Facing the Nazi Past: United Germany and the Legacy of the Third Reich

by Niven; Bill

• ISBN13: 9780415262811
• ISBN10: 041526281X
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 2001-11-09
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

The Berlin Wall crumbled amidst fears that a united Germany might seek too quickly to put its Nazi past behind it, inaugurating a new era of triumphant nationalism. What happened instead was surprising: behind the flag-waving arose a more public, thoughtful, and realistic scrutiny of the country's horrific legacy than ever before seen in postwar Germany.Facing the Nazi Pastshows how the readiness of a newly united people, combined with an explosion of media events, gave birth to a collaborative, determined effort to reexamine and accept the past. The reunification of Germany brought an end to a certain way of looking at the Third Reich. As long as Germany was divided, guilt for National Socialism could be passed back and forth over the border. However with one Germany the past is now shard by all Germans, and if the country is to be psychologically as well as geographically united, then it will have to be on the basis of accepting a common past, both the good and bad. Drawing on archivalresearch, newspaper reports, and historical documents, Facing the Nazi Past casts a new light on the history and legacy of Nazism. Together, Germans are shaping a more inclusive memory of the past, and a more inclusive, pluralist society in the future.

Author Biography

Bill Niven is Reader in German at the Nottingham Trent University.

Table of Contents

List of plates	viii
Acknowledgements	ix
Chronology 1933--2000	x
Introduction: the inclusive picture	1	(9)
Concentration camp memorial sites	10	(31)
The `double past'	41	(21)
Resistance	62	(33)
8 May 1945 in political discourse	95	(24)
Daniel Jonah Goldhagen and Victor Klemperer	119	(24)
The crimes of the Wehrmacht	143	(32)
The Walser--Bubis debate	175	(19)
The Holocaust Memorial	194	(39)
The past in the present	233	(12)
Abbreviations	245	(1)
Bibliography	246	(11)
Index	257