New Born Baby And Christmas / Good Wish

memory and historical consciousness of the German

By Stefan Sasse

Holocaust Memorial, Berlin 2006

The German relations For your own past, since the founding of the German nation state in 1871 subject to certain amendments. From nationaltrunkenem chauvinism, where you saw brought millennium development lines finally the happy-glorious conclusion to the thesis of the great betrayal of the Left and the Lost World War II to a complete rejection of one's own past as an aberration after the Second World War is the historic remembrance of the Germans in a renewed upheaval. allow the natural extinction of witnesses from the era of National Socialism and remembering the time before there are more and more to unblock the view of the German past. The reunion has care of the rest to done to make the management of their own past in question, and the continuing debate over the memory of the displaced persons, or year-long dispute over the Holocaust memorial determine the current debate. This development is to be traced in the following, before a final analysis will be attempted.

the newly founded German Reich in 1871, it was necessary in rapid a national myth to build - in contrast to the surrounding nation states, it seemed, was it so late came to fore in the circle and could not even rely on any myths . It was therefore only logical to build on the existing and the flight of creating their own myth. The current is fast explains, is the battle of Sedan. Here, "the Frenchman" in a tactical masterstroke was defeated, brave cavalry dashed into the enemy ranks, colorful flags waved at the end of Emperor Napoleon III surrendered. his sword to the victorious William I. That war was won then by no means, studiously ignored the folklore and made the second Every September a national holiday with parades, marches and much fanfare-not for nothing called Sebastian Haffner the Sedan Day as the only national holiday, which the Germans have ever had.

Germanic council

existing conditions, able to connect to that one, was a rather crude attempt to establish a direct line drawn from the Germans until the unification and this reduces to put in an all-German continuity and it the sting of actually illegitimate random product of an error history to take, as they seemed to many. In this perception came from the Germans tall, courageous and, above all, pure barbarians, who had defended as a true nature-boy German virtues against the Romans. The Battle of the Teutoburg Forest played a crucial role for this purpose, the Cheruscan Arminius, "Hermann" as said to have a nation-building role. From there it was not difficult zuzschreiben medieval potentates like Charles and Otto (both the Great) likewise nation-building roles. Gladly we saw in the house of Habsburg then a single incident, the German unification in modern times prevented them, and the evil France - it took just the heroes of the Prussian Hohenzollern to accomplish against the envy of other's work at last.

From the current state of the science of history, of course, these interpretations are unfounded. Germanic and medieval potentate had to do with the German nation state with virtually nothing, until the 19th Century really shone on the horizon weather. However, it was believed in the cultural superiority of the Germans ("culture" was as popular topos against the Anglo-Saxon "civilization" is set), and the enmity with France, which had been fought since the Thirty Years' War, the Palatine war and Napoleon, of course, always against which to eventually forced the unification. It is certainly not the case that the nationalist-pralerischen covers were on our own history a purely German phenomenon, striking only was the plump-triumphant aggressiveness with which the represented latecomer it to the stigma of his all too recent creation date with as impressive lineage to verkomplettieren.

picture postcard from the 1930s

began after World War II, the interpretation of the "early German history," a new direction to learn. In keeping with the emerging "leader worship" right in certain circles and the nationalist ideology could see the blond giant now no longer as conquerors of the Romans and pure ancestors, according to Tacitus, but also believed a racial purity and pure base form to discover the Germans: subdued autonomous tribes in this view of history a guide, which they followed for better or worse in a constant struggle for survival, which survived only the fittest and the force of the nationalist Germans justified. were increased Ins completely absurd such interpretations with the change to the Third Reich, where they began again to artificially create a continuity. This continuity resulted from the dark past to Prussia, where a direct line from Frederick the Great - Bismarck - Hindenburg - Hitler was drawn.

