08.05.2025

Blog post: ‘Divided Memory in Europe: 80 years After the End of World War II’

‘Eighty years after the end of the Second World War, memories in Europe and across the Atlantic are divided. While the three Western Allies were long accustomed to jointly celebrate the victory over Nazi Germany and honor their dead, the established link between victory, peace, and “Western” values seems fragile in 2025. The fourth former ally, Russia, will be altogether absent from the celebrations,’ write IEG research associate Gregor Feindt, Félix Krawatzek, Friedemann Pestel and Rieke Trimçev in their article on the Cornell University Press blog about today's commemoration of the end of the Second World War.

You can read the entire blog post at the link below. The authors of the book ‘Shades of Blue. Claiming Europe in the Age of Disintegration’ track the many competing conceptions of Europe in European public discourse and relate these meanings to national, regional, and ideological divisions in their volume.

On 26 June, 6 pm, an event on this topic will take place at the IEG: As part of their joint event series ‘Let's talk about Europe!’, the IEG and the Landeszentrale für politische Bildung (LpB) invite you to the evening discussion ‘‘Many conceptions of Europe. History, belonging and the European project in crisis’ with the author Gregor Feindt, Constanze Itzel, Director of the House of European History in Brussels, and Matthias Beermann, Spokesperson of the European Court of Auditors. Johannes Paulmann, Director of the IEG, will moderate the evening.