Contemporary Germany And The Nazi Legacy

This book examines a range of public debates on the Nazi legacy in Germany since Schröder's SDP-Green coalition came to power in 1998. A central theme is the 'dialectic of normality' whereby references to Nazi past impact upon present normality. The book is a valuable resource for students of contemporary German politics, history and culture.

This book constitutes a new history of the complex memory cultures that persisted within post-war West Germany, examining the attitudes of ordinary people to the second wave of Nazi war crimes trials ushered in during the 1960s. It explores responses to the prospect of continuing investigations, the reception afforded to the defendants, and the sheer resonance that such proceedings could generate within a local community. Drawing upon case studies from across the Federal Republic, it bridges a gap between the current historiography and localised memory studies, and analyses of war crimes trials. Far from viewing the 1960s as an uncomplicated decade of change, this book emphasises the range of voices that were competing to make themselves heard during this period, whether they came from survivors’ groups, crusading journalists and students, or from former prisoners of war, veterans’ organisations and the war widowed. This diversity of opinion and experience enabled the persistence of silences, distortions and mythologies that could afford some level of distance to be imposed between the perpetrators of the Nazi genocide, and the ordinary West German population. The process of ‘coming to terms with the past’ was thus complicated and protracted.

From intimate portrayals of ordinary Germans and Nazi leaders to immersive spectacles of war and defeat, this study argues that, since 1990, German film has focused on portraying the Nazi past from within.

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.

Analyzes how the Nazi past has become increasingly normalized within western memory since the start of the new millennium.

Rethinking Gender and Sexuality in Childhood explores gender and sexuality in children's lives, from early childhood through adolescence, bringing together key inter-disciplinary perspectives. Kane explores how childhood gender and sexuality are constructed, resisted, and refined within children's peer cultures, within social institutions like the family, education, and media and the role the state holds in structuring children's lives - defining their rights and opportunities through gender and sexuality-related policies and programs.Examples of research, interviews, activities, key points and guidance on further reading encourage the reader to actively engage with the material and to develop a critical relationship with the content.Rethinking Gender and Sexuality in Childhood is essential for those studying childhood at undergraduate and graduate level and of great interest to those working with children in any field.

Hitler's Legacy is the first comprehensive look at the Nazi problem in Germany from 1945 until today. The work stresses the major personnel controversies that arose from the reappearance of Nazis in key positions and the payment of generous pensions to Third Reich officials by West German governments. The first comprehensive summary of Germany's own war-crime trials held since 1945, it also provides an overview of the allied postwar war crime trials at Nuremberg and elsewhere. Two case studies highlight the post-Nazi milieu of 1950s West Germany: Theodor Oberlaender and Hans Globke. Both men played significant roles in the Nazi regime and became more prominent in Adenauer's 1950s West German government.

The essays address the nature of Nazism as reflected in contemporary perceptions of Nazi Germany in the United States; the origins and character of fascism; the many forms of antisemitism; German scholars' efforts to promote persecution in the Third Reich; the role of ethnic Germans in the anti-Jewish and anti-Slavic policies of the Reich; the actions of German police in the occupation of eastern Europe and in the Holocaust; Hitler's style of leadership; the nazification of the German military high command; and the politics surrounding the memory of Nazism and the Holocaust after 1945."--BOOK JACKET.