| Abstrakt: |
In 1989, just before German reunification, 498 German journalists were asked to indicate which, from a list of 34 major historical events, such as the end of World War II, the 1949 German currency reform, the building of the Berlin wall, the student movement, and the Chernobyl disaster, they vividly remembered, which still oriented their political thinking and their political reaction to these events. While some events stand out for all ages, younger journalists, having no memory of World War II and its aftermath, focused more exclusively on such recent events as Chernobyl and the discovery of the AIDS virus. The dominant thrust from recent historical experiences on all age groups was toward the left, even though some events, such as cold war experiences, have caused some backlash. The influence of time of birth on memory, on intergenerational discontinuity, and on sensitivity to specific types of historical experiences are analyzed in relation to the concept of generations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
