A shift in the culture of remembrance
This situation did not change until the second half of the 1970s as part of a general process of change in the culture of remembrance. In 1977, the journalist Jürgen Serke published a series of articles about the book burnings in the magazine Stern. As this was the first extensive examination of the book burnings ever to be published, it aroused great public interest, and the articles were later reissued as a book. A year later, the Association of German Writers and the German P.E.N. Center declared May 10 “Book Day” in commemoration of May 10, 1933. In 1979, with the support of the German Publishers and Booksellers Association, the day of remembrance attracted nationwide interest.
To mark the fiftieth anniversary of the book burnings in 1983, a number of German cities staged commemorative events and exhibitions, and a number of new publications about the book burnings were issued. The following year, the first permanent commemorative plaque was put up in Göttingen. The first memorial was installed in Hamburg in 1985. Between then and 2000 a number of other cities followed suit, including Berlin (1995) and Cologne (1998).