German Ghosts Haunting Slovak Theater: The Role of Drama in the Slovak Culture of Remembrance

With the independence of Slovakia in 1993, a culture of memory of the problematic aspects of the history of Slovak Germans – such as anti-German violence, post-World War II internment camps, or forced displacement from (Czecho)Slovakia during and after the war – began to develop gradually. Currently there are more than twenty sites of memory in the form of monuments or memorial plaques commemorating those aspects of the common Slovak-German history. However, there are still voices in Slovak society pointing out the lack of public knowledge about the historical issues involved. In 2022 and 2023, the plays Domov! [Home!] and Hauerland appeared on the stages of Slovak theaters. Focusing on the period of World War II and first postwar years, they both show it for the first time from the perspective of Slovak Germans. Based on a comparison of these two plays and the existing sites of memory, this article considers how Slovak Germans are remembered in Slovakia today. Applying the analytical framework of hauntology, it further explores the role of drama in the Slovak culture of remembrance. The study argues that traditional sites of memory in the regions formerly inhabited by Slovak Germans, such as monuments or memorial plaques, are a response of the local population to the German ghosts of the past – various material traces of German culture. In turn, the actors playing the Slovak Germans in the theatrical productions under discussion are considered to be possessed by their characters, who bring the repressed past back to light. As the actors are not limited by local concerns, they can reach a wider audience. They bring new perspectives on a history that is already known, and thus they play an important role in the process whereby individual and/or social memories become part of collective memory on the national level.