German Vergangenheitsbewältigung, 1961 - 1999 : selected historiographic controversies and their impact on national identity
- WCU Author/Contributor (non-WCU co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)
- Christine Richert Nugent (Creator)
- Institution
- Western Carolina University (WCU )
- Web Site: http://library.wcu.edu/
- Advisor
- David Dorondo
Abstract: Focusing on Germany, this study addresses the question how a national community can
go about incorporating its crimes against others into its ‘national memorial landscape,’ a
term coined by James E. Young. After the unconditional surrender of Nazi Germany at
the end of WWII, Germany had to redefine its national identity, in light of its National
Socialist past, in order to rejoin the community of democratic nations. This study focuses
on that process, which in the Federal Republic of Germany has taken place largely by
working through competing interpretations of the National Socialist legacy; a process
also known as ‘reckoning with the Nazi past’ or Vergangenheitsbewältigung. The
process involves complex relationships between public and private representations and
interpretations of the past, scholarly and lay perspectives, academic and popular
approaches, political and personal motivations, and individual and collective memories.
The resulting ‘memory contests’ are by definition pluralistic and generally contentious.
They deal with competing interpretations of the past, interpretations that are of critical importance to the self understanding of individuals, groups, and nations. This study
focuses on five controversies that not only served as catalysts for reckoning with the
recent past, but also significantly shaped German national self-consciousness. They are
the Fischer Controversy (1961-64), the Historikerstreit (1986/87), the Goldhagen Affair
(1995), the controversy over the Wehrmachtsausstellung (1995-99), and the Walser-
Bubis-Debate (1998/99). Together, these debates about the legacy of National Socialism
shaped what has become known as the ‘history culture’ of the Federal Republic of
Germany, with implications for the political culture of the country as well. This study
argues that the first and the last contests were bracketing events. They signified a
beginning and an end to a particular way of reckoning with the Nazi past. The major
themes, namely the role of the past in the present, the role of professional historians in
constructing the past, the interplay between public and private memory, and the impact of
(competing) conceptions of the past on national identity, were present in all five, but the
study demonstrates that they played out differently in each one. The study further argues
that while the historicization of National Socialism has probably become inevitable by
the end of the twentieth century, it took the process of working through the five catalytic
events in order to get to that point. Yet the process traced here does not demonstrate
progress nor was it inevitable in the way that it played out; rather, it was complex and
‘messy’ and is unlikely to be over any time soon, even though the generation that has
witnessed WWII first-hand is about to leave the scene. The study concludes that the past,
regardless of how riddled with traumatic or criminal events, will remain important as
individuals, groups, and nations discover and rediscover their historical roots and
negotiate who they are in the world. The focus here is on post-war Germany, yet the issues connected with forging memorial landscapes that incorporate proud as well as
burdening aspects of a national past are applicable beyond the German context.
German Vergangenheitsbewältigung, 1961 - 1999 : selected historiographic controversies and their impact on national identity
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Created on 4/1/2010
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Additional Information
- Publication
- Thesis
- Language: English
- Date: 2010
- Keywords
- Controversy over the 'Wehrmachtsausstellung', Fischer Controversy, Goldhagen Affair, Historikerstreit, Reckoning with the National Socialist Past, Walser-Bubis-Debate
- Subjects
- Germany -- Historiography -- 20th century
- Germany -- History -- 20th century -- Historiography
- National socialism and historiography