Shaking Off the Past? Ruth Wittlinger
Dynamics of Memory and Identity in Contemporary Europe,
03/2013
Book Chapter
Collective memory of the Holocaust and World War II long provided the single most important factor in determining the scope of (West) Germany’s foreign policy in general, as well as its European ...policy in particular.¹ In view of the moral, as well as material, bankruptcy of Germany in 1945 and foreign occupation in the immediate aftermath of the war, West Germany’s foreign policy did not have much room for maneuver. It was also constrained by the emerging Cold War and its position as an increasingly important ally of the Western alliance system, as well as by the norms and values
British-German relations have undergone a considerable transformation since 1945 with both countries having to adapt to significant changes in their own status, as well as a very different ...international environment. Germany's status as a morally and militarily defeated and occupied power in 1945 is in stark contrast to the confident role it is playing at the beginning of the new millennium when—sixty years after the end of World War II—the German chancellor for the first time took part in the VE-Day celebrations of the victors. This article analyzes recent dynamics of collective memory in both countries and examine if and to what extent their collective memories play a role in British-German relations.
At the turn of the millennium, a consensus seemed to exist which suggested that Germany had faced up to its National Socialist past and confronted questions of responsibility and guilt. At last, the ...Holocaust and the Second World War seemed to have become an integral part of German national identity. Within a few years, however, debates about Germany's past once again turned away from suffering caused by the Germans and returned to the issue of German suffering. This contribution will argue that recent dynamics of German collective memory suggest that a new consensus has emerged which acknowledges German responsibility for crimes committed between 1933 and 1945 at the same time as recognising German suffering. Germany is thus less restricted by its past than it has been at any other point since 1945 resulting in much more confident expressions of German national identity than had been possible in the Bonn Republic.
The aim of this paper is to offer a critique of the proposal of “methodological cosmopolitanism“ in theoretical terms and to substantiate this critique by providing an account of the dynamics of ...collective memory and identity in postunification Germany. In the first part, we look at the arguments about methodological cosmopolitanism and their derivative, the idea of cosmopolitan memory, illustrated by the case of Holocaust memory. In the second part we look at the case of Germany: firstly at its postwar experience of the attempted construction of “postnational“ identity, and then at more recent trends, contemporaneous with the Berlin Republic, towards a “normalization“ of national identity in Germany. The Holocaust plays a crucial, but different, role in each phase, we suggest. In the conclusion we return to more general themes, asking what the German case tells us about the cosmopolitanization thesis more generally.
Although Anglo-German relations since 1945 have by and large been friendly at the level of the political elite, on a wider scale British perceptions of Germany and the Germans are for the most part ...negative and still dominated by images of the Third Reich and the Second World War. It has even been suggested that 'kraut-bashing' is the only form of racism in Britain which is still considered socially acceptable. Going beyond the simplistic but commonly expressed view which dismisses these negative British perceptions of Germany as envy of Germany's post-war economic revival, this paper will argue that there is a range of other reasons which help to account for the negative perceptions British people hold of Germany and the Germans such as the legacy of the Second World War and post-war challenges to British national identity, the nature of the Holocaust and the way history and languages are taught in Britain.
Die Rolle des Bundespräsidenten wird als vor allem zeremonieller, repräsentativer und integrativer Art beschrieben. Allerdings scheint sich diese Rolle unter Horst Köhler bedeutend gewandelt zu ...haben. Bei einer oberflächlichen Betrachtung – zumindest der ersten Amtsperiode von Horst Köhler – stellt sich der Eindruck ein, dass dieser von seinen Befugnissen deutlich mehr Gebrauch gemacht hat als sein(e) Vorgänger. Dies wird im Rahmen des vorliegenden Beitrags durch eine ausführliche Analyse der Rechtsgrundlagen des Amtes des Bundespräsidenten und dessen Ausübung durch Horst Köhler untersucht. Die Autoren kommen dabei zu dem Ergebnis, dass das Amt des Bundespräsidenten seit Köhlers Wahl 2004 politisiert wurde, dies aber mehr auf Köhlers Kommentare zur Tagespolitik zurückzuführen ist als auf die Ausnutzung seiner formalen Kompetenzen. The role of the Federal President is usually described as being of a ceremonial, representative and integrative nature. This appears to have changed significantly under Horst Köhler – at least in his first term in office. On the surface, President Köhler seems to have made significantly more use of his powers during this period than any of his predecessors. The article critically examines the powers of the Federal President and the way Horst Köhler has exercised them. The authors conclude that the German Presidency has indeed been politicised since Köhler's election in 2004 although this has been due to his comments on day-to-day politics rather than his use of the given political powers.
Like most aspects of German politics and society after 1945, post-war German foreign policy has traditionally been greatly influenced by the legacy of Germany's National Socialist past and the Second ...World War. The semi-sovereign and divided nature of the West German state along with the strong argumentative force of collective memory in foreign policy discourse ensured a strong presence of Germany's historical legacy in both institutional and discursive terms resulting in a foreign policy which was characterised by self-limitation, a strong commitment to multilateralism and a civilian foreign policy culture. This article will argue that the interpretation of German collective memory of the Holocaust and the Second World War underwent significant changes under the red-green governments between 1998 and 2005, in particular with regard to the use of force. Although German collective memory continued to be present during this period, it lost its predictability and was used in a variety of crises to justify a range of responses, including military action.
As the inestimable Harold Wilson once put it, “a week is a longtime in politics.” Certainly, the evolution of collective memory andscholarship devoted to it is much slower than the pace of ...day-to-daypolitics. Yet, there are periods of rapid change—of paradigm shiftseven—where the landscape shifts rapidly over a relatively shortperiod of time. This special issue, we think, captures one of theseperiods of rapid change. Compared to the last special thematic issueof German Politics and Society from 20051 and even compared tomany books published in the last few years, the state of collectivememory in Germany appears very different today. Most prominently,Holocaust-centered memory is foregrounded to a muchlesser extent than previously.
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