH's depiction of European history, looking at the issues of colonialism and migration and the manner in which they are dealt with. At the same time, I probe whether the HEH offers counter-narratives to the prevailing picture of European integration as a success story. An examination of the various concepts underlying the museum's approach reveals major difficulties to include exclusion in the official memory. Although a primary aim of the curators is to portray diversity and to offer multiple perspectives, the concept of diversity employed is rather limited, rooted in the structure of the project.
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