Should the Communist Period Have a Place in Albania’s Museums?”

TIRANA, Oct. 12 – Twenty years after the end of communism Albania is far from coming to terms with this period of its history, a conference held in the southern UNSECO town of Gjirokastra as part of German October events concluded. Among others, the question remains unresolved how this period should be presented in the country’s museums – where no information is available anymore about the communist time. This problem reveals fundamentally different ideas about historiography and the function of museums, organizers said in a statement.
“In the National History Museum of Tirana, the communist period has entirely disappeared from its permanent exhibition. In Gjirokastra, the Enver Hoxha Museum has been replaced by an Ethnographic Museum – no trace of Hoxha remains in the town. However, a new Gjirokastra Museum is being conceptualized.”
In Germany, the German Historical Museum displays a permanent exhibition on the history of the communist “German Democratic Republic” as part of the shared German history. There has been a broad public discussion about this museum; its results, and their transformation into a permanent exhibition of the museum have received wide applause and have contributed to social peace in Germany.
Two German historians who have been at the forefront of attuning different ways of writing history and presenting it in museums will discuss whether the German experience can be of help when Albania must decide how a disputed period of its history can be presented in its museums in both an honest and honourable way.
The event was attended by Sadi Petrela, the Director of the Gjirokastra Conservation and Development Organization, Carola M