From a cultural studies perspective, memories can be described as social phenomena (cf. Moller, 2010). Individual memories are shaped by social and cultural environments, for example through conversations with others or current social developments. Since memories look at previous experiences from today's perspective, the present has a certain influence on memories. What people remember is repeatedly recalled and further developed in current social interactions. Memories thus form the identity of the group in which they are passed on. Events that are not recalled are forgotten over time (cf. Welzer, 2011). Memories are therefore always selective and perspective-based (cf. Assmann, 2013). In addition to the social interactions that guide the selection of memories, emotions are also important for the formation of memories. In this context, cultural studies have shown that, due to emotionalisation, films or stories one views or is told by others can also be perceived as one's own memories (cf., among others, Welzer, Moller, Tschuggnall, 2002).

In addition to individual and collective memories, there exists also a public culture of remembrance (Assmann, 2013). This includes, for example, commemorative days, media representations or memorial sites. Regarding the memory of the GDR, according to Martin Sabrow (2009), three different dimensions of remembering can be identified: the remembrance of dictatorship, arrangement and progress. Instances of remembering dictatorship focus on the political system and its repressive aspects, whereas remembrance of arrangement includes the memory of the right life in the wrong one (das richtige Leben im falschen) and the memory of progress puts the socialist achievements in the foreground, such as the supposedly more equal role of women.