German Intellectuals and the Nazi Past

German Intellectuals and the Nazi Past
Author: A. Dirk Moses
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 304
Release: 2009-08-31
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780521145718

Download German Intellectuals and the Nazi Past Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

This book examines West German intellectual debates about the Nazi past by explaining why they were so relentlessly polarized. Germans argued about the viability of their very nationality: was it stigmatized, stained, or polluted by crimes of the Third Reich? Or was it really like any other nation? The book examines how German intellectuals either defended national traditions or condemned them and instead advocated alternative traditions. Although the book proceeds chronologically, it differs from other works, which are event-based narratives, by highlighting this underlying structure of identity and dispute.

Another Country

Another Country
Author: Jan-Werner Müller
Publisher: Yale University Press
Total Pages: 332
Release: 2000-01-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780300083880

Download Another Country Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

This important book not only examines changing notions of nationhood and their complicated relationship to the Nazi past but also charts the wider history of the development of German political thought since World War II, while critically reflecting on some of the continuing blind spots among German writers and thinkers.

The Politics of the Nazi Past in Germany and Austria

The Politics of the Nazi Past in Germany and Austria
Author: David Art
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 256
Release: 2005-12-19
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 9781139448833

Download The Politics of the Nazi Past in Germany and Austria Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

This book argues that Germans and Austrians have dealt with the Nazi past very differently and these differences have had important consequences for political culture and partisan politics in the two countries. Drawing on different literatures in political science, Art builds a framework for understanding how public deliberation transforms the political environment in which it occurs. The book analyzes how public debates about the 'lessons of history' created a culture of contrition in Germany that prevented a resurgent far right from consolidating itself in German politics after unification. By contrast, public debates in Austria nourished a culture of victimization that provided a hospitable environment for the rise of right-wing populism. The argument is supported by evidence from nearly two hundred semi-structured interviews and an analysis of the German and Austrian print media over a twenty-year period.

Nazi Culture

Nazi Culture
Author: George Lachmann Mosse
Publisher: Univ of Wisconsin Press
Total Pages: 460
Release: 2003
Genre: Art
ISBN: 9780299193041

Download Nazi Culture Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

George L. Mosse's extensive analysis of Nazi culture - ground-breaking upon its original publication in 1966 - is now offered to readers of a new generation. Selections from newspapers, novellas, plays, and diaries as well as the public pronouncements of Nazi leaders, churchmen, and professors describe National Socialism in practice and explore what it meant for the average German.

Coping with the Nazi Past

Coping with the Nazi Past
Author: Philipp Gassert
Publisher: Berghahn Books
Total Pages: 350
Release: 2007
Genre: Family & Relationships
ISBN: 1845455053

Download Coping with the Nazi Past Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

Published in Association with the German Historical Institute, Washington, D.C. Based on careful, intensive research in primary sources, many of these essays break new ground in our understanding of a crucial and tumultuous period. The contributors, drawn from both sides of the Atlantic, offer an in-depth analysis of how the collective memory of Nazism and the Holocaust influenced, and was influenced by, politics and culture in West Germany in the 1960s. The contributions address a wide variety of issues, including prosecution for war crimes, restitution, immigration policy, health policy, reform of the police, German relations with Israel and the United States, nuclear non-proliferation, and, of course, student politics and the New Left protest movement.

German Intellectuals and the Challenge of Democratic Renewal

German Intellectuals and the Challenge of Democratic Renewal
Author: Sean A. Forner
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 397
Release: 2014-10-23
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1107049571

Download German Intellectuals and the Challenge of Democratic Renewal Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

This book examines how democracy was rethought in Germany in the wake of National Socialism, the Second World War, and the Holocaust. Focusing on a loose network of public intellectuals in the immediate postwar years, Sean Forner traces their attempts to reckon with the experience of Nazism and scour Germany's ambivalent political and cultural traditions for materials with which to build a better future. In doing so, he reveals, they formulated an internally variegated but distinctly participatory vision of democratic renewal - a paradoxical counter-elitism of intellectual elites. Although their projects ran aground on internal tensions and on the Cold War, their commitments fueled critique and dissent in the two postwar Germanys during the 1950s and thereafter. The book uncovers a conception of political participation that went beyond the limited possibilities of the Cold War era and influenced the political struggles of later decades in both East and West.

The Rise and Fall of the German Democratic Republic

The Rise and Fall of the German Democratic Republic
Author: Feiwel Kupferberg
Publisher: Transaction Publishers
Total Pages: 248
Release:
Genre: History
ISBN: 9781412838757

Download The Rise and Fall of the German Democratic Republic Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

