Picking up the pieces from the communist past : transitional heritage after 1989 in Germany and Romania

Starting from the premises that not everything is heritage nor will acquire theofficial recognition as heritage, but anything has the potential to becomeheritage, in this research I introduce the analysis of ‘transitional heritage’. Thisaims to highlight heritage making processes in the context of regime changeafter 1989 in Germany and Romania. This research is informed by theories inpolitical sciences which discuss regime change and transitional justice. Inaddition, critical heritage studies provided the basis upon whichheritage-making processes were analysed in the context of transformationprocesses, focusing on countries in Central and Eastern Europe after 1989.Therefore this research aims to provide a better understanding of theconditions affecting heritage preservation and protection, in particular incountries emerging from authoritarian regimes of governance, and whichsubsequently engaged on the paths to society democratisation. Hence a criticalapproach to heritage-making processes and discourses emerging in formercommunist countries such as Germany and Romania is proposed for theanalysis. This research aims to cover the gap in heritage studies by bringing toattention heritage-making processes during communism, hence adopting along duree approach for the analysis of institutions, norms and heritagepractices in former communist countries. Various case studies from Bucharestand Berlin reveal the complex mechanisms involved in the process ofheritage-making when dealing with the legacies of the communist regimes.This is relevant to be highlighted in order to better understand current failuresor successes of the decisions affecting heritage preservation and its protectionin the aformentioned countries. In line with the discourse encouraged bycritical heritage studies, this research proposes an alternative to analysing andunderstanding heritage mechanisms within fragile political contexts. By doingso this research is questioning the internationally established discourse on‘socialist heritage‘.