Abstrakt
The objective of this study is to analyze the motivation of the lay public in collecting, writing down, or compiling family documents, in particular memoirs, recollections, and family chronicles. We posited the question of whether there are specific subconsciously created templates of writing down memories that delimit and conceptualize the method of their remembering, or whether the resulting texts are purely individualized. One particular level of consideration is the very addressees of the family recollections, who do not just work with the texts as a “family treasure” but who also have an interest in preserving them for the broader public. What are their motivations for making these to a large extent intimate texts public, and in what way can these highly personal and specific recollections be useful to researchers?