Rückblenden. Geschichte und Erinnerung einer Naturkatastrophe in Bildern

Abstract

Using the example of the Hamburg flood disaster of 1962, this article focuses on the visual memory of natural catastrophes. A historical perspective is utilized for the analysis of concrete visual memories and commemorative images according to their core content; to identify specific motives, and to visualize memory agents, actors, and institutions. Doing so characterizes the historical significance of these factors for the structures and practices of local memory discourses, in both cultural and environmental history. Empirical analysis of these motives reveals three major processes in the memory of Hamburg’s ‘Great Flood’: (1) how contemporary experiences and expectations influence the production and perception of certain images; (2) the ways in which images are established and handed down over the course of history and how this leads to a proactive (re-)interpretation, but also to additions and edits of the original images; (3) the impact of the interaction between the official and the newly formed collective memories ’from below’, and the resulting interpretations on the performative production of visual memories. The latter stand at the center of a historiographical approach focusing on the production of memory in the context of institutions and practices, in chronological order. This article argues that conceiving visual memories and commemorative images in accordance with their conditions and emotive processes is fundamental to their interpretation and understanding.