Adenauer's Germany and the Nazi Past: The Politics of Amnesty and Integration
by Norbert Frei
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Description
Of all the aspects of recovery in postwar Germany perhaps none was as critical or as complicated as the matter of dealing with Nazi criminals, and, more broadly, with the Nazi past. While on the international stage German officials spoke with contrition of their nation's burden of guilt, at home questions of responsibility and retribution were not so clear. In this masterful examination of Germany under Adenauer, Norbert Frei shows that, beginning in 1949, the West German government show more dramatically reversed the denazification policies of the immediate postwar period and initiated a new "Vergangenheitspolitik," or "policy for the past," which has had enormous consequences reaching into the present. Adenauer's Germany and the Nazi Past chronicles how amnesty laws for Nazi officials were passed unanimously and civil servants who had been dismissed in 1945 were reinstated liberally-and how a massive popular outcry led to the release of war criminals who had been condemned by the Allies. These measures and movements represented more than just the rehabilitation of particular individuals. Frei argues that the amnesty process delegitimized the previous political expurgation administered by the Allies and, on a deeper level, served to satisfy the collective psychic needs of a society longing for a clean break with the unparalleled political and moral catastrophe it had undergone in the 1940's. Thus the era of Adenauer devolved into a scandal-ridden period of reintegration at any cost. Frei's work brilliantly and chillingly explores how the collective will of the German people, expressed through mass allegiance to new consensus-oriented democratic parties, cast off responsibility for the horrors of the war and Holocaust, effectively silencing engagement with the enormities of the Nazi past. show lessTags
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Member Reviews
For anyone who wants to understand the mindset of Germany and Germans after the war, this is a book that is belongs on your library. It is fascinating to read about the immediate postway period in Germany, when Germans decided that they had had enough of "denazification" and began a period of instituting what the author calls "politics of the past". The Nazi period and its so-called "excesses" were viewed, after the main leaders were convicted, died, or left in prison into the late 40s and start of the 1950s as mere political mistakes, without any moral or ethical ramifications whatsoever. Elements of German leadership took advantage of the need for Germany to act as a buffer against the Communist threat and the need for German soldiers show more and military leadership to be held in the esteem that they held during and previous to the war. The book is a translation from the German, and is a somtimes difficult read, but I could not put it down as the information, delivered in very precise, detailed narrative is just breathtaking in concept - as policy objectives shifted after WWII, so did the ethics of the governments that fought Nazism. show less
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Published Reviews
"Die Selbstverständlichkeit und Pauschalität, mit der sich Politik und Öffentlichkeit zu Anfang der fünfziger Jahre für die von den Alliierten verurteilten Kriegsverbrecher und NS-Täter einsetzten, deren Freilassung forderten und deren soziale Integration betrieben, ist das vielleicht überraschendste, in jedem Fall bestürzendste Ergebnis dieser Arbeit." Dies publik gemacht zu haben ist show more das nicht gering zu schätzende Verdienst Freis. show less
added by Indy133
Author Information
39+ Works 290 Members
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- Adenauer's Germany and the Nazi Past: The Politics of Amnesty and Integration
- Original title
- Vergangenheitspolitik: Die Anfänge der Bundesrepublik und die NS-Vergangenheit
- Original publication date
- 1999
- People/Characters
- Konrad Adenauer
- Important places
- Germany
Classifications
Statistics
- Members
- 49
- Popularity
- 611,001
- Reviews
- 1
- Rating
- (4.60)
- Languages
- English, German
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 7
- ASINs
- 2
