Solidified Lava

Commemorating those »violently killed« is a core part of political culture. With his groundbreaking work on the »cult of the dead«, Reinhart Koselleck has opened up a new field of research: European memorial landscapes in all their historical, aesthetic and political complexity. Whether they are sacrifices for the fatherland or victims of wars and tyranny, whether they were killed in civil wars and revolutions or by criminal acts of the state, political or religious terror – they all are »killed dead«. Without remembering them, according to the humanist Koselleck, it is not possible to go on living.

This volume gathers Koselleck’s essays on the political cult of the dead, journalistic contributions to the debates on the »Neue Wache« and the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin, theoretical reflections on the concept of memory and unpublished autobiographical notes on his experiences of World War II and as a POW in Russian captivity. Distancing themselves from the popular »culture of remembrance«, these texts emphasise the inalienability of the difference between individual experience and collective constructions of memory. History should not create such collective identities, but critically analyse them. This, according to Koselleck, is the task of historical scholarship.

»[Koselleck‘s] writing is sharp, entire epochs and sciences are outlined in just a few paragraphs, abstract and graphic at the same time.« Michael Hesse, Frankfurter Rundschau

»The impact of this brilliant mind has only just set in. Koselleck’s style is of a sobriety hardened by the catastrophes of the 20th century, yet it is uncynical. Comparisons to the French philosopher of the Enlightenment Diderot are not unjustified.« Gustav Seibt, Süddeutsche Zeitung

»Koselleck created his own field of research, the depth and originality of which is documented in the volume Solidified Lava.« Wolf Lepenies, Die Welt