ABSTRACT
Research in tourism and memory studies views the tourist as either a shallow, passive observer or a secondary witness. This chapter draws on anthropology to examine the multifaceted nature of tourism to German memorial sites. Tourists actively engage with the material and immaterial features of a site. They use their imaginaries to develop a sense of place, thus the value of a visit to memorial sites lies in ‘being there‘. In addition, tourists view memorial sites through a cultural lens that is shaped by the personal background and the national narrative. This chapter also emphasises that visitor research at German memorial sites is in its infancy and often focused on school visitors. Nevertheless, preliminary research has shown that the immediacy of the space impacts on visitors, with ‘learning’, often the main aim at German memorial sites, being a ‘by-product’.
