German National Identity After the Holocaust

For over half a century, Germans have lived in the shadow ofAuschwitz. Who was responsible for the mass murder of millions ofpeople in the Holocaust: just a small gang of evil men, Hitler andhis henchmen
or certain groups within a particular system
or eventhe whole nation? Could the roots of malignancy be traced far backin German history? Or did the Holocaust have more to do withEuropean modernity? Should Germans live with a legacy of guiltforever? And how, if at all, could an acceptable German nationalidentity be defined?


These questions dogged public debates in both East and West Germanyin the long period of division. Both states officially claimed tohave "overcome the past" more effectively than the other
bothsought to construct new, opposing identities as the "betterGermany." But, in different ways, official claims ran at odds withthe kaleidoscope of popular collective memories
dissonances, sensitivities and taboos were the order of the day on both sides ofthe Wall. And in the 1990s, with continued heated debates over pastand present, it was clear that inner unity appeared to be noautomatic consequence of formal unification.


Drawing on a wide range of material - from landscapes of memory andrituals of commemoration, through private diaries, oral historyinterviews and public opinion poll surveys, to the speeches ofpoliticians and the writings of professional historians - Fulbrookprovides a clear analysis of key controversies, events and patternsof historical and national consciousness in East and West Germanyin equal depth.


Arguing against "essentialist" conceptions of the nation, Fulbrookpresents a theory of the nation as a constructed community ofshared legacy and common destiny, and shows how the conditions forthe easy construction of any such identity have been notablylacking in Germany after the Holocaust.


This book will be of interest to advanced undergraduate andpostgraduate students in history, politics, and German and EuropeanStudies, as well as established scholars and interested members ofthe public.