| Abstract | The events of 1989 and unification changed Germany's position in Europe significantly. Although German politicians stress continuity, it cannot be denied that the European map has changed and that the FRG has been forced to reorient its foreign policy. Historical memory is a key organising principle in the making of a foreign policy, and nowhere more so than in Germany. In this paper the relationship between historical memory and contemporary foreign policy is not only seen from the perspective of the question of how remembering the past influences ideas about contemporary politics, but also its opposite: what is the role of the debate on a new German foreign policy in the ongoing struggle on the interpretation of the German past and the German national identity?. This question is especially relevant, since the battle for cultural dominance has been fought with renewed vigour since unification.
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