Description
Book SynopsisScholars from Cultural Studies, History and Sociology address the national and international significance of discourses of ‘German wartime suffering’ in post-war and contemporary Germany. The focus of this interdisciplinary volume is both on the historical roots of the ‘Germans as victims’ narratives and the forms of their continuing existence in contemporary public memory and culture.
Table of ContentsHelmut Schmitz and Annette Seidel-Arpacı: Introduction History and Historiography Suzanne Brown-Fleming: ‘Killing Us in a Slow Way Instead of Doing it with Gas’: The German Catholic Discourse of ‘Suffering’, 1946-59 Bas von Benda-Beckmann: Imperialist Air War. East German academic Research and Memory Politics reflected in the Work of Olaf Groehler Public Memory and Mourning Nicholas J. Steneck: Hitler’s Legacy in Concrete and Steel: Memory and Civil Defence Bunkers in West Germany, 1950-65 Christian Groh: Expressions of Memory in Pforzheim, a City hit by Air War Jeffrey Luppes: ‘Den Toten der ostdeutschen Heimat’: Local Expellee Monuments and the Construction of Post-war Narratives Michael Heinlein: Das Trauma der deutschen Kriegskinder zwischen nationaler und europäischer Erinnerung: Kritische Anmerkungen zum gegenwärtigen Wandel der Erinnerungskultur Visual and Literary Representation Cathy S. Gelbin: Double Visions: Queer Feminity and Holocaust Film Helmut Schmitz: Foundational Traumas: On a Figure of Thought in Recent German Literature on Wartime Suffering International Perspectives Bill Niven: German Victimhood Discourse in Comparative Perspective Krijn Thijs: Holland and the German Point of View: On the Dutch Reactions to German Victimhood Annette Seidel-Arpacı: The Miracle Workers: ‘German Suffering’, Israeli Masculinity, and the Feminised/Queered Nation as Redemptive in Eytan Fox’s Walk On Water List of Contributors Index