Most public debate on reunited Germany has emphasized economic issues such as the collapse of East German industry, mass unemployment, career difficulties, and differences in wages and living standards. The overwhelming difficulty resulting from reunification, however, is not persisting economic differences but the internal cultural divide between East and West Germans, one based upon different moral values in the two Germanies. The invisible wall that has replaced the previous, highly visible territorial division of the German nation is rooted in issues of the past-the Nazi past as well as the German Democratic Republic past. In emphasizing economic differences, the media and academics have avoided dealing with typically German cultural traits. These include the psychological posture of West Germany, which emphasized not differences between East and West but the break with Germany's Nazi past. The adversarial posture of certain professional groups in East Germany towards the liberal and democratic values of West Germany have also been an obstacle. Reviewing the problems accompanying reunification, chapter 1 explores German culture and history and the moral lessons evolved from the Nazi past. Chapter 2 focuses on the East-West mindset and how differences in attitude affect efforts to adapt to reunification. Chapter 3 discusses the simulated break with Nazi Germany in the German Democratic Republic. Chapters 4, 5, and 6 analyze the roots of the adversary posture of the professional groups in East Germany towards the values of the Berlin Republic. Chapter 7 demonstrates the strong presence of inherited, typically German cultural traits among East Germans, such as a lack of individualism, suspicion of strangers, and obedience to authority. Chapter 8 documents the extent to which a right-wing extremist culture has remained latent in Eastern Germany. Chapter 9 documents the extent to which moral reasoning in the GDR relieves the individual of any kind of responsibility for the actions of the state, reproducing the way ordinary Germans rationalized their participation in the Nazi regime immediately after World War II. Chapter 10 concludes with an overview of the historical and sociological factors revolving around the discussion of Nazi Germany, the GDR and inner unification. This volume will be important for historians, political scientists, anthropologists, sociologists, and a general public interested in Germany's reunification.

The Rise and Fall of the German Democratic Republic

The Rise and Fall of the German Democratic Republic
Author: Feiwel Kupferberg
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 204
Release: 2017-12-04
Genre: History
ISBN: 1351324705

Download The Rise and Fall of the German Democratic Republic Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

Most public debate on reunited Germany has emphasized economic issues such as the collapse of East German industry, mass unemployment, career difficulties, and differences in wages and living standards. The overwhelming difficulty resulting from reunification, however, is not persisting economic differences but the internal cultural divide between East and West Germans, one based upon different moral values in the two Germanies. The invisible wall that has replaced the previous, highly visible territorial division of the German nation is rooted in issues of the past-the Nazi past as well as the German Democratic Republic past. In emphasizing economic differences, the media and academics have avoided dealing with typically German cultural traits. These include the psychological posture of West Germany, which emphasized not differences between East and West but the break with Germany's Nazi past. The adversarial posture of certain professional groups in East Germany towards the liberal and democratic values of West Germany have also been an obstacle. Reviewing the problems accompanying reunification, chapter 1 explores German culture and history and the moral lessons evolved from the Nazi past. Chapter 2 focuses on the East-West mindset and how differences in attitude affect efforts to adapt to reunification. Chapter 3 discusses the simulated break with Nazi Germany in the German Democratic Republic. Chapters 4, 5, and 6 analyze the roots of the adversary posture of the professional groups in East Germany towards the values of the Berlin Republic. Chapter 7 demonstrates the strong presence of inherited, typically German cultural traits among East Germans, such as a lack of individualism, suspicion of strangers, and obedience to authority. Chapter 8 documents the extent to which a right-wing extremist culture has remained latent in Eastern Germany. Chapter 9 documents the extent to which moral reasoning in the GDR relieves the individual of any kind of responsibility for the actions of the state, reproducing the way ordinary Germans rationalized their participation in the Nazi regime immediately after World War II. Chapter 10 concludes with an overview of the historical and sociological factors revolving around the discussion of Nazi Germany, the GDR and inner unification.This volume will be important for historians, political scientists, anthropologists, sociologists, and a general public interested in Germany's reunification.

When Will We Talk About Hitler?

When Will We Talk About Hitler?
Author: Alexandra Oeser
Publisher: Berghahn Books
Total Pages: 418
Release: 2019-08-01
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1789202876

Download When Will We Talk About Hitler? Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

For more than half a century, discourses on the Nazi past have powerfully shaped German social and cultural policy. Specifically, an institutional determination not to forget has expressed a “duty of remembrance” through commemorative activities and educational curricula. But as the horrors of the Third Reich retreat ever further from living memory, what do new generations of Germans actually think about this past? Combining observation, interviews, and archival research, this book provides a rich survey of the perspectives and experiences of German adolescents from diverse backgrounds, revealing the extent to which social, economic, and cultural factors have conditioned how they view representations of Germany’s complex history.

Intellectual Collaboration with the Third Reich

Intellectual Collaboration with the Third Reich
Author: Maria Björkman
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 439
Release: 2019-05-08
Genre: History
ISBN: 1351185098

Download Intellectual Collaboration with the Third Reich Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

The book investigates the rather neglected "intellectual" collaboration between National Socialist Germany and other countries, including views on knowledge and politics among "pro-German" intellectuals, using a comparative approach. These moves were shaped by the Nazi system, which viewed scientific and cultural exchange as part and parcel of their cultural propaganda and policy. Positive views of the Hitler regime among intellectuals of all sorts were indicative of a broader discontent with democracy that, among other things, represented an alternative approach to modernization which was not limited to the German heartlands. This book draws together international experts in an analysis of right-wing Europe under Hitler; a study which has gained new resonance amidst the wave of European nationalism in the twenty-first century.