was after the Second World War, this historical picture bankrupt. The nationalist ideology was disavouiert completely refuted by the victory of the Slavic sub-humans "in the East and the" materialistic and degenerate "Anglo-Saxon" civilization "in the West see them all. Prussia disappeared through a formal decision by the victorious powers in 1947 in history, as if it had never existed. In the immediate postwar period, most people had other problems than worrying about history, and the version of the victorious powers that Prussia was guilty as a stronghold of militarism and should be resolved therefore also appeared to most people as quite logical and continued in slowly established. For the first time urged the historians, however, until 1961, back into the public consciousness. Fritz Fischer's book 'bid for world power, "rejected the recent historical consensus that the First World War was caused by a" get drawn, "the parties and dismissed the German Reich to the sole fault. In a country that does not even had begun to heal the emotional wounds of the Nazi era, this shock was hardly be underestimated.

Germany turns away, cartoon from 1904

Fischer's version met strong resistance especially among conservatives. With the sole guilt and responsibility for the devastation of World War II had come to terms. Now on the first to be blamed them was too much. Of course, this attitude was to meet not only among conservatives, many of those over 40 years they shared, as they seemed to assign its entire life the wrong track, a botched era at anything was wrong. Precisely for this reason, Fischer achieved in the generation that was only a few years later form the 68-movement, a thumping. Today we know that his ideas were clearly exaggerated. His methodology is particularly targeted by the criticism because he employs only German sources and the events in France, Russia and Britain completely hides, almost as if to have the world turned just about Germany and in anxious expectation every train to wait for the empire. The seed of the idea that had already been the Bismarck Reich and not just the Nazi Reich was a mistake, down. The days of glory were over Bismarck.

received in the 1960s German historical consciousness, however, a further analysis: the processing of the Holocaust began, initially mainly in law. The Frankfurt Auschwitz trials made the extent of the Holocaust and the compromise of the parent generation of the 68 clearly visible. The question of "What have you done then?" divided the generations, but contemporaries like the myth had maintained that only a few Nazis had committed the crimes and the rest had a white vest. This idea began to collapse. The Holocaust began as a fixed topos in German historical consciousness anchor.

No

exceptionalism: William I and Napoleon III. at Sedan in 1871

What was after the Fischer controversy still remains of sympathy for the Second Empire, destroyed in the 1970s systematically Hans-Ulrich Wehler and his thesis of "exceptionalism" that Germany would have gone. The idea is that, rather than as England and France are liberal, parliamentary political system, a transition to an authoritarian, militaristic society, went down the final failure cause and the Nazi Dictatorship had decided with the end and the exceptionalism and Germany was led into the circle of Western civilization, which it already in the 19 Century should have gone. This interpretation is in contrast to Fischer's thesis is still very much alive, although Wehler's approach has some significant weaknesses. He is due to that we now know the problems of the German constitutional reality in contrast to the British and French, but, if in the 19 Century, a special path was followed, then England and France. As a military-nationalist, authoritarian state Germany was in Europe at the time that is in good company. England and France to accept the default on which the kingdom had to be measured, leads them astray. The question is really more of why this liberal democracies, but where almost all other European countries under autocratic were governed. If we compare the kingdom to this, so this comparison is equally positive in

.- The 1980s saw the final consolidation of the Holocaust as a defining element of German culture of memory. Prompted by the U.S. television series "Holocaust - the history of the family Weiss began working up a width, which led in 1985 to ban Holocaust denial and continued well into the 1990s hineinzog. At the same time began to spread over the government in 1982 a new approach: the new Chancellor Helmut Kohl announced the "spiritual and moral change" that implicitly included the right of a final stroke. It should be an end to the constant, "left" abuse of the nation state. Instead, the conservatives wanted to create a new, positive image occupied nation to which we could independently recall the events of the past. It is not said too much, this intellectual and moral failure to turn to explain. It was the black and yellow policy is not to find a coherent topos, which allowed a new approach, although first attempts are visible and have persisted. This was primarily the speech of President Weizsacker heard of 8 May 1985, in which he presented at the 40th Anniversary of the war, said the 8th May was, he for the Germans, not day of defeat, but the day of liberation, liberation from the Nazi regime. He put the German people to in a series with the liberated by the Allied nations in Europe - although aware of last place - and thus enabled a separation of the "bad Germany" before 1945. The memory of the displaced was in black and yellow much more space and in cooperation with its reminiscent of the 1950s, aggressive anti-communism to a revisionist potpourri that unfolded fortunately at that time not many and has by its initiators dropped substantially again.

