An Apology for Public Apologies?

Abstract

It is a commonplace of transitional justice scholarship that in post-conflict societies, public apologies by former wrongdoers are practices that promote respect for victims.2 An apology, even in the simplest of senses, involves recognition that the victim was not treated appropriately, and that at the very least she deserves redress in the form of an acknowledgment of the wrong done. Notwithstanding the potential of apologies to foster respect, this chapter makes the case for considering an ambivalence in the acts of apologising that are common to transitional justice situations. It focuses on the familiar although insufficiently explored case of the public exposure of informers (Inoffiziellen Mitarbeiter, IM) who worked for the infamous secret police or Stasi under the German Democratic Republic (GDR).3 Public apologies might build respect, but they can also circumvent that possibility. This ambivalence, I contend, has not been fully appreciated in the relevant literature, where apologies are regarded by and large as what one scholar calls ‘performative redress’.4