Since the 1960s and certainly the 1980s, Germans have been confronting the Nazi past and the legacy of German perpetration. However, over recent years, Germany has become increasingly preoccupied with German suffering during the war and the post-war period. Arguably, it is no longer the Holocaust that takes centre-stage in the contemporary German culture of memory but the trauma caused by Allied bombing of German cities, and by the expulsion of millions of Germans from eastern Europe at the end of the war.
This thought-provoking and lively collection of essays, by a team of leading scholars in the field, explores current memory trends in Germany. What has triggered this preoccupation with German suffering? How dangerous is it? Is it really new, or have the Germans always tended to empathise more with their own losses than with Nazi victims? Together these essays are an invaluable resource for students and teachers, and are essential reading for all with an interest in how Germans, in the new millennium, are facing up to their past.
'This first-class edited collection offers excellent insights into the latest phase of Germany's public wrestling with the Nazi past.' - Geoff Eley, University of Michigan, USA
'An excellent volume. The essays are readable and informative, and they cover the full range of a fascinating and complex subject.' - Joachim Whaley, University of Cambridge, UK
'Fresh, engaging, and up-to-date.' - Andrew Bonnell, University of Queensland, Australia
'This rich and fascinating collection gives a fresh and eminently readable overview of the memory politics which has made the years since unification so remarkable in Germany...A must for all those interested in this area.' - Karen Leeder, Modern Language Review
'The study aims to appeal both to a specialist and student audience, and to the general reader. Indeed, the readable and thought-provoking essays, along with supporting materials such as a map of the movements of German fugitives and expellees 1945-1950 and a chronology of events 1939-1950, achieve this aim easily and impressively. - Karina von Lindeiner-Stráský, Limbus
'This collection can truly serve as a model of integrative and mutually supportive and enlightening editing. It provides an excellent overview - and plenty of references for further reading - of the current debates in Germany's coming to terms with its past.' - Hans J. Rindisbacher, The European Legacy
Notes on the Contributors
Maps
Introduction; B.Niven
The Politics of the Past in the 1950s: Rhetorics of Victimization in East and West Germany; R.G.Moeller
Victims in Uniform: West German Combat Movies from the 1950s; R.G.Moeller
Taboo or Tradition? The 'Germans as Victims' Theme in West Germany until the Early 1990s; R.Wittlinger
The Continually Suffering Nation? Cinematic Representations of German Victimhood; P.Cooke
The Birth of the Collective from the Spirit of Empathy: From the 'Historians' Dispute' to German Suffering; H.Schmitz
The GDR and Memory of the Bombing of Dresden; B.Niven
Victims of the Berlin Wall; P.Ahonen
The Victims of Totalitarianism and the Centrality of Nazi Genocide: Continuity and Change in German Commemorative Politics; A.H.Beattie
Representations of German Wartime Suffering in Recent Fiction; S.Taberner
Air War Legacies: From Dresden to Baghdad; A.Huyssen
From the Margins to the Centre? The Discourse on Expellees and Victimhood in Germany; K.von Oppen & S.Wolff
On Taboos, Traumas and Other Myths: Why the Debate About German Victims of the Second World War is not a Historians' Controversy; S.Berger
Chronology of Victimhood
Select Bibliography
Index
BILL NIVEN is Professor of Contemporary German History at The Nottingham Trent University, UK. He is author of Facing the Nazi Past (Routledge 2002) and co-author with Jürgen Thomaneck of Dividing and Uniting Germany (Routledge 2000).
Description
Since the 1960s and certainly the 1980s, Germans have been confronting the Nazi past and the legacy of German perpetration. However, over recent years, Germany has become increasingly preoccupied with German suffering during the war and the post-war period. Arguably, it is no longer the Holocaust that takes centre-stage in the contemporary German culture of memory but the trauma caused by Allied bombing of German cities, and by the expulsion of millions of Germans from eastern Europe at the end of the war.
This thought-provoking and lively collection of essays, by a team of leading scholars in the field, explores current memory trends in Germany. What has triggered this preoccupation with German suffering? How dangerous is it? Is it really new, or have the Germans always tended to empathise more with their own losses than with Nazi victims? Together these essays are an invaluable resource for students and teachers, and are essential reading for all with an interest in how Germans, in the new millennium, are facing up to their past.
Reviews
'This first-class edited collection offers excellent insights into the latest phase of Germany's public wrestling with the Nazi past.' - Geoff Eley, University of Michigan, USA
'An excellent volume. The essays are readable and informative, and they cover the full range of a fascinating and complex subject.' - Joachim Whaley, University of Cambridge, UK
'Fresh, engaging, and up-to-date.' - Andrew Bonnell, University of Queensland, Australia
'This rich and fascinating collection gives a fresh and eminently readable overview of the memory politics which has made the years since unification so remarkable in Germany...A must for all those interested in this area.' - Karen Leeder, Modern Language Review
'The study aims to appeal both to a specialist and student audience, and to the general reader. Indeed, the readable and thought-provoking essays, along with supporting materials such as a map of the movements of German fugitives and expellees 1945-1950 and a chronology of events 1939-1950, achieve this aim easily and impressively. - Karina von Lindeiner-Stráský, Limbus
'This collection can truly serve as a model of integrative and mutually supportive and enlightening editing. It provides an excellent overview - and plenty of references for further reading - of the current debates in Germany's coming to terms with its past.' - Hans J. Rindisbacher, The European Legacy
Contents
Notes on the Contributors
Maps
Introduction; B.Niven
The Politics of the Past in the 1950s: Rhetorics of Victimization in East and West Germany; R.G.Moeller
Victims in Uniform: West German Combat Movies from the 1950s; R.G.Moeller
Taboo or Tradition? The 'Germans as Victims' Theme in West Germany until the Early 1990s; R.Wittlinger
The Continually Suffering Nation? Cinematic Representations of German Victimhood; P.Cooke
The Birth of the Collective from the Spirit of Empathy: From the 'Historians' Dispute' to German Suffering; H.Schmitz
The GDR and Memory of the Bombing of Dresden; B.Niven
Victims of the Berlin Wall; P.Ahonen
The Victims of Totalitarianism and the Centrality of Nazi Genocide: Continuity and Change in German Commemorative Politics; A.H.Beattie
Representations of German Wartime Suffering in Recent Fiction; S.Taberner
Air War Legacies: From Dresden to Baghdad; A.Huyssen
From the Margins to the Centre? The Discourse on Expellees and Victimhood in Germany; K.von Oppen & S.Wolff
On Taboos, Traumas and Other Myths: Why the Debate About German Victims of the Second World War is not a Historians' Controversy; S.Berger
Chronology of Victimhood
Select Bibliography
Index
Authors
BILL NIVEN is Professor of Contemporary German History at The Nottingham Trent University, UK. He is author of Facing the Nazi Past (Routledge 2002) and co-author with Jürgen Thomaneck of Dividing and Uniting Germany (Routledge 2000).
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