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Article published In:
Critical Linguistic Perspectives on Coping with Traumatic Pasts: Case studies
Edited by Christine Anthonissen and Jan Blommaert †
[Journal of Language and Politics 5:1] 2006
► pp. 125–154

History in the making/The making of history

The ‘German Wehrmacht’ in collective and individual memories in Austria

| University of Lancaster
This paper considers narratives about traumatic pasts, using interviews with visitors of the two exhibitions about the war crimes of the German Wehrmacht, shown in Germany and Austria 1995 and 2002, as examples. Numerous justification and legitimization strategies are involved in public and private discourses. The study claims that official genres, such as school books or TV documentaries, still launch narratives which exculpate the German Wehrmacht as institution, although the evidence provided by historians and the exhibitions is overwhelming. The topoi used (such as ‘doing one’s duty’; ‘all wars are the same’; and so forth) are to be found in similar debates in other countries as well. Hence, this case study illustrates patterns of argumentation which occur much more generally than only in the specific national contexts studied in detail here.
Keywords: Recontexualization, discourse strategy, legitimization strategies, discourse of justification, discourse-historical approach, triangulation, topoi, context, German Wehrmacht , victim-discourse, war-crime, exhibition, interview
Published online: 14 April 2006
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/jlp.5.1.08wod
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