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An inability to mourn? The German Federal Republic and the Nazi past

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 December 2003

FRISO WIELENGA
FRISO WIELENGA
Affiliation:
Zentrum für Niederlande-Studien, Universität Münster, Alter Steinweg 6/7, D-48143 Münster, Germany. E-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

Commonly, the second half of the 1960s is considered to be the period in which Western Germany actually started dealing with its National-Socialist past. The youth of that time is said to have opened the discussion and to have broken taboos by asking the elder generation probing questions and by exposing the careers of former National-Socialists in the politics and society of post-war Germany (the FRG). I make clear that this picture is very one-sided and I also give an overview on the different ways Western Germany coped with this past between 1945 and the end of the 1980s. Of course, these ways differed strongly over the years, but the ‘Third Reich’ has always remained present in German historical awareness and is branded into German identity – for better or for worse.

Type
Research Article
Information
European Review , Volume 11 , Issue 4 , October 2003 , pp. 551 - 572
Copyright
© Academia Europaea 2003

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