Josef Stalin in 1942

Also in the 1980s is the so-called "historians' dispute". Kindled He had been promoted to Ernst Nolte's so-called "theory of totalitarianism," in the (highly simplified) was that Stalinism and Hitlerism ultimately, the two totalitarian regimes and were clearly similar to each other than we had previously thought. Thus, the Thesenerfindet stung though in a hornet's nest, because of the understanding of all that is known as the left - and this time were substantially more than today - is at least the beginnings of the anti-fascist role of the Soviet Union and despite its own crimes less debt. The totalitarianism thesis but raised Stalin's Soviet Union, ultimately to the same level as Hitler's third Rich - not just the left saw it as a dangerous revisionism. Similar as in the case of Fritz Fischer's the theory now plays no major role more - the view of Stalin's crimes is pretty relaxed, and the idea of qualitatively equivalent to the Nazis, is no more - the second one confess to Soviet dictator nonetheless like to .

In the early 1990s turned the reunification of new questions and problems. Would a new, strong Germany again slipping on the old "special way" paths and try to strive for dominance in Europe? Would wage war to preserve the old eastern territories again? The latter concern has been found to be unnecessary. A reunified Germany had taken on a new work-up to the historic Back: 40 years of communist dictatorship expected their work-up, and there were heated discussions on the question of how to proceed here: one could just as after the Second World War, a line draw and take up to a few top offender reconciliation. Or could this time, not an apparent error recurring, set to fully investigate and punish the perpetrators. Known, they opted for the latter, the document summarized under the direction of Joachim Gauck together into one huge authority and began the systematic evaluation. This approach, however, probably prevented an inner unification, because the east was put under general suspicion. Until today not really predict whether a burning of all files and draw a line not all would have been better served, as was indeed also required - for better or for worse at any rate is the former Gauck and current Birthler authority both an educational tool and a political weapon was. A sharper classification of their benefits and damage is probably only one or two decades will be possible and then allow a statement as to which management approach was the better one. With the stigma, the Nazi criminals and their mass murder but spared, to have pursued the shooters but unyielding wall, West Germany will have to live anyway. certain the end of the 1990s, however, again, the Second World War, the historical headlines readers. An exhibition on the war crimes of the army caused a sensation. So far they had in the workup of the Third Reich and the Holocaust, while recognizing the crimes of the Nazi Party, SS and other Nazi organizations and the involvement of many people in it - the myth that the Wehrmacht itself a "clean", that international law covered war have done and the atrocities of the SS commandos behind the lines were only committed, had been held. The outcry over the exhibition was great, many felt cheated out of their past. If now they all are guilty in some way? Could be because no be yourself get through the affair? Is not it enough to constantly refer to the Holocaust? That the exhibition also soon could be detected technical mistakes that led to premature closure, fueled the debate anew.

Gerhard Schröder in 2003

A historian commission was set up to investigate the issue. They ruled that some images were mislabeled or not on topic in this field and it was generally lax, and many statements had also been too generalizing. The basic message was, however, that the Army was deeply involved in Nazi crimes was, was not repealed, while a 2001 to second Wehrmacht exhibition began collaborative research areas intensively employ scientifically it. The legend of the white waistcoat of the armed forces is in any case as final since 2001 by the table, the second army exhibition brought by far not as large crowds more like that of 1995, which is probably because the extinction of the direct witnesses more and more: as 1998 Red-Green coalition came into office, were the first politicians in the lead, who had not experienced the war itself. Your view of things is naturally a different, less personal. can apply

