THE EVENTISATION OF ANNIVERSARY ACTIVITY: INVESTING IN 1989

Abstract

This article traces the development of anniversary activity marking the fall of the Berlin Wall and the ‘peaceful revolution’ of 1989 in Berlin, through a focus on the official procedures and routines of significant anniversary years. It argues that the date is undergoing a process of ‘eventisation’, driven in part by an ‘attention economy’, in which embodied performances and rituals are developed, and participants are increasingly assimilated as ‘prosumers’. In particular, three central elements are analysed: first, the role of different mise-en-scènes, second, the significance of shifting narratives, and third, the growth of emotional engagement. The article argues that a celebratory anniversary tradition is now developing alongside Germany's predominantly cathartic dialogue with the past, and that the emerging routine around 9 November represents a new type of cultural performance, which brings together narratives of victimhood with those of jubilation. It also demonstrates that the built environment proves central to the messages that are conveyed, as the cityscape, its broader history, and its newly emerging sites of memory not only act as the backdrop to events, but significantly also shape the resulting rituals and narratives.