Gerhard Schroeder as an exemplary personalization of this generation: not only he became the first German politician in the celebrations on the anniversary of the Allied landing in Normandy on 6 June thing - look at the reinterpretation Weizsacker, the German, the last of the Allies liberated the people found here their symbolic most expression - it was he who, in the place of the special German guilt for the Holocaust was the special responsibility of the Germans, consideration of further excesses of this kind in their own countries to prevent and abroad. It is recalled that this argument already used by Joschka Fischer in 1999, when he the NATO attack on Serbia by preventing new Auschwitz established in Kosovo. Start without a discussion on the legality of this mission to do an Auschwitz certainly not threatened, but the instrumentation came in 1999 to little protest - clear sign that something had changed in the consciousness. was inaugurated in 2006, when the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin after a long tug, was found hardly anything here that the saying was rumored that there should be "a place to which one likes." The ratio of the Germans to the Holocaust and his own past had significantly relaxes around the turn of the century - not a moment too soon, because the increasing ritualization of memory had those Germans who were born well after the war, more and more angry and counterproductive reached proportions that could be contained by the new looseness again.

Guido Knopp

This new relaxed attitude also has its dark side, they led it in a historical revisionism that seems like a late effect of Kohl's "spiritual and moral revolution": already Guido Knopp's quote promising ZDF documentaries, which revolved almost one and all to any Nazi theme (before then also like the icons of BRD-memory as the economic miracle or obtained competition with East Germany added) had laid the ground for a modification of the German crimes. Peter Kümmel said to Knopp's documentaries "functioned as role playing, with the help could the Germans reconcile with their grandfathers. The films were the" talk we "feeling more than the facts. Memory is loaded emphatically with him, too kind . Finally have the revisionism and the trivialization of Nazi crimes, such as the twisting of facts, the flood of TV productions responsibility that falls since 2004 on public service channels on the Germans was "The Downfall" been controversial, but at least good made, so the films do about the flood of Hamburg, the Berlin Airlift, and especially the flight of refugees very hard feelings out in twisting of historical facts, by adopting a vague glorification and thus created a remarkable patriotism that transcends the Third Reich. Especially "The Fugitive" is emphasized here that the causes of displacement - no mention, but reinwäscht things, an aristocrat from the Prussian Junkers speak on behalf of their class and - the unleashed by Germany, the Second World War and the brutal crimes in Eastern Europe a completely unnecessary and, yes, hateful subplot of a communist Spy on the "Wilhelm Gustloff" invents. Based on these dull fermenting revision then the dynamics of Erika Steinbach arise that could zuschanzen their "League of displaced persons", who acts far only as a supply base is the grandson of the original displaced persons, a much larger role in everyday politics than what is actually due, and caused some diplomatic scandals. It, too, and her sympathetic conservatives much like to exploit the memory of the displaced, while, although probably unintentionally, to relativize the crimes of National Socialism.

This development is not yet considered as finished, thank God be. The historians 'guild itself is eerily quiet, the last great performance - the "historians' dispute" - dated to the 1980s. It would be just to them to back the findings of the research of the last thirty years more in the public spotlight and to not remain on the state of the 1980s or even to leave the field revisionist amateur historians believe sovereignty. It is right to separate from überkommenem ballast of past decades and to seek a non-convulsive teres relation to their own history. It can not be objective, to speak the word of a historical revisionism that reaches although that is in place of outdated ideas, but ideas, but has its roots in very troubled depths can reach.

Photo credits:
Memorial - K. White (CC-BY-SA 2.0)
Germans - jackalope (public domain)
Postcard - Photo Hoffmann (public domain)
cartoon - known (public domain)
Sedan - Walter Stein (public domain)
Stalin - Margaret Bourke-White (CC-BY-SA 3.0)
Schroeder - Hinrich ( CC-BY-SA 2.0)
Knopp - Richardfabi (Public domain)